Height, cognition and longevity are at least 50% determined by our genes. I used to include a comment that choosing the right parents was probably the most important decision of our lives – despite it being a decision where we have no input.
I gave credit to chemotherapy driving me to a point where the only food I could keep down was a candy called sweet tarts. They were left in the inedible portion of my daughter’s Halloween loot. After I had blamed them for six or eight years when 23 and Me sent an email that explained that I developed type 2 diabetes right on time for my genetics.
I’ve been lucky on that – so far, metformin has handled it. Still, the longer I live, the more correct the comment about choosing the right parents seems. My first college classmate to die of natural causes had gone through school on social security because both of her parents died young.
And that brings me to thinking about octopi. Plural for octopus. Maybe even spelled correctly. From what I read, the octopus is bright as hell, but short-lived. The traditional ‘three score and ten’ human lifespan, and the ability to share knowledge with younger members of the species is an important part of our species ascendance.
Heinlein wrote Methuselah’s Children and Time Enough For Love – two novels based on the premise that longevity is heritable. The novels begin with the Howard Foundation providing funds to encourage people with long-lived grandparents to marry – and the plot continues with a small group of families living productive lives of 150 or so. Turns out Heinlein’s fictional hypothesis has real world implications.
There is a lot to the genetics you inherit – tall or short, bright or dull, asthma, diabetes – a lot of how good life treats us is genetic. It’s humbling – much of our successes come from selecting the right parents – and we don’t make that selection.
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