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Natural Selection, Technological Progress, and the Origin of Human Longevity
This paper suggests that feedback effects between technological progress and human longevity lie at the heart of their common emergence in human history. It connects two major research questions. First, the long life span after menopause is a unique but puzzling feature of humans among primates. S...
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| Published in: | MAGKS - Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics (Band 45-2016) |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Philipps-Universität Marburg
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | PDF Full Text |
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| Summary: | This paper suggests that feedback effects between technological progress and human longevity lie at the heart of their common emergence in human history. It connects two major research questions. First, the long life span
after menopause is a unique but puzzling feature of humans among primates.
Second, the shift in human behavior at least 50,000 years ago, which led to
an unprecedented pace of technological progress, is still not well understood.
The paper develops an evolutionary growth theory that builds on the trade-off
between the quantity and the quality of offspring. It suggests that early tech-
nological advances gradually increased the importance of intergenerational
transfers of knowledge. Eventually, the fertility advantage shifted towards
individuals that were characterized by higher parental investment in offspring
and a significant post{reproductive life span. Subsequently, the rise in human
longevity reinforced the process of development and laid the foundations for
sustained technological progress. As a key feature, the theory resolves the debate about a \revolution" in human behavior in an entirely new way. It shows
that a gradual emergence of modern behavior is sufficient to trigger a demo-
graphic shift that appears as a \behavioral revolution" in the archeological
record. |
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| Physical Description: | 33 Pages |
| ISSN: | 1867-3678 |
| DOI: | 10.17192/es2024.0534 |