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Aging may be a program, not a breakdown

83 points · 88 comments · elo2000

  1. jvanderbot · · focus · HN ↗
    I've always thought eternal life would steal from the next generation if resources are scarce. If your reaction times, intelligence, etc are always good, and your experience and memories get better, it just seems like you'd out compete your kids and younger cohorts. All well and good but basically stops genetic turnover that got us to this point.

    OTOH, you'd accumulate uncurable disease, injuries, etc as well. Maybe you become a disease resevoir inside your own growing family. Or you pass on as-yet-unknown genetic anomalies that are unhelpful, and you do so forever.

    Granted that's a modern take, and in particular a modern rpg-like take. Regardless though getting rid of oldies seems like a reasonable way to move a species forward if natural selection is driving "forward".

    1. Arubis · · focus · HN ↗
      > I've always thought eternal life would steal from the next generation if resources are scarce.

      This is almost the stated intention of longevists.

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