AFTER READING ARNOLD KLING’S ARTICLE that mentioned it, I ordered Robert Fogel’s new book, The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, about changes in the human condition since 1700. I finished it last night — it is, as Arnold says, short but information-packed — and found it very interesting. It fits nicely into a project I’m working on, and supports the thesis in this piece that we’ve already had a chance to see how extending lives dramatically would effect society. Fogel even notes that many chronic illnesses associated with aging (such as arthritis) now strike much later than they used to, meaning that, in a way, we can be said to have slowed the aging process already via better nutrition and living conditions.