Father & Son lifespan together #toomuchtimeonplanes

My son turned 4 the other day, on the 20th of August.

I was away, as usual these days, traveling.

Being away made me think of the time we should be spending together and, more importantly, about how much effective time we will be able to spend together over the course of our respective lifespans.

I came up with a draft aproximation to the problem based on two criteria:

Time (X axis), overlaying Father and Son’s timelines, with the estimated lifespan they can effectively share, since a son is born till father dies.

Energy (Y axis), or ‘impressions’ during a lifetime. Inherently linked to our physical growth as humans, representing our lives as a bell (gaussian) curve: birth, growth phase, younger age, middle age peak and elderly evolution.

Foremost and most important, time father and son can share over their respective lifespans is limited to those years where both are alive. This is true at least while we can’t backup our brains and download our consciousness on virtual machines as this would enable timeless independent interaction.

While we wait for that technology, in my case, common lifespan for my son and I is in the range of 30 years over our combined lives reach of 140 years, overlying our respective timelines.

In the picture above, this is the time between point A in 2013 (ed Jr, my son, turning 4 now) and point C in 2043 (myself becoming too old for meaningful interaction).

Peaks in life, top of bell curves, happen at mid age (points D and E), gone for me, and estimated at the age of 50 for my son, somewhere around year 2059.

This is considering life expectancy of new generations, and new millennials to increase from 80-90 years today to over 100 for them, hence ed Jr’s bell peak at 50 instead of 40 as it was for Generation X parents like me.

Similarly, the ‘energy’ or ‘impression’ levels for new generations over the course of their lives will be far bigger, amplified by technology, ubiquitous knowledge, and online, always on services & resources that will expand human interaction with the world around them (early signs of this can be seen today).

The gaussian area below your bell shaped life curve defines how impactful your life has been. It’s some sort of power measurement (energy/time) of your life.

For instance, there’s little ‘power’ life you can live with your son before he is at least 3-4 years old, when he starts to remember things and experiences (point A). Similarly, there’s little doable at the very end of your life (probably lying on a bed with serious physical limitations, point C).

The triangle shaped area delimited by points A, B and C gives you a sense of the actual common ‘powered’ life available for you and your son.

The referred triangled area is the gaussian area below your son’s life curve (between point A and B) adding the area from father’s declining bell curve (from point B to C).

Anyone up to do the math?, would you like to see an online calculator of ‘father & son power lifespan’?, let me know….

@efernandez