The only change is a new parapraph at the end.
Practical Life Extension
Mostly people die from aging, diseases (endogenous and exogenous),
accidents, violence, oppression, disasters, and poverty. The
general solutions include intelligence, learning, skills,
collaboration, relationships, tools, resources, and attitude.
The most important and demanding areas of learning are biomedical
sciences, human interactions (group and individual), and learning
how to learn.
Biomedical sciences include aging and diseases. For the elderly,
aging and endogenous (internally caused) diseases are usually the
biggest threat. For the poor poverty is usually the biggest
threat but they mostly die from contagious diseases (brought about
by poor sanitation, overcrowding, and bad diet). For the young
and well off the biggest threat may be organized group violence
(wars) or significant oppression, otherwise their biggest problem
is also aging and endogenous diseases.
If you want to help solve these problems start with your own
psychology, health, and efficiency. The _Authoritative Guide to
Self Help Books_ is a good place to start. Health books produced
by major universities or hospitals will tell you plenty about
general health. I think Dean Edell usually gives good health
advice and has a nice perspective. _The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People_ and _A New Guide to Rational Living_ are good
general books on psychology and efficiency. A basic psychology
text (Zimbardo for example) is also a nice place to start and
will give you a bit of an introduction to science. Reading a book
on study skills first will get you through these books more
quickly (_How to Study_ by Ron Fry is a good brief introduction).
Starting with psychology, health, and efficiency applies to the
elderly and the poor as well as to the young and well off. For
the elderly that includes knowing good doctors, understanding
elderly health problems, dealing with any personal medical
problems, and looking into cryonics (I can think of no better
option for people close to death). For the poor, attention to
basic living needs is central. Getting to where their biggest
concerns are the same as the healthy wealthy (aging, endogenous
diseases, war, oppression, and helping others) is a worthy goal.
I. William Wiser [will@wiserlife.com]
Life Extension and Quality of Life Consultant
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:12 MDT