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The term “Wicked Problems” arose in the 1970s to distinguish major challenges of public policy from those of the hard sciences. Most famously articulated in a 1973 paper by Rittel and Webber in Policy Sciences, Wicked Problems are issues that are very difficult, if not impossible, to solve because they are 1) highly complex, with no readily apparent solution, 2) intricately interconnected with other problems, 3) entrenched in the landscape and/or the political arena, and 4) volatile, presenting constantly moving targets to policy makers. These problems defy conventional solutions because the typical set of policy responses are insufficient to address these problems in any meaningful way.

​In my last blog entry I discussed some of the challenges associated with intervention studies to improve cognition.  However, I didn’t really spend much time defining cognition and cognitive aging.  A very recent publication by the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences (NAS) provides a book-length treatment of cognitive aging.

One of ISL’s goals involves finding effective “holistic” interventions to improve functional, and particularly, cognitive capabilities as people age. Surveys have shown that fear of loss of cognition, and particularly development of dementia, ranks as a top concern for seniors. (It is more feared than loss of vision.)

As a first post, I want to muse a bit about what constitutes successful longevity. Many writers have speculated about terms such as successful aging, functional aging, healthy aging, and the like.