Narrative
There are two theories to why we age. 1. Copy Degradation: The cells in our bodies are constantly dying and replacing themselves. We recycle our bodies every seven years. The replacement cells are never as good as the originals, so every seven years we become an inferior duplicate of ourselves. 2. Oxidation: The oxygen molecules that we need to live contain little things called ‘free radicals’ that cause the molecules in our bodies to oxidize, or ‘rust’. So, the matter in our bodies is rusting, breaking down, falling apart.
Either way, it takes time to burn away. We have time to make the story of our lives whatever we want and, if you think about it, having a finish line makes it kind of a fun game.
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1 comment:
I think we age (and then die -- that's the key part) because if we didn't, there would be too goddamn many of us. If you're going to reproduce, you have to die or you have overpopulation PDQ. The alternative is to be immortal, eternal beings, but with no reproductive powers. But it's hard to evolve from the primordial ooze unless you reproduce. So the system doesn't work without aging.
The more interesting question as far as I'm concerned is why do we have to sleep? There is no obvious answer. You would think if you keep eating, you'd have enough energy to keep going. But no. Sleeping also has to be an evolutionary disadvantage in some sense. I mean, you're easier to kill if you're asleep. Although there might be energy-saving aspects to sleep that help us get through periods where food is scarce.
Hmmm.
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