Life Expectancy Aboard The Axiom?

[MidgardDragon]

This isn't a "fat makes you die" topic, so let's not even go there, especially considering the iffy "science" that even brings that idea into others' heads.

This is more about their quality of life, *what* they ate, and how little exercise they got. I'm thinking humans aboard The Axiom probably didn't live past 40 or 50, and I don't recall seeing any elderly people aboard. I hadn't noticed it until someone mentioned in another thread that their diet was probably composed mostly of sugars and carbs. But when you examine it, it's true, there's no elderly people, and I might even go so far as to say they don't live past 30, since most of the people look pretty "young" (considering the state of their bodies).

[vanessajoyce]

I saw one woman who had "blue" hair -- the color of a woman in her early/middle 50s.

Hard to say because depending on how the human body has changed in the 700 years, age might not show the same as we are used to seeing.

But then again, I could see people not living past 50 or so -- I mean, to stay alive requires a desire to stay alive. After 50 years of living like that, maybe a person's desire to live is pretty much sapped. I could see that most definitely.

[thor]

On the scenes where you see the succession of captains, you can see dates on some of them, which can be used to estimate how log they lived. Also you can use 700 years they are away and divide by number of captains to estimate life span, at least that of the captains.

Another thing that may be of interest, in the scene just after axiom lands, when all the people are walking out of axiom, there was a person with a walker that I think is fairly old.

[MidgardDragon]

Huh, going by the Captain's photos people aboard The Axiom actually lived longer. I guess there were amazing advances in medicine in the future.

[bkim]

The people aboard the Axiom, ironically, live about 150 years. Here are the dates of service for each of the captains:

Reardon: 2105 - 2248 (143 years)
Fee: 2248 - 2379 (131 years)
Thompson: 2380 - 2520 (140 years)
Brace: 2521 - 2645 (124 years)
O'Brian - 2646 - 2774 (128 years)
McCrea: 2775 -

It's likely to do the sterile environment of the Axiom (no foreign contaminants) and advances in medicine, as you mentioned.

[Khodhum]

Yeah, that actually would have been my guess...the advances in technology lead to longer lives. Most of them probably don't look old because they have methods of making you age slower. A LOT can happen in 800 years.

[bkim]

Well, one interesting thing about the passage of time in this film is that it doesn't exactly correspond to advances in technology. I'm pretty sure that, unless some robot scientists are working aboard the Axiom to develop new technology, the technology that exists aboard the Axiom is the same that the Axiom left Earth with 700 years ago in 2105. Incredibly, those 700 years can be seen as a totally stagnant period in human history where no change in society, medicine, technology, science, philosophy, politics, or anything occurred. Truly the Dark Ages.

[vanessajoyce]

Exalt for you, bkim for getting those dates -- I've never been able to read them fast enough before.

I would question the "stagnation" theory though. The picture of life aboard the Axiom in 2105 that we see on the ads is vastly different from the one we get in 700 years later. In 2105 there are no "traffic lanes" for the hover chairs and no restrictions on using the pool, etc. I would say there have been "advancements" in the 700 years, but any R&D (either human or robot created) would be completely related to the needs of the degenerating humans. Not necessarily laudable advancements -- but advancements nonetheless.

Just my two cents.

[Khodhum]

Hmmm...it's possible that the technology is still increasing, but it's approaching an upper limit, and the increase gets slower and slower as it gets closer to that limit.

[vanessajoyce]

I agree. I can see in the first couple hundred years lots of work being done and then slowly over time it just leveling off to what we see in the film. Your "Dark Ages" analogy really works for how I picture it -- just that I'd see it starting more around like 2400 or something like that. I'm just quibbling over details 'cause that's the geek I am . . .

[bkim]

All of that is possible, but I keep thinking about the significance of the captain's line "Our ancestors would be proud to know that 700 years later we'd be doing the exact same things they were doing." It kind of speaks to me about the general laziness of the human race by the time the planet had become uninhabitable. I tend to think that if everyone was too lazy to clean up the Earth, they would be too lazy to develop new scientific ideas and technology.

[vanessajoyce]

Whoa, good point. Although "doing the same thing they were doing" could refer to just being on a permanent vacation, not necessarily that their ancestors were spending 24/7 in hover chairs.

But the more I think about it, the more your overall vision makes sense. And from a symbolism point of view I like your idea more than mine too -- the idea that people have literally been sitting on their butts for 700 years is pretty powerful. Much more powerful than it being a gradual process of decline as I was describing earlier.

Your point about the laziness of at least most of the humans in the period of 2105-2110 also jives really well with how Operation Clean-up was abandoned . . . and the whole "it would just be easier . . . " statement.