Aging

The 'Aging' process is generally spoken of as something that begins to befall one at approximately the age of 40, leading inevitably to death. Despite the ingenuity of modern science, the search for something that can 'reverse' Aging has been going for probably as long as people have been aging. Still, even when such a 'cure' is only a speculative hope, there is often defiance of Aging, namely, when one asserts that one 'does not feel one's age', or that one is 'only as old as one feels'. But, the very use of the term 'Aging' in this context is indicative of the soundness of the thinking involved. 'Aging' simply means 'to get older', so a 15-year old 'ages' just as much as a 50-year old. Furthermore, the use suggests a passivity in the face of getting older that, at bottom, is expressive of a Mind-Body Dualism in which Experience is something that befalls a disembodied 'Subject'. Now, it is difficult to argue against the apparent fact that human bodies begin to run down at a certain point, but it does not follow that Experience is fundamentally passive. Rather, Experience is ongoing, and cumulative, and even an episode of physical weariness is an addition to one's autobiography. Because Experience is cumulative, it is 'anisotropic', i. e. asymmetrical, the reversing of which, even in speculative fiction, which is never more than externally descriptive, is fundamentally inconceivable. And, the 'feeling' of one's age is not to be found in the vitality, or lack thereof, of the moment, but in one's memory. Even when one feels physically robust, it is only insofar as one entertains long and deep memories that one is 'feeling one's age'.