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> Take away death and what do you get? You get lack of genetic diversity, which leads to death. If a species became immortal, it would have to stop reproducin
by alejohausner 9y ago
> Take away death and what do you get?
You get lack of genetic diversity, which leads to death. If a species became immortal, it would have to stop reproducing, to prevent overpopulation. Without sex, the gene pool stops changing. Along comes some new infectious organism, and there are no individuals that can resist it. The species goes extinct.
Sex and death are both necessary.
- crowbahr 9y agoBecause there's no option other than just stopping and dying to super bugs? Biological immortality would have us push for the stars so much faster...
- swamp40 9y agoTell that to the dandelions.
- Houshalter 9y agoYou really think a civilization advanced enough to cure aging can't stop a pathogen? Evolution sure isn't going to save us. Evolution happens on a timescale of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. The plague will come and go long before evolution can do anything interesting.
- hx87 9y ago> lack of genetic diversity > gene pool stops changing The above two are incompatible. How can a gene pool decrease in genetic diversity if it never changes?
- dvtv75 9y agoThe probability of an accident (car accident, firearms accident, choking, tripping while carrying a knife, drowning, and so on) resulting in death would tend toward one, given a long enough life, so humans would still need to reproduce, we would just need to keep the rate quite low.