> Medicine quite simply hasn't advanced significantly since 1970 This is not true. Here are just 3 examples: 1. Childhood cancer - Less than 50% 5 year surviv

> Medicine quite simply hasn't advanced significantly since 1970 This is not true. Here are just 3 examples: 1. Childhood cancer - Less than 50% 5 year survival in 1970 vs greater than 80% 5 year survival now. http://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/child-adolescent-cancers-fact-sheet http://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/child-adolesce... 2. Anything dealing with the brain including diagnosis and treatment. Before CT and MRI - neurologists and neurosurgeons where operating blind. CT and MRI combined with computer technology allow the surgeon to plan and execute a much safer and gentler approach. In addition, during this time, our knowledge of practical neuro-anatomy has increased and enabled much better surgical approaches. 3. Low birthweight/premature infant mortality - We are much better at saving low birthweight / premature infants. See http://www.hrsa.gov/healthit/images/mchb_infantmortality_pub.pdf http://www.hrsa.gov/healthit/images/mchb_infantmortality_pub... I would call these significant medical advances. If you are talking about public health advances as opposed to medical advances, then actually good nutrition, good sanitation, and elimination of environmental toxins is probably responsible for almost the entire improvement in life expectancy. However, this has been truethroughout history and is not something new since the 1970's.