The Doors Concert

The Doors Concert

posted on February 18, 2008

Saturday night, I went to a Doors tribute band concert at The Coachouse in San Juan Capistrano, here in S. Calif. The club was packed, wall-to-wall with about 600 Doors fans. Interestingly, there were more 20 and 30 year olds than the people who grew up with the Doors.

The performance was spectacular, but more striking to me was how much 22 year olds were in to the 60’s music. Many wonder how they would acclimate to a rapidly moving cutting edge society where generation gaps seem to widen more than ever. Last night made me rethink that. I realized there wasn’t that much of a difference between older and younger generations. We mainly look different. If we looked and felt young again, I think different generations would have more in common with each other than we thought. It would certainly help dissolve communication barriers.

Music is just one example. They hear “our” stuff and like it. If we gave “their” music a chance (except for rap – sorry) we’d probably enjoy that too. But it goes way beyond music. Every generation has its industrious segment as well as its slackers. Each has its ethical representatives as well as its criminals. If we all looked the same age, we’d routinely find commonalities with some much younger people that we couldn’t possibly find with many members of our own generations. Sure, there would still be experiential and other differences, but I think this age demarcation thing would blur rapidly once we had age reversal technologies. Saturday night gave me an insight into the future that I didn’t really appreciate until then.

Now for an enlightening peek into the past by stepping back in time for a moment, also in San Juan Capistrano:
Over a year ago, I visited the famous Mission San Juan Capistrano. It was an eye opening experience for me.
It was founded in 1776 and completed in 1806, almost exactly 200 years ago. That’s a very short time in the grand scheme of things… almost recent history. The mission is like a time capsule, completely surrounded by a modern upscale town. Not only is the compound 200 years old, but it’s basically a museum… a snapshot of time in sharp contrast to the 21st century life on the other side of its walls.
Because of my acute sensitivity to today’s rapid rate of progress – after all, that’s what I’m hoping will be our key to super longevity – the impact of how people lived in those days had special meaning to me.
Life was crude then. And tough. And short. Most people worked morning to night, just to survive. And that didn’t work very well either. They lived hard and died young. Their average life span was about 37 years.
From the time the mission was founded until it was completed – 30 years – Life didn’t change much. People had basically the same tools, lifestyles and experiences that their parents and grandparents had. Virtually nothing compared with what we take for granted today. They had no cell phones, in fact, no phones at all. No Internet, computers, TV’s radios or movies. If they wanted to go somewhere, they either walked or rode a horse or wagon. They didn’t even dream of electricity, gas, central heating or air conditioning. They couldn’t even imagine hot and cold running water… or even toilets.
While I was contemplating this, I had a cell phone in my pocket that could instantly connect me to almost anyone, anywhere in the world and to almost every bit of recorded information on the planet. And this technology, all of it, sprung into existence in less than the 30 years it took to build the mission.
In 1976, there was no Internet, and there were no cell phones. As for PC’s? Forget it. Microsoft was only founded in 1975… and Apple Computer in 1976.
I was struck by the contrast to almost zero changes from 1776-1806 and the revolutionary changes from 1976-2006.

Now I hope this illustration of how things are speeding up helps you appreciate the concept of exponential growth, how it will keep accelerating life extension technologies and the effect it could have on you and your health and longevity. I urge you to do everything in your power to outlive death from aging. Your payoff will be HUGE.

Back to Top