Why do we age and die?

Originally posted by TheBandit795
It could also be mental. People can appear to age very fast after their spouses had died for example.

(chuckle) I'd have discounted this except for personal experience. Both my spouse and I appear to be years younger than our (younger) siblings and cousins.

I recently went through a battery of rather unpleasant medical tests because of this. The doctor saw some results that were anomalous for someone of my age and as a result I spent about 2 weeks trotting through lab procedures. The results are fine. My body's just a lot younger than is expected.

It's probably genetic. My parents, in their 80's, can pass for early 70's.

But there's a Stargate SG 1 episode where a planet is discovered that is basically a test lab on aging/ evolution for human subjects.

Everything on the planet belongs there, except the humans which have been genetically altered for increased growth and shortened life span.

They typically live seven days (I think) and had kids around day 4. (Something like that). But the point was, it was all normal to them. And the intent was to speed up evolution.

Yeah, I saw that one. There was a transmitter that was sending out a certain wave frequency to which the DNA reacted, if I'm not mistaken. Nice episode.

Originally posted by riffraffalunas
Evolution engineered the limits of cell repair, replacements, divisions, growth hormones, etc etc, for a reason...(its the norm for all known earth lifeforms)

Engineered the limits?
That sounds like there's intelligence behind it.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

[Edited on 18-12-2003 by energy_wave]