Current views on Aging

Status: Draft Epistemic status: Weak This is a rough attempt at trying to make sense of why we age.

Observations:

1. Aging (the increase in mortality and vitality of an organism [like humans] over time) is:
1. Observed in some, but not all species
2. Varies significantly across species, and somewhat within a species
3. Is either:
1. Exponential (humans)
1. These species have a consistent maximum lifespan, without exceptions
2. Non-existent
1. ?
3. Negative (Trees)
1. These species have power law distributed offspring (most kids come from a few individuals)
2. Aging organisms go through three phases
1. Growth (cell to “gerostate alpha” or your prime years)
2. High fertility and vitality
3. Rapid Aging
4. Aged individuals have
1. More
1. Mortality
2. Frailty
3. Experience
4. Disease
2. Less
1. Fertility
2. Strength
3. Cognitive function
4. Social bonds
5. Height
6. Injury recovery
3. Same
1. ?
2. Eye color?
3. Variance across species is high, and even species very genetically similar

1. Aged individuals are worse at biological repair, and therefore have more internal damage
2. There must be more than pure damage: if there is just a larger accumulation, we would see a wider variance in lifespan within a species, and a lower variance across species.

The Planned Obsolescence Theory of Aging

1. Aging is a dynamic property species control to optimize survival
2. They do this by slightly reducing their own repair rate (probably at the bioelectrical or transcriptomic level)

• Current views on Aging
• Observations:
• The Planned Obsolescence Theory of Aging