The problems that occur later in life do not have any affect on that. On the other hand, for communities and 'tribes', not keeping old members around make them more responsive to change.
How many of these elders do you need to care for your children though? 2, 4, 8, 16, ...?
Maybe grandmother hypothesis works, but evolution would not care much for a great-grandmother hypothesis.
This actually seems consistent with the current lifespan of human beings. Most people have grandparents when they are children. Very few people have great-grandparents.
I understand you're not disagreeing with the core of what I said, but I have to point out your circular logic.
Why do species have a prime? Why don't they reach a certain "amount of reproductibility" and stay at that constant amount forever?
The fact that a prime exists is just one instance of one of those things that evolution hasn't figured out yet. Or maybe there's a different reason why it hasn't happened, but that reason is certainly not fundamental physics.
Not the person you're replying to, but the theory I've heard is the following.
The background for this theory is that evolution is gene-centric, not individual-centric. What is fitter is what will better propagate the genes, which is not necessarily what's best for the individual.
So it can build "designs" that have a better chance of propagating genes earlier on, where features that help that (I'm making this example up, but say something like faster growth) may later have a deleterious affect on the individual. And since evolution is gene focused, there's not as much evolutionary pressure for a longer and healthier life for the individual.
Interesting point.
This has a nice analogy in coding theory.
In general you can do things significantly faster with a lower number of bits if you leave out the redundancy required for error detection or correction.
The problems that occur later in life do not have any affect on that. On the other hand, for communities and 'tribes', not keeping old members around make them more responsive to change.