Post: #1

y'all think it's possible ???

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...erder.html

Post: #2

(08-15-2013 08:09 PM)GameTheory Wrote:  y'all think it's possible ???

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...erder.html

The documents in this case seem a little weak.

Maybe there was an error, and they actually were writing the date of birth of his father or his grandfather to be in 1890? That is possible. There just do not seem to be enough facts concerning the guy's early life - you would think that there would be some details about the 1910s or 1920s - his 20s and 30s... The article mentions that he fought in a war in 1933; however, in those days it would have been unusual to have a 43 year old fighting in a war.. I suppose it is possible, but maybe more likely the guy would have been around 17 years old in 1933?

I am just speculating, as your question seems to allow for such. In sum, I am doubtful of the 123 year old claim without enough details.

Post: #3

^^^yeah, i think 1890 was his grandfather's birth year, and this dude was named after him. the confusion has happened before:

Quote:It is possible that Parr's records were confused with those of his grandfather. Parr did not claim to remember specific events from the 15th century.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tom_Parr

Post: #4

Personally, this story is pretty dubious to me. It seems like all these "oldest man or oldest women" cases come from impoverished third world countries, which conveniently don't keep track of birth information. Also the guy was a hard-core cocoa addict, and he is said to be suffering from dementia.

Post: #5

The oldest documented person was Jeanne Calment of France, who died at 122 years old in 1997.

Women tend to live longer than men, so it's unlikely the longest lived person would be a man. It doesn't mean it's not possible, but the odds are against it. And then we add in the fact that Bolivia had poor records.

But, supposing this fellow is that old. In all likelihood if there is a man that old then there have also been women who have lived longer still. So, if this man lived 123 years then there probably would have been or presently are women who survived several years beyond that venerable age.

Anyway, the lesson is that any age even approaching a century is astounding. One thing which is noteworthy about centenarians is that they tend to reach the age of incapacitation later than their peers. In other words, people who worry about living long and suffering from aging for an extended period are mostly mistaken. If you have the fortune to live to 100 your period of senescence will also be delayed. Simply put, living longer is better.

Post: #6

(08-17-2013 02:06 AM)Therapsid Wrote:  The oldest documented person was Jeanne Calment of France, who died at 122 years old in 1997.

Therapsid,
I don't disagree with anything in your post; however, I would think that there would have been several instances of persons living beyond 122 years old; however, so far, there is just not documented proof of such. Whether that would come from a man or from a third world country or whether that would come from a cocoa chewer, those are all things to ponder i suppose?

Concerning your touching on cognitive abilities: It seems that people generally would prrefer to have some brain functions while they are living in order to have quality of life; however, sometimes as we age we begin to contemplate our own demise and our mortality. In this regard, some people want to live no matter if they have quality of life of not b/c they are just afraid of not knowing what comes after life.

As you suggest, we can all be so lucky to reach an age even remotely approaching 3 digits, then we should feel pretty good about that. Will we be gaming all the way to the end, that may be another story?

Post: #7

(08-17-2013 01:58 AM)numanist Wrote:  Personally, this story is pretty dubious to me. It seems like all these "oldest man or oldest women" cases come from impoverished third world countries, which conveniently don't keep track of birth information. Also the guy was a hard-core cocoa addict, and he is said to be suffering from dementia.

Chewing coca is not like using cocaine, it does not have the same bad effects on you. Could be this men 123 years old? It is posible, people from remote villages seems to live a lot longer than city dwellers, but i think the main problem here is the documents to prove his birth. At that time, the local Church keept the records of that.

Post: #8

You guys ever hear of Li Ching-Yuen? He "supposedly lived to be over 256 years old." according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Ching-Yuen

Post: #9

(08-17-2013 11:30 PM)Hafu Gaijin Wrote:  You guys ever hear of Li Ching-Yuen? He "supposedly lived to be over 256 years old." according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Ching-Yuen

HG.

You brought the idea of this thread to a whole new level, by more than doubling the already high number. I have a hard time fathoming that anyone could live beyond 130 years (or some number close to what has already been witnessed). We would need more of a history lesson or even empirical data to understand and/or accept the 256 years as a possibility (wikipedea does give some support for the idea, but even that wikipedia support still seems sparse in its actual evidence that Li Ching-Yuen lived that long or any number of years approaching 256).