SmLnine t1_jdlxego wrote on March 25, 2023 at 11:17 AM

Reply to comment by sweatierorc in [R] Reflexion: an autonomous agent with dynamic memory and self-reflection - Noah Shinn et al 2023 Northeastern University Boston - Outperforms GPT-4 on HumanEval accuracy (0.67 --> 0.88)! by Singularian2501

There are complex mammals that effectively don't get cancer, and there are less complex animals and organisms that effectively don't age. So I'm curious what your opinion is based on.

MarmonRzohr t1_jdmj8th wrote on March 25, 2023 at 2:41 PM

>There are complex mammals that effectively don't get cancer

You got a source for that ?

That's not true at all according everything I know, but maybe what I know is outdated.

AFAIK there are only mammals that seem to develop cancer much less than they should - namely large mamals like whales. Other than that every animal above and including Cnidaria deveop tumors. E.g. even the famously immortal Hydras develop tumors over time.

That's what makes cancer so tricky. There is good chance that far, far back in evolution there was a selection between longevity and rate of change or something else. Therefore may be nothing we can do to prevent cancer and can only hope for suppression / cures when / if it happens.

Again, this may be outdated.

sweatierorc t1_jdm83bv wrote on March 25, 2023 at 1:09 PM

which one ? do they not get cancer or are they more resistant to it ?

SmLnine t1_jdmftzs wrote on March 25, 2023 at 2:14 PM

I said "effectively" because a blanked statement would be unwarranted. There has probably been at least one naked mole rate in the history of the universe that got cancer.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/secrets-of-naked-mole-rat-cancer-resistance-unearthed

sweatierorc t1_jdmkacg wrote on March 25, 2023 at 2:48 PM

Sure, humans under 40 are also very resistant to cancer. My point was that cancer comes with old age, and aging seems to be a way for us to die before cancer or dementia kill us. There are "weak" evidence that people who have dementia are less likely to get a cancer. I understand that some mammals like whales or elephant seems to be very resistant to cancer, but if we were to double or triple their average life expectancy, other disease may become more prevalent, maybe even cancer.