5 ms·

Didn't an article just come up (Nature, I believe) that just proved that the way our cellular division works, mortality is an important feature of how we work?

• vorotato 9y ago
  I mean if people start living forever we would have to start killing them. So it's kinda moot anyway.
  • T-A 9y ago
    Why? If you are concerned about population growth, a one child policy would be quite sufficient (1+1/2+1/4+1/8+... = 2).
    • vorotato 9y ago
      I'm not, I'm concerned with the ability to collect power and resources in a capitalist society, and how that ability grows with age.
• T-A 9y ago
  http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/10/25/1618854114 http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/10/25/1618854114 "Selection between somatic cells (i.e., intercellular competition) can delay aging by purging nonfunctioning cells. However, the fitness of a multicellular organism depends not just on how functional its individual cells are but also on how well cells work together. While intercellular competition weeds out nonfunctional cells, it may also select for cells that do not cooperate. Thus, intercellular competition creates an inescapable double bind that makes aging inevitable in multicellular organisms." ... and so you end up getting cancer, sooner or later. Which of course doesn't exclude external interventions, from chemotherapy to resetting your DNA to a previously backed up state.