How Long Can We Live?

The human lifespan might be limited, in part, because natural selection just stops working late in life.

LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Mortality plateau: the leveling out of the mortality rate that is observed at late ages in various species

CREDITS
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Script Writer: Kate Yoshida
Script Editor: Alex Reich and David Goldenberg
Video Illustrator: Arcadi Garcia Rius
Video Director: David Goldenberg and Emily Elert
Video Narrator: Emily Elert
With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Alex Reich, Ever Salazar, Peter Reich
Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

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OUR LINKS
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REFERENCES
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De Grey, A (Sept 2016, personal communication)

Rose, M. (Sept 2016, personal communication)

[MinuteEarth]

Fun Fact: humans today are living, on average, about twice as long as they did in the late 1800s, thanks to stuff like medicine and sanitation. But the OLDEST old people on Earth are only living a few years longer than they did a century ago. So something seems to be limiting the human lifespan. The question is, what?

[smallpoly]

"One lucky human will live to the ripe old age of 127". Oh crap. Not only are we living in a simulation, it's one running on 8-bit hardware.

[DaHaiZhu]

" If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made. Very few people die past that age" - George Burns
He just made it past 100, but died anyway ...

[Save_Da_Bees]

Scientifically speaking, birthdays are healthy. The more of them you have, the longer you live.

[jaridkeen]

So your telling me if i live past 100 consistently i should start playing the lottery because the odds are in my favor.

[blackchoco_]

2:35 There are EXACTLY 127 candles in the cake. Nice attention to detail 👌

[nicholask]

This video is full of references to The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and that's awesome

[IHonkEverything]

2:30 in left to right
Unknown, Einstein, Obi Wan, Muriel Bahd, Eustace Bahd, Ana(overwatch), Dumbledore, Mr burns
Mole man, unknown, Old man from UP, Unknown, Unknown, Master Roshi

[mroctavio]

This video was absolutely funny, the comedic effect on the death just simply poking the old lady and the fact that death is inevitable and the characters knew, was great.

[paradox...]

Our lives are sponsored by Squarespace

[DavidAllen-pxgr]

In theory, one could use gene editing techniques to make it so that the body loses none of its repair mechanisms with age, allowing people to live forever, so long as they don't get hurt in other ways. This is mostly a concept for how lone one can live in our current state.

[JustinY.]

Well, if you reject your humanity, you can apparently live forever.

[speedybeattie]

I LOVE the Master Roshi reference drawing at 2:31 for examples of old people! Nice job on Mr. Burns and Mole Man from Simpsons, Grampa Pickles from Rugrats, Dumbledor from Harry Potter, Muriel from Curage the Cowardly Dog, Obi Wan Kinobi from Star Wars, and I'm sure the others are famous characters also that I'm just not familiar with. Nice detail work.

[zxqwerxz]

2:30

References I recognizes are Hans Moleman, Ana Amari, Dumbledore, Mr. Burns, An Old Maester from GoT (?), Obi-Wan, The couple from Courage the Cowardly Dog, Einstein (?). That's all I got.

[keiracopeland]

I LOVE YOU MINUTE EARTH!!! You guys are so educational and enjoyable. You make learning fun (well, it was fun for me to begin with, but the people that I've told about you love you guys) and I hope that many more people find you and you improve their lives, education wise anyway.

[NWRIBronco]

I appreciate the focus on qualitative shifts in factors impacting "death rate" as one ages. I'm a little less into the flavor of genetic determinism and teleology - natural selection is a useful tool for thinking about how systems change without intention, and also life is a little more complex than the bubble analogy captures here.

[proxitocin]

Even if I live till I'm 127 which is 112 years to go! I still won't catch the half life 3 release

[TommoCarroll]

Well all I can say is I hope when I inevitably choke to death on gummy bears people just say I was killed by bears and leave it at that 🐻

[Ascertivus]

Lol using Darwin to throw away the pieces of DNA at 0:54 was brilliant.

[jeretoon]

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I love minute earth
And so do you