But I can tell you that now is the very best time in history to be getting old.

但我可以告訴你，現在是歷史上最好的變老時機。

We're living longer and healthier than ever before.

我們比以前活得更長更健康。

We're living more productively into our later years there a number of reasons for this.

我們的晚年生活更有成效，這有很多原因。

But a lot of it is thanks to the ingenious people in medical research who have figured out how to keep us alive not just longer, but better and healthier.

但這很大程度上要歸功於醫學研究領域的聰明人，他們想出瞭如何讓我們不僅活得更久，而且活得更好、更健康。

Almost every disease that killed people 100 years ago has been eradicated.

幾乎所有在100年前致人死亡的疾病都已被消滅。

Think about that now.

現在想一想。

We have new diseases, of course, that can kill us because we're living long enough to get, um, like cancer and Alzheimer's.

我們有新的疾病，當然，可以殺死我們，因為我們的壽命足夠長，得到，嗯，像癌症和阿爾茨海默氏症。

But the good news is that there's enormous progress being made in both fronts.

但好消息是，在這兩方面都取得了巨大的進展。

I'd like to begin by exploding a couple of myths about aging.

我想先來揭開幾個關於衰老的迷思。

There's a kind of societal narrative that we share about what it means to get older, and it's just not consistent with science.

有一種社會敘事，我們共享 關於它意味著什麼變老， 它只是不符合科學。

The scientists has changed a lot in the last 10 or 15 years.

在過去的10年或15年裡，科學家們發生了很大的變化。

In neuroscience in particular, we've learned a whole lot about the aging brain, and most of that hasn't trickled down to the average reader.

特別是在神經科學方面，我們已經瞭解了很多關於大腦老化的知識，而其中大部分還沒有流傳到普通讀者的手中。

One of the myths is that memory failure is inevitable now.

其中一個誤區是，現在記憶力衰退是不可避免的。

It's true there are some older adults who experienced memory difficulties.

確實有一些老年人出現了記憶困難。

In fact, that is one of the the behavioral markers of Alzheimer's.

事實上，這是阿爾茨海默氏症的行為標誌之一。

It's what causes people to go to the doctor, but it's Alzheimer's is rarer than you think, and memory impairment is not a given.

這也是導致人們去看病的原因，但這是老年痴呆症比你想象的要罕見，記憶力受損不是必然的。

If you look older adults in the aggregate, many, many older adults will have very little or no memory impairment all through their eighties and nineties.

如果從總體上看老年人，很多很多老年人在八九十歲的時候，都會有很少的記憶力障礙，甚至沒有記憶力障礙。

It's hard to believe, isn't it?

這很難讓人相信，不是嗎？

Ah, lot of misdiagnosed cases of Alzheimer's based on patient.

啊，很多根據病人誤診的老年痴呆症病例。

An individual presenting with the memory impairment aren't actually because the person has a memory impairment.

一個人出現記憶障礙，其實並不是因為這個人有記憶障礙。

It's because they're sleep deprived.

那是因為他們睡眠不足。

One of the things we've learned his neuroscientists in the last 10 years is the importance of sleep even among older adults.

在過去10年裡，我們學到了他的神經科學家的事情之一是睡眠的重要性，即使在老年人中。

Another myth.

又是一個神話。

Older adults don't need as much sleep.

老年人不需要那麼多的睡眠。

Not at all true, they only get about 5.5 for six hours for a whole bunch of other reasons, but they still need eight or nine hours like the rest of us, and an hour and a half to two hours of lost sleep in the night on several consecutive nights, presents his memory impairment.

一點都不假，他們6個小時只能睡5.5個小時左右，原因還有很多，但他們還是和我們一樣需要八九個小時，連續幾個晚上晚上失眠一個半小時到兩個小時，就會呈現他的記憶障礙。

Profound memory impairment.

深度記憶障礙。

You can have difficulty encoding memories for two weeks after just one bad night of sleep.

只要睡不好一晚上，你就會有兩週的記憶編碼困難。

After age 70 the older adults are more tolerant, more compassionate, uh, mawr, accepting of individual differences.

70歲以後的老年人更寬容，更有同情心，呃，毛爾，接受個體差異。

And as a consequence of all these things, they're better at solving a host of problems, especially those that involve interpersonal problems, political problems, social problems because they have the compassion and the insight born of decades of experience and interacting with others.

而由於所有這些事情的結果，他們更善於解決一系列問題，特別是那些涉及人際問題、政治問題、社會問題的問題，因為他們有幾十年的經驗和與他人互動所產生的同情心和洞察力。

So again, a myth is that older adults are less happy, not true.

所以，又有一個傳說是老年人不那麼幸福，不是真的。

Older adults are not good at solving problems.

老年人不善於解決問題。

Not true.

不對

Another domain in which older adults are great at problem solving is anything involving what a cognitive scientist would call pattern matching.

