Life Expectancy too Long?
Posted in Health by George
Were humans meant to live as long as we do? The current life expectancy in the USA is around 80 years old, and this is similar in any civilized country. However, many people live out the end of their lives on various medications that they need to take in order to not feel pain, or even just to survive. Furthermore, some body parts lose some of their function (eyes, reproductive organs), and many older people have trouble just getting around the grocery store. I was just reading that men are 70% more likely to be infertile after age 40 than men who are 30.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this. It’s awesome that we’re able to live so long. I’m just curious how long humans would actually live if you didn’t count all the people on life-sustaining medicines.
May 26th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
i would think that cancer is essentially a “disease” brought about by time as one factor. other factors are chemicals and radiation. We have foiled nature so that natural selection is no longer the determinant. People can live in dangerous area with threats of earthquakes and floods and still survive. We can survive bacterial infections and child birth.
So there is a double edged sword, we can treat those with genetic issues and they can reproduce and have more of those offspring with genetic “defects”. Not that I am complaining, seeing I probably wouldn’t have survived birth without modern medicine, and neither would have my mother.
What I am saying is that we have created a situation that will lead to over population because we were intelligent enough to jump from the regular selection process.
May 26th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
MALTHUSIAN THOUGHT! I love it Jon, and I agree with you! Eventually we are going to have some form of overpopulation problem, simply because we don’t have enough resources to go around!
May 26th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
George can we not turn this into an environmental issue.
There is a lot of talk in tech circles about how within our generation we are going to see some major changes in terms of life expectancy. I think quality of life is going to get some major improvements.
Overpopulation is an interesting issue. The solution though is just to make all countries rich (so easy I know). Richer countries on the whole have lower birth rates then poorer ones. Europe is shrinking. America is borderline growing (if you take away immigration increases).
I read somewhere the other day that the russian population is going to plummet within the next 20-30 years.