Why haven't we evolved to be immortal?

Michael said:
Homo eternicus - is Total Recall the next big step in human evolution?


That aside, I also read something about heads-in-the freezer in good ole Michigan! :) 32K and you can be frozen stiff, stored for 1000 years ... ... or so, and maybe in the far off future your N2 container auctioned off-line and prized open for your ripe yet rare neural connections - you will be sold as a slave bitch to some cyber Ant overlord with a fetish for human prehistoric human mind-sex....

anywho...
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ah... no

just understanding the genetics of aging is all we need
 
Baftan, I enjoyed your post.

In my opinion, 'immortality' is a very scary thought. May be too much of a cliché, but I agree that our short life spans are one of the qualities that makes us 'human'. Honestly, it makes me comfortable to know that I am going to vanish one day.
Thinking that everything is an experiment and a process makes the whole thing beautiful for me, that nothing's stable.

I know it's not related to the OP or any rational thought, but I am sure most of you are familiar with Anne Rice novels. In her novels, she some sort of 'reads' human kind as species by telling of another, imaginary immortal one. It's fantasy literature, but I think it gives some sense of being 'immortal' between the lines. It's not appealing at all.
 
thinking said:
hasn't occured to any of you that we have been living longer

there was a time when living to forty-fifty yrs old was dam good

and now its sixity-seventy-eighty-ninety yrs old
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We live longer now because we have pathogen free drinking water now.
 
786 said:
Might sound stupid but I'm seriously wondering. Why haven't we evolved so that we don't die? Shouldn't all causes of death be selected against in the long history of evolution?

Peace be unto you ;)
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We would be competing for resources with our own grandchildren. Nature has found that species tend to survive better when they are evolving through sexual reproduction than when the individuals just live for all eternity.

Also everybody gets parasites eventually and dying helps kill off the parasites and some other diseases.
 
thinking said:
hasn't occured to any of you that we have been living longer

there was a time when living to forty-fifty yrs old was dam good

and now its sixity-seventy-eighty-ninety yrs old
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Another example of this is grandparents. Why should women go through menopause and still live? They can no longer reproduce, so what evolutionary advantage are they? Turns out they provide a survival advantage to their offspring by contributing knowledge, and being able to care for children. So evolution has worked to lengthen our lives.
 
786 said:
Might sound stupid but I'm seriously wondering. Why haven't we evolved so that we don't die? Shouldn't all causes of death be selected against in the long history of evolution?

Peace be unto you ;)
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because humans have a life expectancy determined by their body parts.
 
Anti-Flag said:
I don't know where to begin with this fallacy.
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There is research to find ways to combat aging and assures healthy longevity .
The research is still a new born baby and it takes time .
I believe in science and humans might one day live up to one thousand years.
From there new facts will appear about life and death and we might prolong life by more years . With science....yes...we...can !.....;) .
 
baftan said:
Imagine if our consciousness would continue on non-organic material; let’s say if we could continue our existence using sub-atomic level interactions, we would survive longer.
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How could we live at a sub-atomic level? What do you mean by that?
 
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Mod note: Religious explanations, and associated replies, have been deleted. This is a science forum.
 
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compared to a housefly, I am immortal. Its all about perspective.

I'm only 43 because we have a 12 month calendar. If we had an 18 month calendar, I'd be a super sweet 28. And that is what I pretend. :D Or rather, that is my perspective on aging.
 
spidergoat said:
Another example of this is grandparents. Why should women go through menopause and still live? They can no longer reproduce, so what evolutionary advantage are they? Turns out they provide a survival advantage to their offspring by contributing knowledge, and being able to care for children. So evolution has worked to lengthen our lives.
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I think that evolution has very little to do with women living much past menopause. Our longer lives these days are largely due to improved health care and medicine. In the poorest nations in the world, life expectancy is still less than 40 years.
 
Orleander said:
compared to a housefly, I am immortal. Its all about perspective.

I'm only 43 because we have a 12 month calendar. If we had an 18 month calendar, I'd be a super sweet 28. And that is what I pretend. :D Or rather, that is my perspective on aging.
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This is called the math backward .......if there is such a thing.....:shrug: .
A month is a month by a linguistic definition and mathematical counting .
Conclusion : you are NOT immortal .
 
786 said:
Might sound stupid but I'm seriously wondering. Why haven't we evolved so that we don't die? Shouldn't all causes of death be selected against in the long history of evolution?

Peace be unto you ;)
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Th answer to that specific question is no - death was never selected against in the long history of evoution.

I wil leave it up to you (or perhaps others have already answered) as to why that was
 
mike47 said:
There is research to find ways to combat aging and assures healthy longevity .
The research is still a new born baby and it takes time .
I believe in science and humans might one day live up to one thousand years.
From there new facts will appear about life and death and we might prolong life by more years . With science....yes...we...can !.....;) .
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So that's evolution? Or is it technology? ;)
 
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