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There is very much pressure for that. Natural selection is just about passing genes to the next generations. If by living longer you can increase the safety, an

by erispoe 11y ago

There is very much pressure for that. Natural selection is just about passing genes to the next generations. If by living longer you can increase the safety, and the reproductive success, of your offsprings, you select for that. Reproductive success in a natural selection context is not only about the sheer number of offsprings you have, it's about how good you can disseminate genes to the next generations. If genetic mutations allow you to increase that dissemination by caring for your offsprings, then it's selected.

dualogy 11y ago
I'm not saying parents are programmed to fall over and die exactly the moment they have sucessfully reproduced, clearly in those species incl us only the offspring of caring+longer-lived parents have survived to reproduce themselves --- past that prime age we just lose that comparative youthful invincibility against "environmental stress and accumulated damage and the resulting ever-accelerating degeneration" (incl "western diet") because there never was selection pressure favouring people who thrive well into old age and age in supreme health on any chow or fodder without suffering severe degeneration and disease.
- erispoe 11y ago
  "there never was selection pressure favouring people who thrive well into old age and age in supreme health on any chow or fodder without suffering severe degeneration and disease" Can you back that up? Actually having living healthy grand-parents can be a boon to reproductive success: they can take care of kids, while parents are out hunting or gathering. So yes, if you have genetic mutations favoring living old enough to be grand-parents, it is subject to selection pressure. Plus, it's been a while since we started caring for old people. In that context, because evolution is all about context, having healthy elderly is also a boon to reproductive success since it doesn't divert resources from child care to elderly care. Any genetic mutation that is expressed and results into higer reproductive success in a specific context is subject to selection.

by erispoe 11y ago

dualogy 11y ago

I'm not saying parents are programmed to fall over and die exactly the moment they have sucessfully reproduced, clearly in those species incl us only the offspring of caring+longer-lived parents have survived to reproduce themselves --- past that prime age we just lose that comparative youthful invincibility against "environmental stress and accumulated damage and the resulting ever-accelerating degeneration" (incl "western diet") because there never was selection pressure favouring people who thrive well into old age and age in supreme health on any chow or fodder without suffering severe degeneration and disease.

erispoe 11y ago
"there never was selection pressure favouring people who thrive well into old age and age in supreme health on any chow or fodder without suffering severe degeneration and disease" Can you back that up? Actually having living healthy grand-parents can be a boon to reproductive success: they can take care of kids, while parents are out hunting or gathering. So yes, if you have genetic mutations favoring living old enough to be grand-parents, it is subject to selection pressure. Plus, it's been a while since we started caring for old people. In that context, because evolution is all about context, having healthy elderly is also a boon to reproductive success since it doesn't divert resources from child care to elderly care. Any genetic mutation that is expressed and results into higer reproductive success in a specific context is subject to selection.