🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1598@rayssd.RAY.COM> m1b@rayssd.RAY.COM (M. Joseph Barone) writes:
>Now, to refute the premise that the average lifespan
>during the Middle Ages was 30, people are exempting just about every
>condition that brought that average down!  So I suppose that if you
>discount infant mortality, wars, pestilence, famine, and plagues, then
>the average lifespan is indeed much higher!  Somehow, though, I don't
>think this is sound statistical analysis.

We're getting into a matter of definitions here - what is "life span" vs.
"life expectancy"? Let's put it this way - if half the people die by age 5
(which they did, and still do in much of the world), but the "average life
span" is 30-35, most of the rest must last a while. My own understanding of
the meaning of "life span" is something like the biblical three score and ten-
how long can a person with the luck to survive these scourges expect to live.