What is the history and status of the programmed vs. non-programmed aging argument?
At some level this controversy has existed for the 150 years since Darwins evolutionary mechanics theory was published in 1859. Prior to Darwin, there was no reason to suspect that life span was a characteristic whose origin differed from that of other characteristics that varied widely between species. The conflict between the survival-of-the-fittest concept and life span observations was immediately noticed following publication of Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species.
