X-Message-Number: 2798
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 17:16:29 MST
From: "Richard Schroeppel" <>
Subject: CRYONICS Average Life Span?

Max More quotes Roy Walford ...
>   The 120 Year Diet (Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, 1986):  
    p.22 has a chart similar to the one in his earlier book, in a section on 
    average and maximum lifespans. A brief quote:

    "Curves A, B, and C are the survival curves for the United States in

    1900, 1950, and 1982.  The *average life span* has been increasing since the
    
    turn of the century.  This largely reflects the virtual conquest of 
    infectious

    diseases and to some extent other diseases in First World societies.  But it
    
    can be shown mathematically that if *all* known diseases were cured -- no 
    heart
    disease, no stroke, no cancer, no diabetes -- the average life span would

    move up to 85 years of age, *but no further*, unless the aging process 
    itself
    were brought under control."

Max, can you or Walford back this up?  Is there some cheat involving
infant mortality, or has somebody dropped a decimal point?  The
conclusion is sufficiently implausible that I suspect fudging.

Rich Schroeppel   

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