From: Hal Finney (hal@rain.org)
Date: Wed Dec 09 1998 - 12:15:08 MST
Billy Brown, <bbrown@conemsco.com>, writes:
> This is even better than it sounds. Remember, what we are looking at here
> is the (measured, rather than predicted) life span of people born 70 - 80
> years ago. There is no straitforward way to deduce the actual life
> expectancy of younger people from these numbers, but we can expect that they
> will be substantially better
Actually, from what I understand, these are calculated life spans. They
take the percentage of people dying at each age *today*, and integrate
that information to calculate a predicted lifespan. It is how old you
would live to be if you were born today and your chances of dying at
every age remain exactly the same as they are today.
It is likely that lifespans will increase, although there are some threats
to mortality in the near future, such as antibiotic resistant bacteria,
and harmful organisms being spread by global travel.
Hal
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