Automated Baby Care Is So Wrong

I look at this kind of research, and it just makes me suspicous. Why? We've only had extended life spans for a century or two. Fertility arrives around 10-13 (barring weird hormones in food, or extreme famine) and that is Mother Nature's opinion that you're ready to start contributing to your species. For a long time, life expectancy was 20-30 years, gradually stretching to 40-50. There were always some extraordinary individuals who lived for many decades -- but historically, most people died at what we would now consider rather early adulthood.

Those were rough times; if you couldn't make decisions, extrapolate consequences, and learn from others' mistakes, you mostly died and didn't pass on your genes. If driving a car is a challenge, try walking the African savanna where some of the wildlife considers you valid lunch. You have a split second to react to the lion's target selection and defend your right to continue living.

I think we've allowed ourselves to become slow and careless, or that something in the environment has changed the development rate, and/or that something is being misconstrued. It makes no evolutionary sense for so much of the function to wait until near the end of the original design parameters of a lifespan.