Just to add to the above: even without (massive) cognitive decline in the aged, just knowing you only have a few years left likely has an effect on someone’s decisions. Most changes and improvements, in technology and institutional processes, cause initial short term problems. They only pay off long term. If you’re in the last 5 years of your career, or your life, there’s no expected payoff for learning most new things, or for seeing a major change in how the institution you work in works.
If you can reasonably expect to live for many more centuries (since with a perfect cure for aging you’d have a life expectancy of several thousand years), you might as well start adopting new things now, maybe you’ll see a net payoff in 50 years. Or maybe you’ll procrastinate first. Could go either way.
Just to add to the above: even without (massive) cognitive decline in the aged, just knowing you only have a few years left likely has an effect on someone’s decisions. Most changes and improvements, in technology and institutional processes, cause initial short term problems. They only pay off long term. If you’re in the last 5 years of your career, or your life, there’s no expected payoff for learning most new things, or for seeing a major change in how the institution you work in works.
If you can reasonably expect to live for many more centuries (since with a perfect cure for aging you’d have a life expectancy of several thousand years), you might as well start adopting new things now, maybe you’ll see a net payoff in 50 years. Or maybe you’ll procrastinate first. Could go either way.