[extropy-chat] Boredom in old age

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Barbara Lamar <barbara_lamar at earthlink.net> wrote:
> It's fun to imagine what the world would be like if
> someone found a way to
> teach curiosity

You mean similar to monks (Christian, Buddhist,
Shaolin, et cetera), but instead of contemplating
spirituality, encouraging insight into and exploration
(both physical and metaphorical) of the world so as to
discover its true properties?  Monastaries were where
most science (at least, what we'd recognize today as
science) was done in medeval times.

> If a curiosity training
> course or treatment were
> offered for sale, I wonder how many people would
> want to buy it.

It'd probably depend on how it was marketed.  "Hey,
you, got those seen-it-all, I'm-70-and-waiting-to-rot
blues?  Come on down to Uncle Zen's Curiosity
Meditations!  Shake off your I-don't-wannas, and
rediscover the joys of learning and doing new things!
Amaze your friends by understanding what those young
whippersnappers are up to, or maybe even amaze those
young whippersnappers by doing it better than they
can!  Clinically proven to improve general health and
add years to one's life expectancy in most cases."

Or what if it were offered for free, a la MIT's Open
CourseWare program?