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Slowing down aging would also slow down evolutionary selection. As others mentioned, it’s very unclear that evolutionary selection, which optimizes for reproduc
by sologoub 4y ago
Slowing down aging would also slow down evolutionary selection. As others mentioned, it’s very unclear that evolutionary selection, which optimizes for reproduction, would benefit from longevity besides what humans already have - elders living past reproductive age, helping raise following generations. The actual living humans are much more incentivized to solve the longevity problem.
- rafark 4y agoWhy would you need evolutionary selection if we’d be in total control of our species? In theory we’d be able to adapt our bodies as needed, manually. I get it, for example, in botany where genetic diversity is crucial for the survival of a plant species.
- mr_toad 4y agoNot total control. We could engineer away things that might eventually in some future crisis prove to be a deciding factor in our survival. We could easily engineer away genes that might have gone on to outlive us as humans, and then end up outcompeted by them. Or we could engineer ourselves into different variants, and compete with each other. In the end you can’t second guess evolution.