I read somewhere that it’s actually an efficient method of nature … babies that won’t make it anyways die early so you waste fewer resources on them. it’s called fail fast
in college, i did a fair amount of number crunching on mortality statistics and the demographic transition. here’s some numbers i remember from the 1700s:
life expectancy: 40
life expectancy at age 20: 72
modern medicine has not added much to our longevity, we’ve just gotten rid of childhood mortality.
I’ve spent more time than I care to admit reading Wikipedia entries on significant people from past centuries. Way too often their life story is full of disease and death. A dozen siblings. All of them suffer the same disease in childhood. Half of them don’t make it to adulthood. Mother dies during childbirth. Father struggles making money from their creative work, dies in a duel. Subject cared for by wealthy uncle. Is affected for the remainder of their life by the lingering effects of the childhood disease. Repeat for the next generation.
The fact that infants dying is the highest by far just shows how cruel nature is without modern medicine and birthing practices
I read somewhere that it’s actually an efficient method of nature … babies that won’t make it anyways die early so you waste fewer resources on them. it’s called fail fast
Funny, when you apply that to biology, I think it changes its name to “eugenics”.
in college, i did a fair amount of number crunching on mortality statistics and the demographic transition. here’s some numbers i remember from the 1700s:
life expectancy: 40
life expectancy at age 20: 72
modern medicine has not added much to our longevity, we’ve just gotten rid of childhood mortality.
Tuberculosis (consumption) was another constant killer, coming in at second.
I’ve spent more time than I care to admit reading Wikipedia entries on significant people from past centuries. Way too often their life story is full of disease and death. A dozen siblings. All of them suffer the same disease in childhood. Half of them don’t make it to adulthood. Mother dies during childbirth. Father struggles making money from their creative work, dies in a duel. Subject cared for by wealthy uncle. Is affected for the remainder of their life by the lingering effects of the childhood disease. Repeat for the next generation.