Have you ever stopped and thought about your ancestors? Maybe perhaps when learning about evolution you thought about what it much have been like to live as hunter-gatherers, without the technology or medicine or any of the advancements that we have today. You may have thought about those things, but did you ever consider their life span?
Though it's a well know fact that we humans evolved from apes, you may not know that apes currently have 2 times a shorter life span than hunter-gatherer groups today who lack the medicine and technology that we have in "industrialized" civilizations. Studies have also been done that show that hunter- gatherer groups today, who live in a similar way as the hunter-gatherers way long before us, have much higher mortality rates than those who live in industrialized countries such as the U.S. Many scientists believe that this increase in life span is due to all the amazing and influential advancements in technology and medicine that have occurred over the past hundreds of years, especially in the last few decades.
I think that it's great that we are increasing our life spans with technology, and it amazes me how much of an impact medical and technological advancements have made in our society.
People always associate the word technology with smartphones and televisions and video games, but they never realize that technology is such a broad and vast idea. Basically everything around you is technology in some way or another. The chair you're possibly sitting on is technology, and so is the bowl you could have eaten cereal from this morning.
This article opened my eyes and made me realize that so many of the things I, and you, use everyday are fascinating, and they aid us a lot, especially modern medicine. It was interesting to me how simple ideas and our curiosity led to world around us, which all leads back to us being able to live longer and sustain happier and healthier lives. I believe that this article is relatable to not only me, but to practically the whole population of the world. Such simple technologies are what are allowing us to live longer lives, and that, is amazing!
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Living longer than our ancestors can be beneficial because we can do a lot more than what we could do in the past. Before, diseases and war were all disadvantages to life, and most of these problems have been solved, enabling us to research into the future. Maybe one day we all can live forever and maybe another day we can be forever young.
ReplyDeleteanother thing I wonder is whether it is possible someone in the past got lucky enough to have a massive life span. They may have gotten lucky, not been eaten got diseases, or been killed, queen Elizabeth the first lived to 120, and that was a while ago, so who knows.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice that we get to live longer, but how much will the average lifespan increase at this rate of production of new technology? This is making overpopulation an even more severe problem.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing that our life spans are increasing so much because of technology. Its great that we get to live longer and your article was very interesting. It makes me wonder how long the average lifespan will be in the future.
ReplyDeleteEvolution is an amazing concept that is still not even completely understood by scientists today. Because evolution permitted humans to develop newer technologies that allowed them to live longer (fire, medicine, integration systems, etc.) we are able to learn more about our ancestors and ourselves and continue to make more advancements to civilizations, which is evident with all the new iPhone models and hypo-thermal jackets for the winter. I wonder what else we will advance on and produce in upcoming years.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the development of technology has benefited our society in many ways, I think it has many drawbacks as well. For example, as Ally previously mentioned, the production of new technology could create issues with overpopulation. Not only that, but the development of technology has also caused problems in the environment, and while it has increased human lifespans, it has also caused many species of other animals to go extinct.
ReplyDeleteDevelopment of technology has allowed us live longer lives, but what about other organisms? Other organisms are affected by all the new technologies that we have created and this could both lead to extinction of prominent species as well as affect and deteriorate our environment.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I find this too be a lovable dream, it frightens me to think that there could one day be the possibility of living forever. Our Earth is already highly populated as it is, imagine if every person on the planet didn't die. Then you had kids who didn't die, and they also had kids who didn't die, the cycle goes on and on. Before too long, there will no longer be any beautiful places left I the world. I wouldn't want to live in a world like that. This isn't to say that humans living longer than their ancestors is a bad thing, but I fear for our future if we only continue to live longer and longer lives such as mentioned about Queen Elizabeth.
ReplyDeleteAlthough you mentioned that humans today general live a longer life than our ancestors, this is just on average. The majority of people do in fact live longer, but we do not take into account the numerous lives which are taken at young ages. Accidents such as car crashes come with a cost, showing how technology sometimes does not extend our lives.
ReplyDeleteI have always thought about this question and I always find myself wondering that if we are living longer than our ancestors by a large time frame, then could humans reach incredible ages like 200? With the evolution of technology, I think that maybe in the future years this will be possible, along with the many other amazing things technology may bring us.
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ReplyDeleteI never really thought about what technology was, I always thought it was robots, phones and electronics but never something simpler like a table. This article definitely will change my outlook on how simple everyday things were made. I never really connected a persons lifespan with technology, this makes me think science is all interconnected.
ReplyDeleteYour article discusses the benefits of technology because it seems to increase the life span of a human. As our society is growing more and more dependent on technology in all aspects of life, do you think there will be any negative or harmful effects of technology?
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