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robin hanson argues well that our ability to live past our reproductive usefulness is due to horny old men and the young women who love them

This idea really shows the power of sexual selection theory. Having read "The Mating Mind" due to a recommendation from the overcomingbias.com blog, I have been convinced that sexual selection is under-appreciated in the discussion of evolution in popular culture, before reading the book I had certainly not heard enough about it.

In this case for example, sexual selection shows its power to transform the entire species through the preferences of women for older, more successful men granting us a greatly enhanced lifespan. While it does not supplant natural selection (survival is still essential after all), one can't evaluate a feature of a species without asking: "how is this attribute influenced by sexual selection?".

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  1. Why Men Matter: Mating Patterns Drive Evolution of Human Lifespan