 average life expectancy of that species. It is not the same for 10
individuals to have an average of 70 years on a life expectancy of 80 than for the same group to have an
average of 20 years. Clearly, the 70-year group is older than the 20-year group. This has a bearing,
among other things, on whether the group has a chance of reproducing. If we find a colony of 100 humans
on an island and the youngest member is 65, we can be absolutely certain that the colony will end in
extinction. Therefore, the average age of a population in relation to the life expectancy of that species is a
crucial parameter in determining if the species is old. The reproduction rate of the species goes down
drastically with every 50% increase in the average age of the population.
There are a couple of loopholes to this argument and they have to do with how species are manufactured
by Mother Nature. We won't deal with all the possibilities here. We'll just briefly look at the most obvious.
A species is born in isolation from the parent branch. We can be pretty sure that given enough generations
the fledgling colonists will end up being a different species than the one that gave them origin.
Unfortunately, we can't apply this 'rule' to humans because we are the last hominins and we are now
sedentary. We have no other cousins to exchange genes with and we no longer find regions of the planet
where humans can evolve in isolation from the mother group under conditions that require us to
mutate. The age of exploration and colonization is over. For those who missed it, it happened 500 years
ago! We have now conquered every squared centimeter on Earth. We wear heavy coats in Antarctica and
barely anything in the Caribbean. No one needs to develop alligator skin or three ears because of his
environment. Humans will never again change in any meaningful way. We are the perfect (and final)
specimens of our species: the beautiful ones. Man won't evolve into anything in what little time remains for
us on our clock.
This leaves us with the reality that the global human population pyramid began to invert in 1963. Since then
the growth rate has STEADILY declined. It stood at 2.3 in 1963, at 1.2 in the year 2000, and is scheduled
to reach 0 (Zero Population Growth or ZPG) sometime around mid-century. We are not producing children.
This is different than what happened for instance in the 14th Century where disease wiped out a significant
percentage of the population in Europe. Our great grandfathers continued to spit out children and eventually
made up the shortfall. Today, we are no longer producing children at a comparable rate.
Meanwhile, we have extended the life expectancy of humans. We are living longer primarily because of
generous living conditions and because we brought contagious diseases under control. It is as a
consequence of this double whammy -- fewer children and greater life expectancy -- that the human
population pyramid has overturned in the last 50 years and is continuing to overturn. The percentage of
humans that are beyond 40 is growing every year. The older the global population is and the fewer children
it has, the older the entire species is overall. Under this criteria not only are we an old species, but we are
also on our way to becoming extinct.
If aging is a problem, how do we solve it?
Man is an intelligent creature, perhaps the most intelligent that a species can become in the Universe. We
are it! There is no higher intelligence than ours anywhere in the Universe. Those who believe the contrary
have only their mothers to blame. We can understand any explanation that Almighty God and the saints in
heaven wish to give us. Super-intelligence is a myth.
In spite of this, there are things humans simply can't do and problems we cannot solve. One problem that
Man cannot solve is the aging of our species. We work and develop technology to extend our life expectancy.
Everyone wants to live longer. Since the end of the Manufacturing Age, we also embarked on an inevitable
course: from the typical nuclear family to a new kind of family -- the s