Are your cells sedentary?

[Medievalist]

@Jorpho

Would these be the same ancestors who expected to die in their thirties?

Is there a proper Latinish name for this fallacy yet?

I hope so, it would shorten posts like this one.

@lloydcogliandro

That’s the other factor (the first being dying younger) that gets skipped when praising our ancient ancestors: the sick and infirm were killed or abandoned.

Same as now; basically that happens whenever there is a lethal scarcity of resources and somebody has to die or everyone will.

But - ancient societies often didn’t have the resources or knowledge needed to keep the infirm alive, and sickness was far more dangerous than it is now, so you’re still touching on a real issue. I just want to make the point that it’s not a moral superiority we enjoy, it’s a (possibly temporary) resource superiority.

@Pink_Frankenste

As a 52 year old regularly playing ultimate frisbee, in my own N=1 observation, sitting and sedentary life just leads to restrictions in movement. The more I sit the less easy it is to move afterward, especially getting older.

I’m older than you and I will make that N=2.

@Malarkey

And we lived to be how old back then?

Same as now, if you made it past 30 or so. But the average lifespan is way different because of the much higher mortality associated with childbirth - infants and mothers were at a dramatically higher risk and dragged the average down.