i've been wondering a bit about cancer and other blights of age.
it occurs to me that (to put it badly) evolution cares less about old people
than children and those in their child-rearing years. evolution doesn't give
a damn about what happens to you after you've raised your kids, or only
cares insofar as it affects the survival of the kids.
though it would seem evident that since parents normally protect their
children more or less as long as the parents live, the longer parents live,
the more likely the children are to survive.
so, in that sense, evolution does give a damn about those past their
child-rearing age.
nontheless, it does seem likely that many of the blights of age are messes
evolution has never had to clean up because they haven't affected the
ability of people to procreate and haven't had a significant overall affect
on the ability of the children to survive.
of course evolution is not something that gives a damn about anything. as i
said, i put it badly. but you see what i mean.
ja
http://vispo.com
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