Surprisingly I don't think this thread has really touched on the theories of the Evolution of ageing too much, so I thought I would just quickly point out a few things worth reading.
I wrote a paper myself on this about 3 years ago which is a basic introduction to the concept of the evolutionary context of Ageing (
Research, Innovation, Risk Taking and Living Forever: Why Do We Age?). What this paper can probably used for more than anything else for interested parties is the references I have used. particularly worth reading is this paper:
shortened link which although it is quite dated now (1957) it still strikes a key theory in the evolution of Ageing and is (for me at least) such a good read.
This doesn't pertain to evolution of human ageing exactly, but the overall concept of evolution of ageing should be no different to humans as it is to all other organisms.
A few other thoughts I have had as I have read through this thread are: 1. Humans are not really living longer today than at any other time, we simply have a higher statistical age brought about by not dying early. Our theoretical maximum life span seems to be static.
2.
ImmInst.com is for sale | HugeDomains is the place to look at if you want to learn more about lifespan because there are a lot of people out there who think science will be able to extend our lifespans artificially in the not too distant future. There is therefore a lot of good material on that site about human lifespans.
Shane
Edited by AdminJar, : No reason given.
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