99% of souvenirs are images, but I'll hold off posting yet another scenic from Idle-Hoe.
---------- Post added 10-05-17 at 01:47 PM ----------
Originally posted by Aslyfox as you requested
Attachment 372239
some one suggested once that once you get beyond the age where you can contribute to the group, biologically speaking, it makes little sense for you to survive because you drain resources. The person suggested that our bodies were originally " designed " to recognize this and " wears down " after a certain age because of that " fact "
remember the book/film " Solvent Green "
Your friend has a slightly distorted idea of the answer. The key to evolution is leaving offspring. Those that leave the most offspring determine what the next generation is like, determine the direction of evolutionary change, and have "won" the evolutionary "competition." The life of any organism can be divided into three major periods: 1) pre-reproductive; 2) reproductive; 3) post-reproductive. It is extremely rare for organisms in the wild to survive into the post-reproductive period, and if they do, they do not last long. BECAUSE, since evolution depends on leaving offspring, once you are no longer reproducing, you are not contributing to the qualities of the next generation. So whatever qualities allowed an individual to live that long cannot be passed on to the next generation. An individual that reproduces once then dies, leaving two offspring, is a much greater evolutionary success that an individual that lives ten times as long, but only leaves one offspring.