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How long would whale lifespans be if whales had the same level of medical care as humans? Humans today regular live well beyond our natural lifespans, if we wer

by briga 4y ago

How long would whale lifespans be if whales had the same level of medical care as humans? Humans today regular live well beyond our natural lifespans, if we were all dying at 30 cancer probably wouldn’t be much of an issue

jollyllama 4y ago
>Humans today regular live well beyond our natural lifespans Is this really so? My understanding is that humans in antiquity who survived childhood typically lived to what we would now consider retirement age.
- geraldwhen 4y ago
  Yup. Unfortunately “mean age of death” is most commonly known, but in reality many children died at birth, hence lower mean.
  - etothepii 4y ago
    I think traditionally actuarial tables have always been based on given achieving the age of 5 years.
- sonofhans 4y ago
  You're correct; GP is wrong. Human normal lifespan is and has been about 70 years, once you account for early demise, especially from infant mortality -- https://www.sapiens.org/biology/human-lifespan-history/ https://www.sapiens.org/biology/human-lifespan-history/
  - ravi-delia 4y ago
    A useful corrective, but perhaps also misleading. Humans didn't peacefully keel over at 60, let alone 30, that's true. And death before 20 was indeed so horrifyingly common that it couldn't help but bias the average hard. But mortality was higher at every age, be it from disease, injury, or childbirth. A person of the past would have understood a death at 40 or 50 to be young, but not all that unusual. Most people would know quite a few who died in that range.
karencarits 4y ago
Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow for they quickly pass, and we fly away Psalm 90:10 (probably from about 1000 BC)
p_j_w 4y ago
Do you think that you've come up with this simple explanation but the brightest people in the field have glossed it over?
jjk166 4y ago
Pre-industrial societies have much higher infant mortality but for those who live to adulthood their lifespans are not that much shorter than ours. If you survived early childhood, your odds of getting into your 60s would be pretty good, and plenty of people made it into their 70s. And many whales die of what we would consider old age - typically they get weaker and weaker as they grow old until they reach a point where they are unable to consistently swim to the surface for air, and thus drown. Pretty much what you'd expect if you flooded a nursing home.

by briga 4y ago

jollyllama 4y ago

>Humans today regular live well beyond our natural lifespans Is this really so? My understanding is that humans in antiquity who survived childhood typically lived to what we would now consider retirement age.

geraldwhen 4y ago
Yup. Unfortunately “mean age of death” is most commonly known, but in reality many children died at birth, hence lower mean.
- etothepii 4y ago
  I think traditionally actuarial tables have always been based on given achieving the age of 5 years.
sonofhans 4y ago
You're correct; GP is wrong. Human normal lifespan is and has been about 70 years, once you account for early demise, especially from infant mortality -- https://www.sapiens.org/biology/human-lifespan-history/ https://www.sapiens.org/biology/human-lifespan-history/
- ravi-delia 4y ago
  A useful corrective, but perhaps also misleading. Humans didn't peacefully keel over at 60, let alone 30, that's true. And death before 20 was indeed so horrifyingly common that it couldn't help but bias the average hard. But mortality was higher at every age, be it from disease, injury, or childbirth. A person of the past would have understood a death at 40 or 50 to be young, but not all that unusual. Most people would know quite a few who died in that range.

karencarits 4y ago

Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow for they quickly pass, and we fly away Psalm 90:10 (probably from about 1000 BC)

p_j_w 4y ago

Do you think that you've come up with this simple explanation but the brightest people in the field have glossed it over?

jjk166 4y ago

Pre-industrial societies have much higher infant mortality but for those who live to adulthood their lifespans are not that much shorter than ours. If you survived early childhood, your odds of getting into your 60s would be pretty good, and plenty of people made it into their 70s. And many whales die of what we would consider old age - typically they get weaker and weaker as they grow old until they reach a point where they are unable to consistently swim to the surface for air, and thus drown. Pretty much what you'd expect if you flooded a nursing home.