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Why We Fall Apart

Posted by timothy on from the ask-chinua dept.

DM_NeoFLeX writes "An article in the September 2004 IEEE spectrum raises some interesting ideas comparing aging in organic organisms to aging in Electronic/Electrical systems. From the article: "The [reliability theory] is so general it can be applied to understanding aging in living organisms...In the ways that we age and die, we are not so different from the machines we build.""

1 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. Actually that would be "how" we fall apart by hey! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why we fall apart is simple.

    Sex.

    If we reproduced by mitosis, we'd be effectively immortal, even better, we'd get up to 2^n chances to survive in the nth generation of offspring.

    Given our specific method of sexual reproduction, you have basically one life to live. Anything that breaks down, any bad mutations (cancer), and that's it. Plus, you have to die to make room for your offspring, which I guess happens with protists and such bacteria as reproduce mainly asexually, but the offspring who you are making room for are arguably you.

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