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I agree with your general point, but much of the growth in life expectancy is driven by the massive drops in infant mortality. In general, modern advances have
by disgruntledphd2 6y ago
I agree with your general point, but much of the growth in life expectancy is driven by the massive drops in infant mortality.
In general, modern advances have maybe added 10+ years to an average adult lifespan. The quality of the added lifespan is harder to assess though.
- _qulr 6y ago> The quality of the added lifespan is harder to assess though. Is it? In a sense, the choice is still available to adopt the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, if you wanted. I don't know many who would want to do that.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoI'm not aware of any plains with bountiful mammoth and fruit trees that I can colonise with my hunter-gatherer tribe, but then I'm not an expert in Google maps ;) Nonetheless, i'm not sure that the last ten years of my Dad's life (suffering from vascular dementia) were particularly good for him (I know that they were super hard for the rest of us). I think the general point is that it's hard to trade-off the quality of those extra years, which is the point I was trying (unsuccessfully, it appears) to make.
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoEven that increase in life expectancy is dubious, consider this passage from Psalms written in 1489 bc, which can basically be said about Americans today. > Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures
- cmdshiftf4 6y agoI'm becoming more convinced that the whole "but everyone's living longer!" thing is nothing more than another gaslight attempt to ensure we continue to love our betters.