老年人擅長解決問題的另一個領域是任何涉及認知科學家所說的模式匹配的事情。

This is the ability to extract from disparate experiences commonalities common threads to be able to see analogies to this problem, from problems that have come by before.

這就是從不同的經驗中提取出共性的共同線索，能夠從以前過來的問題中，看到這個問題的類比。

If you have to get an X ray read, you want the 62 year old or the 70 year old radiologist, not the 30 year old.

如果你要做X線閱讀，你要的是62歲或70歲的放射科醫生，而不是30歲的。

If you need a surgery, ask your surgeon How many times have you done this operation?

如果你需要做手術，請問你的醫生你做過幾次這個手術？

If the surgeon says I've done it 5000 times and there are plenty of surgeons who have done surgeries 5000 times, that's the person you want.

如果外科醫生說我做了5000次，有很多外科醫生做了5000次手術，那就是你想要的人。

If the insurgents says, Oh, I've done it.

如果叛亂分子說，哦，我已經做到了。

I saw it in school.

我在學校看到的。

I saw them do it in school.

我在學校看到他們這樣做。

I was standing right there.

我當時就站在那裡。

How many times have you done it?

你做過幾次？

Well, five or six, But I'm learning.

好吧，五六個，但我正在學習。

They have to learn on someone, but they don't have to learn on you.

他們必須在某人身上學習，但他們不必在你身上學習。

Um, and even now, with robotic surgery, somebody was shaky.

嗯，即使是現在的機器人手術，也有人搖搖欲墜。

Hands, which could happen at any age, can still do the surgeries.

手，在任何年齡段都有可能發生，但仍然可以做手術。

I would rather have a 72 year old with shaky hands guiding the robot than the 25 year old who hasn't done it before.

我寧願讓一個72歲的老人手抖地指導機器人，也不願意讓25歲沒幹過的老人來指導。

We get better with experience.

隨著經驗的積累，我們會變得更好。

Part of this societal narrative that I'm weaving here that's faulty is that we look over the course of a lifespan and we see the different developmental stages, and we tend to see them is times of growth along with challenges.

我在這裡編織的這個社會敘事的一部分是有問題的，就是我們看一生的過程，我們看到了不同的發展階段，我們傾向於看到它們是成長與挑戰並存的時代。

So, um, infants, air learning thio take in the world and they're just beginning to learn language toddlers air learning toe walk.

所以，嗯，嬰兒，空氣學習thio採取的世界，他們剛剛開始學習語言幼兒空氣學習腳趾走路。

You've got childhood and pre adolescents and adolescents, and each of these is marked by certain cognitive abilities, certain abilities and thinking that expand.

你有兒童期和青春期前和青少年期，每一個時期都有一定的認知能力，一定的能力和思維的拓展。

You've got young adulthood, middle age.

你有青壯年，中年。

We see all of them as phases in which something about us gets better.

我們把所有這些都看成是階段性的，在這個階段裡，我們的某些東西會變得更好。

Uh, we tend to see old age differently, which again is not consistent with neuroscience.

呃，我們傾向於以不同的方式看待老年，這又不符合神經科學。

But the societal narrative is that some age at some point we just start losing everything.

但社會上的說法是，在某個年齡段，我們就開始失去一切。

It's all declined.

都被拒絕了。

You can argue about what that point is.

你可以爭論一下這一點是什麼。

70 80 I'm a child of the sixties and you know, we used to sing Hope I die before I get old and don't trust anybody over 30.

70 80 我是六十年代的孩子，你知道嗎，我們曾經唱過希望我在老之前死去，不要相信30歲以上的人。

So, you know, maybe 30 was the point where everything went down, but it doesn't matter.

所以，你知道，也許30歲是所有事情的起點，但這並不重要。

The fact is, it doesn't go down even at 90.

事實上，即使是90度也不會下降。

Not necessarily, um, old age is accompanied by a number of compensatory mechanisms that kick in a number of strengths and new abilities.

不一定，嗯，老了之後會伴隨著一些補償機制，啟動一些優勢和新的能力。

And yes, it's full of challenges, aches and pains.

是的，它充滿了挑戰，疼痛和痛苦。

The body starts to go, uh, generalize slowing down.

身體開始走，呃，一般化減速。

But every life phase is accompanied by challenges.

但每個人生階段都伴隨著挑戰。

I have not yet met somebody who wants to go back to seventh grade, Not a one.

我還沒有遇到過想回七年級的人，一個都沒有。

It was a terrible time for most people.

對大多數人來說，那是一個可怕的時代。

So that was its challenge on I know a lot of people who don't want to be starting their first job again.

所以這是它的挑戰上我知道很多人都不想再開始自己的第一份工作。

You know, at any age you can point to something that was unpleasant about it.

你知道，在任何年齡段，你都可以指出一些不愉快的事情。