Number of words: 135<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can already find much more extreme examples of external mediation in the geriatric wards of hospitals. Humanism fantasises about old age as a period of wisdom and awareness. The ideal elder may suffer from bodily ailments and weaknesses, but his mind is quick and sharp, and he has eighty years of insights to dispense. He knows exactly what\u2019s what, and always has good advice for the grandchildren and other visitors. Twenty-first-century octogenarians don\u2019t always look like that. Thanks to our growing understanding of human biology, medicine keeps us alive long enough for our minds and our \u2018authentic selves\u2019 to disintegrate and dissolve. All too often, what\u2019s left is a collection of dysfunctional biological systems kept going by a collection of monitors, computers and pumps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n