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People are living longer

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and societies are getting grayer.

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You hear about it all the time.

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You read about it in your newspapers.

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You hear about it on your television sets.

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Sometimes I'm concerned

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that we hear about it so much

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that we've come to accept longer lives

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with a kind of a complacency,

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even ease.

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But make no mistake,

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longer lives can

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and, I believe, will

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improve quality of life

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at all ages.

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Now to put this in perspective,

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let me just zoom out for a minute.

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More years were added

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to average life expectancy

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in the 20th century

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than all years added

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across all prior millennia

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of human evolution combined.

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In the blink of an eye,

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we nearly doubled the length of time

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that we're living.

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So if you ever feel like you don't have this aging thing quite pegged,

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don't kick yourself.

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It's brand new.

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And because fertility rates fell

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across that very same period

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that life expectancy was going up,

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that pyramid

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that has always represented the distribution of age in the population,

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with many young ones at the bottom

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winnowed to a tiny peak of older people

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who make it and survive to old age

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is being reshaped

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into a rectangle.

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And now, if you're the kind of person

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who can get chills from population statistics,

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these are the ones that should do it.

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Because what that means

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is that for the first time in the history of the species,

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the majority of babies born

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in the Developed World

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are having the opportunity

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to grow old.

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How did this happen?

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Well we're no genetically hardier than our ancestors were

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10,000 years ago.

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This increase in life expectancy

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is the remarkable product of culture --

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the crucible

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that holds science and technology

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and wide-scale changes in behavior

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that improve health and well-being.

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Through cultural changes,

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our ancestors

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largely eliminated early death

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so that people can now live out their full lives.

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Now there are problems associated with aging --

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diseases, poverty, loss of social status.

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It's hardly time to rest on our laurels.

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But the more we learn about aging,

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the clearer it becomes

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that a sweeping downward course

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is grossly inaccurate.

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Aging brings some rather remarkable improvements --

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increased knowledge, expertise --

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and emotional aspects of life improve.

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That's right,

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older people are happy.

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They're happier than middle-aged people,

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and younger people certainly.

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Study after study

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is coming to the same conclusion.

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The CDC recently conducted a survey

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where they asked respondents simply to tell them

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whether they experienced significant psychological distress

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in the previous week.

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And fewer older people answered affirmatively to that question

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than middle-aged people,

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and younger people as well.

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And a recent Gallup poll

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asked participants

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how much stress and worry and anger

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they had experienced the previous day.

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And stress, worry, anger

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all decrease with age.

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Now social scientists call this the paradox of aging.

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After all, aging is not a piece of cake.

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So we've asked all sorts of questions

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to see if we could undo this finding.

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We've asked whether it may be

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that the current generations of older people

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are and always have been

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the greatest generations.

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That is that younger people today

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may not typically experience these improvements

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as they grow older.

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We've asked,

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well maybe older people are just trying to put a positive spin

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on an otherwise depressing existence.

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(Laughter)

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But the more we've tried to disavow this finding,

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the more evidence we find

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to support it.

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Years ago, my colleagues and I embarked on a study

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where we followed the same group of people over a 10-year period.

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Originally the sample was aged 18 to 94.

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And we studied whether and how their emotional experiences changed

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as they grew older.

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Our participants would carry electronic pagers

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for a week at a time,

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and we'd page them throughout the day and evenings at random times.

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And every time we paged them

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we'd ask them to answer several questions --

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On a one to seven scale, how happy are you right now?

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How sad are you right now?

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How frustrated are you right now? --

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so that we could get a sense

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of the kinds of emotions and feelings they were having

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in their day-to-day lives.

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And using this intense study

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of individuals,

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we find that it's not one particular generation

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that's doing better than the others,

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but the same individuals over time

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come to report relatively greater

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positive experience.

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Now you see this slight downturn

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at very advanced ages.

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And there is a slight downturn.

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But at no point does it return

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to the levels we see

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in early adulthood.

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Now it's really too simplistic

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to say that older people are "happy."

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In our study, they are more positive,

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but they're also more likely than younger people

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to experience mixed emotions --

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sadness at the same time you experience happiness;

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you know, that tear in the eye

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when you're smiling at a friend.

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And other research has shown

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that older people seem to engage with sadness

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more comfortably.

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They're more accepting of sadness than younger people are.

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And we suspect that this may help to explain

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why older people are better than younger people

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at solving hotly-charged emotional conflicts and debates.

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Older people can view injustice

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with compassion,

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but not despair.

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And all things being equal,

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older people direct their cognitive resources,

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like attention and memory,

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to positive information more than negative.

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If we show older, middle-aged, younger people images,

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like the ones you see on the screen,

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and we later ask them

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to recall all the images that they can,

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older people, but not younger people,

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remember more positive images

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than negative images.

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We've asked older and younger people

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to view faces in laboratory studies,

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some frowning, some smiling.

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Older people look toward the smiling faces

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and away from the frowning, angry faces.

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In day-to-day life,

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this translates into greater enjoyment

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and satisfaction.

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But as social scientists, we continue to ask

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about possible alternatives.

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We've said, well maybe older people

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report more positive emotions

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because they're cognitively impaired.

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(Laughter)

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We've said, could it be

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that positive emotions are simply easier to process than negative emotions,

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and so you switch to the positive emotions?

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Maybe our neural centers in our brain

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are degraded such

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that we're unable to process negative emotions anymore.

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But that's not the case.

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The most mentally sharp older adults

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are the ones who show this positivity effect the most.

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And under conditions where it really matters,

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older people do process the negative information

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just as well as the positive information.

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So how can this be?

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Well in our research,

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we've found that these changes

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are grounded fundamentally

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in the uniquely human ability to monitor time --

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not just clock time and calendar time,

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but lifetime.

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And if there's a paradox of aging,

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it's that recognizing that we won't live forever

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changes our perspective on life

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in positive ways.

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When time horizons are long and nebulous,

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as they typically are in youth,

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people are constantly preparing,

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trying to soak up all the information they possibly can,

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taking risks, exploring.

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We might spend time with people we don't even like

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because it's somehow interesting.

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We might learn something unexpected.

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(Laughter)

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We go on blind dates.

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(Laughter)

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You know, after all,

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if it doesn't work out, there's always tomorrow.

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People over 50

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don't go on blind dates.

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(Laughter)

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As we age,

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our time horizons grow shorter

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and our goals change.

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When we recognize that we don't have all the time in the world,

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we see our priorities most clearly.

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We take less notice of trivial matters.

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We savor life.

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We're more appreciative,

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more open to reconciliation.

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We invest in more emotionally important parts of life,

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and life gets better,

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so we're happier day-to-day.

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But that same shift in perspective

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leads us to have less tolerance than ever

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for injustice.

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By 2015,

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there will be more people in the United States

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over the age of 60

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than under 15.

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What will happen to societies

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that are top-heavy with older people?

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The numbers won't determine

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the outcome.

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Culture will.

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If we invest in science and technology

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and find solutions for the real problems

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that older people face

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and we capitalize

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on the very real strengths

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of older people,

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then added years of life

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can dramatically improve quality of life

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at all ages.

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Societies with millions

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of talented, emotionally stable citizens

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who are healthier and better educated

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than any generations before them,

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armed with knowledge

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about the practical matters of life

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and motivated

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to solve the big issues

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can be better societies

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than we have ever known.

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My father, who is 92,

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likes to say,

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"Let's stop talking only about

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how to save the old folks

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and start talking about

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how to get them to save us all."

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Thank you.

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(Applause)