Re: Medeival life

On Aug 12, 4:51 am, Arkalen <skiz...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm not sure anything in biology says it's impossible to have
immortal, always-in-perfect condition (because they can regenerate
indefinitely) bodies. It's just that it's a lot of expense for a body
that will die in an accident at some point anyway, so evolution
prefers to optimize for making children.

Not sure about that. IIRC here are animals that are immortal (I think
single-celled), but they have been outbred/out-succeeded by the normal
die-of-old-age species.

For one thing, such a population may not get enough gene-shuffling,
quickly enough to adapt for changing conditions. For another, you may
get genetic defects from in-breeding. (Just some ideas off the top of
my head here, no pretensions to real wisdom). Bottom line is that
immortality does not seem to be a trait that nature is keen on
selecting for, let alone paying extra for. Evolution really doesn't
care about individuals, only species.

Which is why I think chicken/cows/pigs and sundry livestock have found
the second-best evolutionary niche at this point.

.

Relevant Pages

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