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Some fish live beyond 100 and get healthier as they age

nationalgeographic.com

81–90 of 154 posts

Re: Some fish live beyond 100 and get healthier as they age

#82
post #69
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't cancer rates tend to correlate positively with number of cells?

No; elephants are a good example of animals with relatively low cancer rates.

so it's a matter of density (which is probably what grandparent was hinting at)

Re: Some fish live beyond 100 and get healthier as they age

#83
post #80
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately he doesn't address overpopulation. Admittedly, birth rates are declining rapidly.

There is an entire universe to fill, overpopulation is just as worthy of worrying about as is running out of numbers.

Currently there is only Earth to fill.

Re: Some fish live beyond 100 and get healthier as they age

#84
post #61
post #26

> Buffalofish can go decades between successful reproductions because they require very specific environmental conditions—most of which are still unknown—to procreate. That’s why the fish evolved to live so long: It’s an evolutionary adaptation to account for long periods without breeding, according to Lackmann. This reminds me of "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" by Nick Bostrom [1]. Senescence is engraved in our bra…

I think Altered Carbon brought up the most chilling view of a world without death. In that exploration only the rich are immortal, because the poor can’t afford immortality. Someone being rich for hundreds of years will only cement their their power, position, and their perspective. How do we feel if Rockefeller were still alive and powerful? What if our old kings never died? If any of them had a sexual perversion, w…

> what if only a tyrannical nobility could benefit from this new technology, and it stayed that way forever?!

Yeah it goes without saying that's a bad thing, for any technology. That shouldn't convince anyone that Logan's Run is preferable.

Re: Some fish live beyond 100 and get healthier as they age

#86
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Altered Carbon brought up the most chilling view of a world without death. In that exploration only the rich are immortal, because the poor can’t afford immortality. Someone being rich for hundreds of years will only cement their their power, position, and their perspective. How do we feel if Rockefeller were still alive and powerful? What if our old kings never died? If any of them had a sexual perversion, w…

This is the premise of In Time (film) too.

Yeah, but Altered Carbon does it immeasurably better from all angles.

Re: Some fish live beyond 100 and get healthier as they age

#87
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Altered Carbon brought up the most chilling view of a world without death. In that exploration only the rich are immortal, because the poor can’t afford immortality. Someone being rich for hundreds of years will only cement their their power, position, and their perspective. How do we feel if Rockefeller were still alive and powerful? What if our old kings never died? If any of them had a sexual perversion, w…

Why specifically point out a sexual perversion. It seems like the least of the bad things an authority figure like a king could do.

Epstein.

Re: Some fish live beyond 100 and get healthier as they age

#88
post #61
post #26

> Buffalofish can go decades between successful reproductions because they require very specific environmental conditions—most of which are still unknown—to procreate. That’s why the fish evolved to live so long: It’s an evolutionary adaptation to account for long periods without breeding, according to Lackmann. This reminds me of "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" by Nick Bostrom [1]. Senescence is engraved in our bra…

I think Altered Carbon brought up the most chilling view of a world without death. In that exploration only the rich are immortal, because the poor can’t afford immortality. Someone being rich for hundreds of years will only cement their their power, position, and their perspective. How do we feel if Rockefeller were still alive and powerful? What if our old kings never died? If any of them had a sexual perversion, w…

This is dependent on a world where immortality is expensive because it's difficult to actually make someone immortal rather than because it's difficult to figure out how to make someone immortal. For all we know, immortality is as simple as a one-time injection into an egg cell, and the challenge is almost entirely in figuring out what to inject.

Also, how much is the death of bad individuals actually contributing to making the world a better place? It seems to me like the various abuses of robber-barons and tyrants past and present are perpetuated by institutions built around them rather than their own personal capacity to affect the world. A king in exile on a remote island or a Rockefeller driven to bankruptcy can remain unchanged as a person while losing virtually all of their capacity to impose their will on the world, while a kingdom or corporation can keep going centuries after the death of its leader if conditions stay favorable.

Re: Some fish live beyond 100 and get healthier as they age

#89
post #8

"The otolith analysis revealed that about 90 percent of Apache Lake’s buffalofishes were more than 85 years old". That sounds very fishy. Perhaps they just have some sort of genetic code that make them create those new layers of calcium carbonate structures more often than once a year.

Fishy

Re: Some fish live beyond 100 and get healthier as they age

#90
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Altered Carbon brought up the most chilling view of a world without death. In that exploration only the rich are immortal, because the poor can’t afford immortality. Someone being rich for hundreds of years will only cement their their power, position, and their perspective. How do we feel if Rockefeller were still alive and powerful? What if our old kings never died? If any of them had a sexual perversion, w…

I wonder if people really would ossify after hundreds of years or eventually learn to be hyper-adaptable. Current centenarians are a bad example, because their brains and bodies are falling apart. Some sci fi suggests that the fact of our living and dying in just one century means we die as immature children. Maybe it takes a thousand years or ten thousand years to “know thyself” to any useful degree.

I think people stop adapting lots earlier than the time their body starts breaking down.

In fact, the body breaking down might be a reason people become adaptable.

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