| json_metadata | "{"app":"Musing","appTags":["Life"],"appCategory":"Life","appTitle":"Why can’t we be forever young both body and mind?","appBody":"<p>We age physically because errors accumulate in the extremely complex machinery that our cells, tissues, organs and we as a whole organism are. There are error correction mechanisms in the bodies of all living organisms but they are imperfect and come with costs. Some of that cost is in the form of redundancy of information and some is in extra energy needed to power the error correction mechanisms.</p>\n<p>The basic unit of selection in evolution is genetic information. The genetic information stored in DNA molecules determines the structure and behavior of its carrier organisms. It seems likely to me that humans, like any organisms, have a typical life span because that's a local optimum from the point of view of the ability of the genetic information that they carry to survive and spread. What I'm saying is that it may not improve the chances of success of humans as a species for human bodies to use any more resources to prolong the lives of individual humans. Maybe the human species is better adapted by having individual humans live long enough to pass on their wisdom to the younger generation and even help their children look after their own children in the critical early stages than to keep them around any longer. </p>\n<p>The existence of menopause and the importance of older, postmenopausal women in non-reproductive roles is an example of the trade-off I'm talking about. It seems that humans are biologically better adapted by having the reproductive capabilities of its females stop at mid life. Older women can be very beneficial to children as grandmothers instead of subjecting their aging bodies to any more pregnancies and having copies made out of their already damaged DNA instead of reproduction being the province of healthy young women. Probably having one older non-reproducing generation is enough to provide the maximum benefit. It is most likely better for the success of the species to have most of its adult population young and vigorous than to prolong the lives of its elders - at a considerable cost incurred by having more formidable DNA correction mechanisms in place. Our DNA is probably safer transferred into new bodies at their early adulthood rather than being kept intact in any older ones.</p>\n<p><br></p>","appDepth":2,"appParentPermlink":"f3eu2uznx","appParentAuthor":"tikatarot","musingAppId":"aU2p3C3a8N","musingAppVersion":"1.1","musingPostType":"answer"}" |
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