On Mon, 3 Apr 2000 06:43:16 -0400 gordon <[log in to unmask]> writes:
> The best evidence that mother nature begins to care less for us
> after middle age is that we begin to fall apart physically.  If natural
selection
> did not in actuality disfavor old humans vs young humans then we would
not
> lose our vision and our teeth as we grow old.

Ardeith writes:
As far as "Mother Nature" is concerned, nothing is supposed
to be immortal......not animals, not plants, not rocks.   Some
plants are considered "annuals" because they sprout, grow,
and reproduce in one growing season....and then die.  Other
plants take many years to grow to reproductive age, and
then live on and one.......such as oak trees and sequoias.

Animals are "programmed" to die off......this includes the
human animal.......but humans can live long past the time
they reproduce.    Why men should be able to produce
sperm all their lives is a mystery to me.   Once they have
generated a few children to carry on their genetic message,
all that sperm seems to be a waste of resources.......but
the male body has no way of knowing its "seed" has
been passed on.

The female body, OTOH, knows very well that its
genetic message has been read and passed on......
so from a strictly biological point of view, there
seems to be no need for the human female to live
on past the point that her last child is weaned.....

But both males and females are capable of living
long past the age of reproduction.......and it must
have been a "survival positive" in our long
evolution.........humans are *cooperative* omnivorous
predators.......far more so than any of the other
predators in the world.......and as someone said,
human children take a long time to learn the basics
of survival.......human children are not "hard-wired"
as some other animals appear to be.......having the
grand-parental generation around to help with the
gathering of food and the teaching of the young
must have been a necessary factor in our development
.......if this were not so, if this were not "survival positive"
you would not find it happening in human populations
around the world.......

We are programmed to die......we reach a peak of
development, do our reproducing, and begin to
die......but it can take many years, during which
we have much to teach the young...........and it has
only been in the last few generations that the
elder generation has been expected to live apart
from their children and grand-children...........

I think the way we live today is not the way we
evolved to live.......just as the way we eat, is not
the way we evolved to eat..............

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