The technical term for “anti-death enthusiasts” is Methusalites.
Sex and death. It reminds me of the maintenance/reproduction axis.
Transforming reproductive resources into maintenance resources is widely thought to be responsible for the life-extending effects of calorie restriction.
That wasn’t what I had in mind, but you are right: natural selection does tend to play off one against the other. And a member of H.sap. does sometime find verself in one situation or the other, so it is natural that our psyche’s would be comfortable with either approach, depending on circumstances.
The r/K thing is a teensy bit different. That is more to do with offspring quality—with many vs few offspring.
The idea (from dietary energy restriction) is that organisms face resource-investment tradeoffs between self-maintenance and reproduction—and that circumstances and diet can affect where that tradeoff is made. If there isn’t enough dietary energy to support reproduction, what resources are available are devoted to maintenance—so the organism can live to reproduce another day.
It is a bit like K-selection taken to an extreme where no babies are produced at all—and all resources get invested in personal survival.
The technical term for “anti-death enthusiasts” is Methusalites.
Sex and death. It reminds me of the maintenance/reproduction axis.
Transforming reproductive resources into maintenance resources is widely thought to be responsible for the life-extending effects of calorie restriction.
You mean r selection vs K selection?
That wasn’t what I had in mind, but you are right: natural selection does tend to play off one against the other. And a member of H.sap. does sometime find verself in one situation or the other, so it is natural that our psyche’s would be comfortable with either approach, depending on circumstances.
The r/K thing is a teensy bit different. That is more to do with offspring quality—with many vs few offspring.
The idea (from dietary energy restriction) is that organisms face resource-investment tradeoffs between self-maintenance and reproduction—and that circumstances and diet can affect where that tradeoff is made. If there isn’t enough dietary energy to support reproduction, what resources are available are devoted to maintenance—so the organism can live to reproduce another day.
It is a bit like K-selection taken to an extreme where no babies are produced at all—and all resources get invested in personal survival.
I have a page all about this general topic: http://cr.timtyler.org/why/