New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: If agelessness was genetically possible, wouldn't it have evolved?

Ask HN: If agelessness was genetically possible, wouldn't it have evolved?
4 by graderjs | 5 comments on Hacker News.
For example, if there was a human or animal genetic pattern that made the organism not age, wouldn't that organism have created many offspring (in its long life) and the mutation have spread? Does the fact that we don't (appear to) observe any ageless vertebrates or humans mean that it's probably not a genetic problem? Alternately...is it possible that there are adaptive genetic traits that have not yet evolved, but will evolve in future, or is life on Earth already so old that everything that will exist has likely already evolved?

Comments