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People in the past were not all dead by 30. Ancient documents confirm this. In the 24th century BCE, the Egyptian Vizier Ptahhotep wrote verses about the disintegrations of old age. The ancient Greeks classed old age among the divine curses, and their tombstones attest to survival well past 80 years. Ancient artworks and figurines also depict elderly people: stooped, flabby, wrinkled.
This is not the only type of evidence, however. Studies on extant traditional people who live far away from modern medicines and markets, such as Tanzania's Hadza or Brazil's Xilixana Yanomami, have demonstrated that the most likely age at death is far higher than most people assume: it's about 70 years old. One study found that although there are differences in rates of death in various populations and periods, especially with regards to violence, there is a remarkable similarity between the mortality profiles of various traditional peoples.
High infant mortality and inaccuracy at the other end of the age range skew the numbers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by choose another one on Wednesday July 18 2018, @02:06PM (2 children)
"The days of our years are threescore years and ten" - this was known back when Psalm 90 was written.
Thing is, back then when they talked about "how long people usually live" they ignored all the ones who didn't make it out of childhood.
All that has happened since is that people (statisticians) have confused things by applying statistics to whole population and coming out with "life expectancy". Here's the thing, by the time you are old enough to even vaguely understand life expectancy, the most commonly quoted statistics (i.e. at birth) are completely f***ing irrelevant to you.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:28PM
My friend Sonja is a self-employed actuarial consultant. That's a particular kind of Applied Mathematician.
She advises insurance companies on what to charge for their policies.
I'm 54. What is my life expectancy right _now_? I shall pray to Google:
https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html [ssa.gov]
It says I'll die 29.61 years from today, or age 83.61.
When I reach I think it's age 70, or maybe just age 65 I will be required to withdraw from my IRA at a rate determined by my life expectancy at that particular time. That leads me to be concerned that I'll run out of cash long before I die, due to the ever-faster improvements in medical treatments.
Consider that grandpa Crawford was eighty years old when he died from Emphysema after a lifetime of smoking roll-your-own cigarettes.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday July 19 2018, @04:23AM
Life expectancy, even excluding infant mortality, went way down with the agricultural revolution.
And came back up with the industrial revolution and modern medicine, refrigeration, and transport.
But it's true that the period between the beginning of agriculture and the beginnings of the industrial world DID see a big dip in life expectancy. This is down mostly to poor diet. Agriculture initially produces large amounts of staple foodstuffs - which means a large population can be kept from starving - but didn't do any good at all for dietary balance - so nutritional deficiencies became common.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?