For most of human history, dying young has been a given. From the time the earliest modern humans crawled out of caves until the middle of the 18th century, average life expectancy hovered around 27 years. Those lucky enough to grow up and have children watched most of them die. If disease, hunger or killer infections didn’t get you, marauding neighbors probably did.
By 1900, improved nutrition and basic medicine had increased life expectancy in the United States to 47. Still, infant death was common; great-grandparents were not.
Then came antibiotics, sanitation, pediatric immunizations and universal health education. In a little more than a century, life expectancy increased 30 years—more years, Stanford researcher Laura Carstensen points out, than were gained “in all previous millennia combined.” A child born in the United States today can expect to reach age 77 or more. Soon, living to 100 will be no big deal.
And that’s a problem.
Celkom zaujímavý článok (celá verzia) na Stanford Magazine webíku, na ktorý nadväzuje aj príspevok Deathismus v kostce na jednom z mojich obľúbených serveríkov - transhumanismus.cz.
Celkom zaujúmavý je aj sidebar k tomuto článku: How it Feels to Get Old a ďalší sidebar Obesity Among the Young nielen o tučných amíkoch.
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