alt Hacker News> Death is fundamentally a way to optimize reproduction
You could equally argue that it's a way to optimize lifetime energy efficiency.
> The cells humans are made of are immortal,
Yes but DNA transcription is not error free and most body parts do not grow back after being lost, most perniciously, our teeth. Elephants grow 6 sets of them, but due to their diet, they can end up fully losing all their teeth before they die.
> it's dying of what you might call 99.9% victories against disease
The planet we live on is warmed by the Sun. The Sun's energy can also destroy our cells. It's not just disease.
Quite true. Regrowing teeth should not be too hard though - after all the information for growing teeth already is in most humans. One just needs the correct transcriptional activations again. I am sure this will be solved eventually; as for how long that will take ... who knows.