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comment by wasoxygen
wasoxygen  ·  3725 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Future Human Evolution

    as the average population ages we run up against more and more cancer
That's true, but something is going to get you in the end. As more people survive childhood diseases and accidents, age-related illness like cancer will claim a larger share of the 100% of people who (at least for now) succumb to death.

The article ecib shared about How Americans Die was pretty interesting.





user-inactivated  ·  3725 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Right. In the past, though, the things that "got us" were mostly exogenous. A hypothetical hermit won't get the flu or tuberculosis but if male has a 50 percent chance of getting cancer.

Now, obviously, in 1800 or whenever people probably never thought we'd deal with deadly infections, and we largely have. So you never know. But cancer strikes me as a lot more insidious than previous rampant causes of death. I'm also not sure I agree with Cadell that "the biological clock won't last forever" -- based on various things I've read lately, that seems pretty optimistic.

theadvancedapes  ·  3725 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    the biological clock won't last forever" -- based on various things I've read lately, that seems pretty optimistic.

I don't know exactly when it will happen, but our choices about biological reproduction will change dramatically before 2050.

user-inactivated  ·  3725 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I didn't see anything in there about the biological clock, per se. Maybe the PGD stuff but that's not exactly what I meant.