Is there any proof that one day, we'll die?

Question

Sure, everyone before us has died and thousands die every day- but does this mean there's actual proof that you or me are going to die?

Is there definitive proof that an individual will one day die or just overwhelming odds?

Answer 1

everybody else has

Answer 2

There are two things.

1) Overwhelming odds. Check the percentage of people who die (or have died recently) at each age. Draw the function (model it after an appropriate distribution curve e.g., a flattened Poisson) trying to get the "best fit".

Most functions do have an endless tail (i.e., there is no absolute maximum) so that it is possible to calculate the probability of still being alive at the end of the Nth year -- and that probability will never be zero.
However, it is going to be an extremely small number as N gets bigger.

This curve can be represented by some parameters (example, a mean death age, a variance, etc). Medical discoveries and concerns about influences on our heath (e.g., environment) have modified these parameters (e.g., moving the mean death age higher).

Still, given the number of people who are living, if this random distribution curve represented the only factor, we should see some people (not many) reach formidable ages. We don't.

Maybe the whole thing is not solely based on a random distribution curve.

2) A built-in degradation mechanism. It would appear that every time a cell divides into more cells, the DNA is not 100% perfectly copied. Some "noise" enters the coding.

As we age and the number of cell generations reaches a certain level, the probability that the regeneration process goes wrong increases rapidly. So that at a certain age (which may be different for each individual), our body arrives at a stage where the noise is sufficient to cause a number of bad cell copies, sufficiently to cause more harm than good.

Maybe there is a built-in "meter". If there is and if we cannot alter it (or stop it), then that would provide the definitive proof.

With the recent announcement that one amino acid controls the body's biological clock (at least on a diurnal basis), there may be hope that one day we will be able to control the built-in meter...

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Given that this is a science category, we cannot take past data as "proof" that something must be so. At best, we could talk of statistical convergence (the probability of it being "proof" never reaches 100%).

For example, in 1800, it was a sure fact that no one had gone to the South pole. Still, that was not a "proof" that traveling to Antarctica was impossible.

Also, I note that the question asks about any one individual, not about the asker. Yet, most responders provide their opinion relating to the probability that it applies to the asker.

It is as if someone asks: Is it possible that a playing card, any card, goes missing from a deck? And people answer with: I just checked my deck and it still has a 4 of diamonds, therefore I have the "proof" that cards cannot go missing.

Answer 3

What a cool question!

The answer is no, there is no definitive proof.

Science has never, ever definitively prooved anything, you can't, because you can never test every single possibility!

Usually you look at a sample that is representative of the population, and work out how likely it is that your theory is true. In normal biology, greater than 95% is considered enough to confirm a theory, greater than 1% is fantastic.

As far as we know, 100% of people who have lived so far have died. But, the accuracy of your estimate increases with "sampling intensity" - how big your sample is compared to the group you are trying to test.

Your sample is everybody who ever lived, but the population you are testing is everybody who will ever live.

So you need to guess how long the human race will survive, and then see how big your sample is compared to the population, before you can work out if your sample is representative or not.

In the meantime, I think if your body appears to be aging normally, you can assume that it will reach the same conclusion as everybody else seems to have come to.

Sorry!

Answer 4

The proof is in the science and study of the living and dying human organism. As you have noticed, which we can call evidence, people age. As every second of time passes, we are growing older. As we do this our bodies as well as our minds are experiencing constant change. These changes are all evidenced every day. From the very moment of conception, when the sperm unites with the egg a human life is growing older, to an ultimate end. Physical evidence has told and shown us that the human organism has an expiration date. Doctor's, insurance companies, statitions have studies this and have compliled hundreds of years of data to arrive at the conclusion that the male has an average lifespan of 75 years. A female lives a little longer.

The other thing would be if you believe in the afterllife and eternity and God. If you embrace those things, then the answer is yes .... and no. According to God there are two states of being, physical and spirit. Physical is here on earth. Spirit is after the physical has died. One could argue then ... if you believe in God and the rapture spoken of in the Bible, you could be taken at the second coming of Christ, prior to the expiration date of your human, physical body. : )

Answer 5

I'm trying to think of this on a molecular level, is there any strong theories about the energy being finite or decreasing throughtout the solar system, otherwise it seems likely that at some point everything including all your very old body will be sucked into a black hole which i bet would kill you if you managed to stay alive through the destruction of earth by the sun and the billions of years.

Answer 6

Overwhelming odds.

Eventually the rich will be able to buy a gas operated heart or somthing like that when their regular heart gives out. Same for lungs and such.

Right now, you'll get to a certain age and just die.

Answer 7

ummm, having worked rescue and recovery ,yeah. we die. I've seen it both right before and after. I watched my father die of cancer, I watched many people die in the twisted metal of a car accident. I have held them, and seen the spark go out. I am not immortal, I am not with out that cloud of death. If you don't die of trauma, you die because your body is tired.
What kind of proof are you looking for?
I know I am going to die, I just hope it is when I am 90 years old sound asleep behind the wheel of a single car accident due to speed...

Answer 8

Sooner or later we all die...proof...? how many before you died? The only proof is that everything dies after some time, not only us, everything comes to an end.

Answer 9

Overwhelming odds 'cos no-one has done it before in the millions of years we have been around. It don't do to go against those odds.

Answer 10

When our material body falls down we die but our soul remails and it does not experience any death or birth.

Other than the gross material body we all have a subtle body which consists of mind, intelligence and false ego. When we die this subtle body remains and moved to another form of body. It can go back to spiritual world or might come back to the material planets to accept another for of body to try enjoy/suffer.

Bhagavad Gita says-

"For one who has taken his birth, death is certain; and for one who is dead, birth is certain."

"The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. "

"This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same. "

"It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable, immutable, and unchangeable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body. "

Answer 11

There is a saying that goes this way: "We are approaching the death end since the day that we are born".

And I think that this is quite true. Unless you can find someone whom has live from let say, two hundred years ago.

Happy finding.