A life that is well spent is rich of memories and therefore it possesses the illusion that it has been longer. The only reason why older men tell us how quickly life goes by is not because time compresses as we age but because of older men’s inability to remember time spent mostly in their comfort zones, their memories are not as vivid and as strong as they used to be while they were younger. Just like how our hearing deteriorates as we age our memories do as well, and life seems to go faster. The more interesting and exciting things happen to us the more we will remember therefore the longer we will live. During travel or being in love every day is a special day, therefore those who travel or fall in love live longer lives. We can also say that our memories record events based on the intensity levels of emotions such as joy and pain. If i asked you to tell me a story where you experienced extreme joy or pain, you would probably come up with vivid memories. But if I asked you what you did a week ago after work, if you watched a TV show and ate chips on your couch, you probably wouldn’t be able to give me any details.

The one thing that causes a short life is our comfort zones. When we are comfortable we don’t remember much. Simply because its just a regular comfortable day. Time goes blankly and therefore it seems as it went by fast, there is simply nothing important to remember, We should rage against our comfort zones and make every day an exciting and interesting one. Nothing good ever came during comfortable moments and never will, the mind will not remember it. Therefore if you are unsure about a trip to a strange country that you have never stepped foot into, I strongly encourage you to stop your hesitations and go there, not just to learn a different culture, but to live a longer life. Rage against your comfort zone, it is your biggest enemy in life.

Digital technology is ruining our lives, cultures and societies not only by divorcing us from nature but also by making our lives more comfortable. One example: Lets say you are a single man who doesn’t like to cook (i like to cook) and you are hungry what do you do now? In Istanbul, you would probably go onto your smart phone and use a very convenient application called “yemeksepeti” and make an order, and even make the payment online so you don’t need to interact much with the delivery guy as he brings your food. Flashback a fifty thousand years ago, what would a young man do in the same situation? He would have to socialize first with fellow hunters within his tribe, and make a plan on how to team up with them in order to hunt a wild boar or another wild animal that caught his eye the other day. He would go on a memorable hunting adventure with them and have a great sense of accomplishment or defeat in the end. We must understand that our biology is still programed for these times. Why is it that we get much more agitated and angry when we are very hungry? These are all very useful feelings for hunting, we need that aggression to hunt better, its another gift from nature. In any case, the events that would take place in order to find food would most likely be memorable contributing to the length of our lives 50000 years ago. But now nothing noteworthy in ordering food from our smart phone. Since the length of a life depends on how much we remember rather than the amount of years its safe to say that digital technology is shortening our lives.

However it doesn’t have to be like this, technology could be on our side by focusing its energy on more important things rather than the world of conscious consumerism. I probably designed a hundred buildings while asleep and i completely forgot all of my works there, but i can vaguely recall how detailed and real the images in my dreams were. Matter of fact just this morning i woke up from a dream where i saw one of my schematic designs built and fully detailed with various different ideas that never came to me while conscious, i quickly started to forget everything as the minutes passed after my awakening, never again will i sleep without a sketchbook under my reach. There is a very rich world in the unconscious mind and technology ought to turn its attention there instead of constantly aiding and comforting the conscious mind in which it is targeting in order to make a guaranteed profit. This type of research in Neuro-Technology can double our life span not by increasing the years we live but simply by bringing our dreams alive and memorable. The more we remember the longer we will live. And in dreams often many interesting things happen which we shouldn’t forget. There is a whole different world there.