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Why do we age?

watsup

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In a nutshell: “Natural selection diminishes after reproductive success because the species will not benefit from members favored for greater longevity.”


Further info: “After performing the miracles that takes us from conception to birth, and then to sexual maturation and adulthood, natural selection was unable to favor the development of a more elementary mechanism that would simply maintain those earlier miracles forever. The manifestations of this failure are called aging.
Natural selection favors animals that are most likely to become reproductively successful by developing better survival strategies and greater reserve capacity in vital systems to better escape predation, disease, accidents, and environmental extremes. Natural selection diminishes after reproductive success because the species will not benefit from members favored for greater longevity. The level of physiological reserve remaining after reproductive maturity determines longevity and evolves incidental to the selection process that acts on earlier developmental events. Physiological reserve does not renew at the same rate that it incurs losses because molecular disorder increases at a rate greater than the capacity for repair.”
 
The shortening of telomeres as cells divide is also a factor in the aging process.
 
Nobody told me that was an option! *L*
It is ageing that causes loss of vigor and health.
Or, the definition of aging is the loss of vigor and health!
 
If that were the case, you would have never been born.
Why? Well, it doesn't matter, because not aging is not the state of the world. Reproduction is though.
 
Why? Well, it doesn't matter, because not aging is not the state of the world. Reproduction is though.
Less aging = less reproduction = less evolution.
 
And you'd likely not exist. Nor the internet. Etc.

Cuz being ageless, undying except by injury or illness, would have caused us to overpopulated and die.
 
In a nutshell: “Natural selection diminishes after reproductive success because the species will not benefit from members favored for greater longevity.”


Further info: “After performing the miracles that takes us from conception to birth, and then to sexual maturation and adulthood, natural selection was unable to favor the development of a more elementary mechanism that would simply maintain those earlier miracles forever. The manifestations of this failure are called aging.
Natural selection favors animals that are most likely to become reproductively successful by developing better survival strategies and greater reserve capacity in vital systems to better escape predation, disease, accidents, and environmental extremes. Natural selection diminishes after reproductive success because the species will not benefit from members favored for greater longevity. The level of physiological reserve remaining after reproductive maturity determines longevity and evolves incidental to the selection process that acts on earlier developmental events. Physiological reserve does not renew at the same rate that it incurs losses because molecular disorder increases at a rate greater than the capacity for repair.”

Every time DNA replicates a little bit of DNA is left off the end, and over time that accumulates. plus, mutations accumulate over time.

And there is no miracles from conception to birth, its biology. Pretty amazing but hardly miracle
 
Less aging = less reproduction = less evolution.
Haven't we not evolved all that much for 200k years? And alligators haven't evolved all that much in 140 million years. Who is to say that we haven't reached our maxim for evolution?
 
Haven't we not evolved all that much for 200k years? And alligators haven't evolved all that much in 140 million years. Who is to say that we haven't reached our maxim for evolution?
Evolutionary changes depend on the environment, among other things. If an organism is adapted to its environment, then there is no stimulus for evolution.
 
Haven't we not evolved all that much for 200k years? And alligators haven't evolved all that much in 140 million years. Who is to say that we haven't reached our maxim for evolution?
We've gotten taller.
 
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