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Aug 26 2012 10:11am
Why do we die?
Why do we age?

What is aging of cells, and why does it happen?

Why dont we live in a moment where cells have evolved to not age anymore?
Why didnt the cells have yet evolved to immortality?

Why?

Who says in the future our cells will not evolve to a point of regenerating themselves and we never age?
Why do we grow? Why dont we just stay babies? (evolution I know) So why didnt we evolve enough to reach immortality?

Why do we live in this moment of evolution and not another?

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Aug 26 2012 10:48am
inb4milajovovichmovie
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Aug 26 2012 12:21pm
Why do we die?

Because if we didn't, the world would become unsustainable and we would die from other factors.

Why do we age?

Telomeres. Instead of explaining what's going on with that, I'm going to give you a link to browse at your leisure. But as a quick and dirty: DNA replicates from the '5 to '3 prime direction. Because of this, some of this telomere is lost during replication. As replication continues, the telomere will eventually cease to exist and the cell will under go apoptosis (self induced suicide). As this continues to happen we will eventually lose our somatic cells and be unable to repair damages to our bodies. From that, we appear ragged and will eventually die.

http://www.news-medical.net/health/Telomere-What-are-Telomeres.aspx

What is aging of cells, and why does it happen?

See above.

Why dont we live in a moment where cells have evolved to not age anymore?

There are cells that do not age. They are called cancer cells.

Why didnt the cells have yet evolved to immortality?

Cancer cells.

Why?

They regenerate their telomere using an enzyme called telomerase.

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101128/full/news.2010.635.html

Who says in the future our cells will not evolve to a point of regenerating themselves and we never age?

No one can "say" either or, but immortal cells are a huge problem.

Why do we grow? Why dont we just stay babies? (evolution I know) So why didnt we evolve enough to reach immortality?

We grow from our bodies switching genes on and off, stimulating growth of various parts of our bodies. If we didn't grow, then we would not have a very sporting chance at reproduction.

Again, immortality is bad and goes against the established biological function of life.

Why do we live in this moment of evolution and not another?

Um... Because you were born into this time and not another time?

The factors for this question are limitless, so you can't really answer it justly.
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Aug 26 2012 12:28pm
Quote (piddywiffle @ Aug 26 2012 12:21pm)
Why do we die?

Because if we didn't, the world would become unsustainable and we would die from other factors.

Why do we age?

Telomeres.  Instead of explaining what's going on with that, I'm going to give you a link to browse at your leisure.  But as a quick and dirty:  DNA replicates from the '5 to '3 prime direction.  Because of this, some of this telomere is lost during replication.  As replication continues, the telomere will eventually cease to exist and the cell will under go apoptosis (self induced suicide).  As this continues to happen we will eventually lose our somatic cells and be unable to repair damages to our bodies.  From that, we appear ragged and will eventually die.

http://www.news-medical.net/health/Telomere-What-are-Telomeres.aspx

What is aging of cells, and why does it happen?

See above.

Why dont we live in a moment where cells have evolved to not age anymore?

There are cells that do not age.  They are called cancer cells.

Why didnt the cells have yet evolved to immortality?

Cancer cells.

Why?

They regenerate their telomere using an enzyme called telomerase.

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101128/full/news.2010.635.html

Who says in the future our cells will not evolve to a point of regenerating themselves and we never age?

No one can "say" either or, but immortal cells are a huge problem.

Why do we grow? Why dont we just stay babies? (evolution I know) So why didnt we evolve enough to reach immortality?

We grow from our bodies switching genes on and off, stimulating growth of various parts of our bodies.  If we didn't grow, then we would not have a very sporting chance at reproduction.

Again, immortality is bad and goes against the established biological function of life.

Why do we live in this moment of evolution and not another?

Um... Because you were born into this time and not another time?

The factors for this question are limitless, so you can't really answer it justly.


Immortality is not bad, and there is no established function of life outside of constant reproduction.

This post was edited by AEtheric on Aug 26 2012 12:28pm
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Aug 26 2012 02:20pm
Quote (AEtheric @ Aug 26 2012 12:28pm)
Immortality is not bad, and there is no established function of life outside of constant reproduction.


And when we continually populate the world with immortal beings?

Can you fathom the population count if we did not age and die?
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Aug 26 2012 02:38pm
Quote (piddywiffle @ Aug 26 2012 03:20pm)
And when we continually populate the world with immortal beings?

Can you fathom the population count if we did not age and die?


if we are speaking about biological immortality we would just be more violent.

murder would be the biggest factor in keeping the population down.
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Aug 26 2012 03:04pm
Quote (Subwoofer @ Aug 26 2012 02:38pm)
if we are speaking about biological immortality we would just be more violent.

murder would be the biggest factor in keeping the population down.


Murder would become a necessity for survival as we all vie for resources.
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Aug 26 2012 03:34pm
Quote (piddywiffle @ Aug 26 2012 08:20pm)
And when we continually populate the world with immortal beings?

Can you fathom the population count if we did not age and die?


I don't think there is a human on this earth who can mentally grasp the amount of people that are alive at this moment.
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Aug 26 2012 04:00pm
Quote (piddywiffle @ Aug 26 2012 04:04pm)
Murder would become a necessity for survival as we all vie for resources.


yep but we are good at it so thats not really a problem.
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