Aged Brains?

No. This is not an advertisement for a "new gourmet organ food" promoted by Anthony Bourdaine on his TV show "No Reservations" or his latest book "Nasty Bits". He must have quite a iron-clad stomach by now. Nor is it a promotion similar to the ones we've been seeing on the TV lately for "Aged Beef"...can you imagine? People actually want to eat meat that is right next to "putrid or rancid"? Just to say that it is "aged"...maybe they mean "marinated" in some sauce like beer. I suppose it makes it softer and easier to digest, as in quicker...like it doesn't sit in your intestines for a week and putrify there. Nor is it a recognition of the new "cloned meat" that is "aged" by whole life spans and "reincarnation"...Nope!

This is acceptance and promotion of the new (to me) electronic software for my new Nintendo DS. It is called "Brain Age" My brilliant daughter-in-law introduced it to me awhile back. I also got "Club House Fun" from my Son and Grandchildren for it. There is also "Big Brain Academy".(it weighs brains, heavier the better) They are all to help me in a desperate attempt to forestall my "aging brain" from slipping into senility and altzheimers. It is all quite fascinating to me. My initial "brain age" as measured by the instruments/games it has on Arithmetic, Reading, Analysis etc. was 64. Then it slipped to 80. Then it went back to 49 and today it is 51. Shocking, isn't it? Developed by a "Dr. Ryuta Kawashima", who appears through out with helpful hints and "engaging conversation and motivation", is the inventor and devisor of the "mental scale". It makes the assumption that a younger, more agile brain is better and to be desired. So the faster and more accurately you do the little tasks he gives, the better. Some of the tasks are "voice activated" but need a quiet room. Most are written with a stylus on the adjacent screen. I find that so far it is challenging and my wife and I are having fun doing it and comparing results. So this is one electronic game that I can do and improve in....and it doesn't involve shooting and blowing up things.

Now if they could just come up with "software" that develops the opposite skills of "depth of insight" and "caring concern in actions" they'd have someting. Our society seems to be slipping away from these values as measured goals: ie. respect for aged experience and advice, dialectic decision-making, responsible and considerate living. Sage suggestions are ignored or laughed at. Then there is the possiblity that the "Brain Age" can be "frozen" at that young and inexperienced age without a care for the consequences and results of that uninsightful thinking. "Oh well, we'll muddle through." "Why am I having all this bad luck?" are often heard. Is it possible that all our electronic inventions will eventually be responsible for our demise as a culture? Oh, we'll be ever so quick and agile on the surface but the real thinking and decision-making will be left to wither and die...or the electronic robots will do it for us. Brave New World...count me out...pass me by. I'll be just bobbing along. Bob!