I think painting also benefited early technical advances. Glasses were invented quite early, so many artists that otherwise would lose performance to bad eyesight when older could keep going on. I wonder what other technical advances could help people in other activities to keep performing well despite getting older. Perhaps automated calculation tools will be the "glasses" to help the current generation of mathematicians keep their edge as they age, given the ability to do hard calculations is one aspect of work that appears to take a heavy hit in old age.