From: Samael (Samael@dial.pipex.com)
Date: Wed Dec 09 1998 - 06:04:18 MST
-----Original Message-----
From: Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>
To: extropians@extropy.com <extropians@extropy.com>
Date: 09 December 1998 12:37
Subject: Re: Life expectancy increasing rapidly
>Robin Hanson <hanson@econ.berkeley.edu> writes:
>
>> The AP/Albany Times Union reports that the "most dramatic
>> improvement was among black males, whose life expectancy
>> increased by 1.2 years to 67.3 years." Life expectancy for black
>> females increased by half a year to 74.7, and for white females
>> by one-tenth of a year to 79.3. White males saw a four-tenths of
>> a year improvement to 74.3 years.
>
>Still a bit away from the breakeven point, but interesting enough. A
>4/10 increase in life expectancy per year would, assuming steady
>progress give an expectation of 0.4x + (0.4^2) x + (0.4^3)x + ... =
>1.66 x more years if x are the numbers of "naturally" remaining years
>for a given person, since life extending progress would occur during
>the extra years given by the initial developments.
But, mostly the amount they increased by went down as the current length of
time went up. Which seems to indicate a diminishing return.
I think that most current medical technologies are merely increasing our
lifespansd towards our natural limits. I look forward to the future
treatment that increases those limits dramatically (or removes them
entirely).
Samael
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