Here's a interesting question. What percentage of older people would be interested in a "guaranteed" method for lengthening their lives? A recent reference in one of my favorite blogs, Marginal Revolution, caught my attention with a reference to to this idea (see: Does new information slow down your life?). Here is the excerpt from the blog post:
From William Reville, here is a speculation:
Finally, here is a “guaranteed” way to lengthen your life. Childhood holidays seem to last forever, but as you grow older time seems to accelerate. “Time” is related to how much information you are taking in – information stretches time. A child’s day from 9am to 3.30pm is like a 20-hour day for an adult. Children experience many new things every day and time passes slowly, but as people get older they have fewer new experiences and time is less stretched by information. So, you can “lengthen” your life by minimising routine and making sure your life is full of new active experiences – travel to new places, take on new interests, and spend more time living in the preset.
Most of the short article considers why “the return journey” often seems to run by much faster.
I had not exactly thought about this before but new information does seem to stretch time. Also, new information such as travel experiences seems to get imprinted more vividly in my memory. These ideas are well summarized in this advice: [Y]ou can “lengthen” your life by minimising routine and making sure your life is full of new active experiences – travel to new places, take on new interests, and spend more time living in the preset. No only do you lengthen your life but you make it more memorable. Unfortunately, many older people are often locked into their routines and thus not able to "stretch' time in this way,
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