Comment by zelphirkalt
Comment by zelphirkalt 10 months ago
Because if nothing else gets you, cancer risk rises as you get older. At some point it gets you, I guess.
Comment by zelphirkalt 10 months ago
Because if nothing else gets you, cancer risk rises as you get older. At some point it gets you, I guess.
This sounds good, but it can't be right. There are animals that live centuries. Greenland sharks may live up to 500 years, for example. There are trees that live millenia.
Turns out they have lower mutation rate which helps them. Their chances are much lower, but still not zero. https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/sharks-cancer-secret-al...
Can you expand on that subject? What are the traits of warm blooded species that lead to higher cancer rates?
I don't think prolonging the life in a biological body is going to be the winning route. We will have to Star Trek it up and transfer our consciousness to computers. That, or replace parts, maybe even the entirety of our bodies with a machine that can be maintained and repaired rather than age.
Yes, a few types are basically a numbers game. We're continuously successfully not getting them every day. But the longer we live and not die of other things, the higher chance there is of losing that game. And we're actually getting quite good and not dying of other things.
Then again, cancer treatments and vaccines are progressing recently, so that's good news.