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Re:Does Employment Slow Cognitive Decline? Evidence from Lab... by pavel_lishin on Monday May 04, 2026 @04:07PM (#48014256)
And people who were injured to the point where they couldn't "work" anymore were still cared for by their community.
Re:Does Employment Slow Cognitive Decline? Evidence from Lab... by weirdmantis69 on Monday May 04, 2026 @04:39PM (#48014651)
I mean, that just isn't true. There are amazon tribes today where they just send them down the river to die... your ideas are a disney-fied version of a false past that never existed.
Re:Does Employment Slow Cognitive Decline? Evidence from Lab... by DangitBobby on Monday May 04, 2026 @04:56PM (#48014871)
Unspecified Amazon tribes don't represent the lion's share of historical treatment of aging populations. One negative example doesn't undermine the point.
Re:Does Employment Slow Cognitive Decline? Evidence from Lab... by ryoshoe on Monday May 04, 2026 @04:58PM (#48014897)
They're right. We've found remains that show how thousands of years ago people took care of people that would have died without external assistance.

https://phys.org/news/2025-10-ancient-patagonian-hunter-disa...

Re:Does Employment Slow Cognitive Decline? Evidence from Lab... by pavel_lishin on Tuesday May 05, 2026 @09:44AM (#48022486)
Yes, humanity is full of various societies that do things differently. These ideas aren't disney-fied - they're just accurate representations of the fact that people care for each other, most of the time.

I appreciate your anecdote, but here's a few counter-examples:

- Neanderthals took care of their elderly: https://theconversation.com/neanderthals-cared-for-each-othe...

- Neanderthals took care of a child that likely had a developmental condition: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn9310

- other Hominids also did this at some point in the last few million years: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/deformed-...

- 2500 year old woman had a jaw prosthetic made: https://www.vice.com/en/article/mummified-skull-reveals-iron...

- 15k years ago, someone with a broken femur was cared for well enough to heal: https://www.forbes.com/sites/remyblumenfeld/2020/03/21/how-a...

- Neanderthals pre-chewed food or provided soft foods for someone who lost their teeth: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/care-worn-fossils

- 4000 years ago, a man who was almost certainly a quadraplegic was still being cared for: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/17/8788963...

Re:Does Employment Slow Cognitive Decline? Evidence from Lab... by brokenmachine on Thursday May 07, 2026 @08:34PM (#48056966)
I thought that a major reason humans were so successful is because the older members of the tribe could protect the children while the others hunted.