--- Ronn!Blankenship <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Deborah Harrell wrote: > >--- Robert Seeberger wrote: > > > > >http://architecture.mit.edu/house_n/web/resources/articles/lifeinthefuture/MIRACLES%20OF%20THE%20NEXT%20FIFTY%20YEARS.htm > > > > > > The year 2000 as viewed from 1950 > > > >"...Tuberculosis in all of its forms is cured as > >easily as pneumonia was cured at mid-century.... > >Even in 1950 physicians did not know exactly how a > >piece of beefsteak is converted by the body into > >muscle and energy�the process technically known as > >metabolism. The physician of 2000 knows just what > diet > >is best for a patient. This knowledge, coupled with > >his knowledge of hormones, enables him to treat old > >age as a degenerative disease. Men and women of 70 > in A.D. 2000 look as if they were 40..."
> ><LOL> > >Well, then they really did think that they'd > figured > >out how to defeat microbes...but they forgot that > >*artificial selection* is even more potent than > >natural selection at forcing change. > > > Actually, I suspect that many of today's > 70-year-olds are as healthy as the > 40-year-olds who lived when the article was written. I don't think there's a 30-year gap, but certainly we know how to take care of ourselves better now. If people quite smoking and wore sunscreen SPF 30+ when outdoors, they would sure _look_ better as well as be healthier too. > (If nothing else, recall that the reason the > retirement age for Social > Security was set at 65 was because at the time > relatively few people would > live long enough to draw any benefits . . . ) I don't recall when Social Security was started... The 'average American' life expectancy in 1950 was ~68, higher for women and lower for blacks; in 2000, it's almost 77, similar varience WRT gender and race. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/pdf/nvsr51_03tb12.pdf (the table is at the 'top' of the file) Wow -- in 1900, it was ~47 for whites, and only mid-30s for blacks! By 1930, it was about 60(W) and 48(B). That's a huge difference in just 100 years. (I think women's lifespans started to go up as obsetrical care improved, and childbirth became less hazardous.) Debbi who is very glad to be alive *now* and not *then* __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
