It’s a stochastic process, not a clock. One person gets an extra transposon copy at location A, another gets one at location B, sexual reproduction drops both 1⁄4 of the time.
It’s possible that natural selection has historically kept the quantity of transposons down to small levels relative to the amount that one gains in non-gonad cells during aging. While this may change now that selection is relaxed, if the transposon suppression in gonads is good enough, it may take a long time. (and selection may not really be relaxed in our case, given our tendencies to late reproduction).
It’s a stochastic process, not a clock. One person gets an extra transposon copy at location A, another gets one at location B, sexual reproduction drops both 1⁄4 of the time.
That would work. Though why don’t we observe lots of children suffering from aging.
It’s possible that natural selection has historically kept the quantity of transposons down to small levels relative to the amount that one gains in non-gonad cells during aging. While this may change now that selection is relaxed, if the transposon suppression in gonads is good enough, it may take a long time. (and selection may not really be relaxed in our case, given our tendencies to late reproduction).