All the five thousand years in their history (if we start counting from the beginning of the rule of
the lugal of Uruk city of Gilgamesh, of which we are told by the most ancient monument in the Shumer-Akkad cuneiform written language – the poem about “The one who has seen everything” written upon the clay tablets) mankind always experienced the highly deep and all-consuming interest towards its own immortality and the prolongation of the individual life. It will be logical to assume that this theme attracted the attention of man always, even in the prehistoric times. Most likely, it accompanied the consciousness of Homo Sapiens from the moment of his actual appearance in this world as the human being.
It is hard to guess that once upon a time the man thinking and feeling was ready to put up with his own death, with the total irretrievable departure from the light, iridescent world, in which he was born, existed, was happy and was loved and was endless in each moment. It is even more hard to guess that the last period of life before departure could make one glad with its infirmity, decrepitude, opulence of illnesses and the loss of hope for the future. We are talking about old age.
It is namely this last age period of our life as if it is specially built like a staircase descending down to the grave. The staircase upon which on each step of which we leave a part of our strengths, youth, health, cheerfulness and the life itself. Sometimes the odes to old age as the summit of human existence filled with experience, wisdom, serenity and some “inner light of knowledge” are born most likely by the a-priori realization of the fatal helplessness of man before the oncoming endless non-existence.
Old age is humiliating and ruthless towards man. The biological expediency of getting older, found by August Weismann in his first gerontological article,loses the meaning towards man. Because he lives in the artificial environment. Getting older is not conducive now for the development of our species and does not protect our posterity from extinction like the other mammals.
