OT: We are very lucky

[williamwright]

I had a thought this morning, as a lay there too idle to get up. So just now I googled to get my facts straight. We represent the 300,000th generation of humans (OK, I do. My kids are 300,001st; their kids are the 300,002nd.) But until only about seven generations ago almost everyone died before they were fifty, and many died in their thirties. Go back further and few survived beyond their twenties. So aren't we incredibly lucky? We had a one in 43,000 chance of being humans who can expect a long lifespan.

Bill

[Max Demian]

Doesn't mean we are happy.

Based on my family history, I expect to live to 90 or so. But what then?

[alan_m]

Ken Ham says the age of the Universe to be about 6,000 years

[Fredxx]

The perceived short life of adults was largely due to infant mortality having a dominant effect of average life expectancy.

Have a look at:

"For example, an 1871 census in the UK (the first of its kind, but personal data from other censuses dates back to 1841 and numerical data back to 1801) found the average male life expectancy as being 44, but if infant mortality is subtracted, males who lived to adulthood averaged 75 years. The present life expectancy in the UK is 77 years for males and

81 for females".

So nothing has really changed.

[ss]

+1

[Jimmy Stewart ...]

some of us are even luckier and are on borrowed time...

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I see, well the problem is of course if we were born back then we would think the short life span was normal and probably all go to church to pray for our salvation when we die. Now however most people live long enough to have got fed up with living and the thought of living forever in some afterlife is not quite so attractive. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Ha ha ha... Has he fallen of the edge of the world yet? Brian

[jon]

Is that a reference to the jewish snake oil salesman.

[alan_m]

Go back further with the bible. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years....

[alan_m]

No. he is still waiting for the flood - he has built an Ark

[tim...]

what do you mean by that?

what happens afterwards

or

what do you do with yourself doddering around like a 90 YO

My dad lived to 86 (I think) beyond 80 he was virtually house bound. Is that a life?

Fortunately, none of our family suffered from dementia

[charles]

I'm 80 - only housebound because of lockdown - but I try to get a 3+ mile walk done most days.

>

[Max Demian]

Yeah; even being a healthy 95-year-old would hardly be worth it, from what I've seen of people of that age and more.

That's rather soon. My father lived to 92, though, towards the end, found it hard to go far due to heart problems (which are a family trait).

My mother had it and died at 87. I don't know if it's hereditary.

[alan_m]

The ark cost around 100 million dollars to build and is 510 feet long,

85 feet wide, and 51 feet high. It took a team of over a 1000 to build over a period of 18 months. According to Ken, Noah and his sons build the equivalent sized ark in around the same time, however, they didn't also have to build the large restaurant and gift shop :)

[GB]

You do your 3 mile walk inside the house?

[GB]

Thank you for debunking the myth.

It's interesting that a life expectancy table was compiled from old Roman tombstones, and these showed much the same result. Lots of deaths under age 15, but people who survived to 15 mostly lived to around 70. Of course, the average was indeed 30, but that has been misinterpreted.

[Andrew]

The ONS website has an interesting interactive graph showing the percentage of the population over 65 and over 80 from 1996 to

2036.

Looks like we need a global pandemic to slow down or reverse this trend. Oh dear.

[GB]

?Nature has, in reality, bestowed no greater blessing on man than the shortness of life,? Pliny remarks. ?The senses become dull, the limbs torpid, the sight, the hearing, the legs, the teeth, and the organs of digestion, all of them die before us?? He can think of only one person, a musician who lived to 105, who had a pleasantly healthy old age. (Pliny himself reached barely half that; he?s thought to have died from volcanic gases during the eruption of Mt Vesuvius, aged 56).

[Andrew]

And other peoples money :-(