Originally Posted by Superkid11
I thought age was just entropy, cells can't keep repairing degraded cells.
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From Wikipedia:
Some researchers (specifically biogerontologists) are treating aging as a disease. As genes that have an effect on aging are discovered, aging is increasingly being regarded in a similar fashion to other genetic conditions, potentially "treatable."
Indeed, aging is not an unavoidable property of life. Instead, it is the result of a genetic program. Numerous species show no sign of aging, the best known being perennial plants (e.g. trees) which can live thousands of years and be multiplied by cuttings without limit. Most microbes and some animals, e.g. amphibians and large fish, also seem to be free of aging. In these species, adults constantly reproduce only to destroy their young, usually by eating them. Therefore, "immortal" species evolve more slowly than "mortal" species.
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Originally Posted by Superkid11
I mean, computers and cars age but they don't have any genetic programming to do so.
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They also have no genetic programming to repair or replace their parts, unlike we do.
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Aging is believed to be favoured by natural selection because it accelerates the evolution rate of a species by increasing the number of generations per unit of time. By dying away, the old individuals liberate the resources for their offsprings, thus increasing their chance of survival. Essentially, aging is the result of investing resources in reproduction rather than maintenance of the body, the "Disposable Soma" theory.
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Mankind is almost at the point where natural selection will become irrelevant in the face of genetic engineering and technological developments, particularly nanotechnology. Check out
this article if you want to know more.