Average lifespan in the Federation

[Comosicus]

What is the average lifespan in the Federation?

In JME2's BoBW story I found mentions of members of the TOS Enterprise alive and having positions in the Starfleet in the time after the Dominion War. He mentioned some Star Trek books and novels as inspiration for these facts. As far as I know from this board, most of the books have a low canon value (if they have it at all), so maybe someone with better knowledge could help me.

Do people in the TNG era reach an active life greater then 100 years (as it is mentioned that Uhura served more than 1 century in the Starfleet)?

[Bellator]

yes. "Bones" was still alive to see the launch of the Enterprise-D. Scotty put himself in statis and was revived by the Ent-D crew. Spock is active on Romulus and is working towards reunification with Vulcan. And I believe it was mentioned in Voyager that Sulu is still alive.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Bones was 137 in "Encounter at Farpoint." Adm. Jameson (the guy who took young drugs in a season 1 or 2 TNG ep) was pretty old, though I don't know exactly. Those are the oldest I can think of. Also, Dr Crusher talks about prolonging life numerous times. I think it is fair to say most people (at least Starfleet, as they would probably have more constant care) live over 100 in the TNG era.

He was in pretty poor shape by that time. (He was portrayed as this hunched over, doddering old man.) And, being fairly well-connected in the Federation's upper echelons, he may well have had much better care than someone living on a random colony out in the middle of nowhere. From this, we can probably guess that the maximum human lifespan is probably around 150 years (which was suggested as tme maximum human lifespan at around the time TNG began production, but writers of the show exist outside of the fourth wall, and don't count.)

Also, in "All Good Things" we see that much of the old Enterprise crew is still active in Starfleet, with the exception of Picard (suffering from that strange disease) and Data (who went into academia.) So we can gather that someone approaching seventy can still have an active career and is still qualified for something as inherently dangerous and busy as a naval command. This all tends to suggest that the average life-expectancy is probably around 100-120 years, with retirment coming at around 80 to 90 years of age.

[Bellator]

I believe Bashir said something similar when he was nominated for his Nobel-like prize thingy.

[Elheru Aran]

In Shatner's series of post-Generations novels (the ones where Kirk gets resurrected and shit), McCoy is shown as using an sort of exoskeletal frame to assist walking, and he refers to having had multiple transplants of various organs. He speaks of being 140-plus; something about planning his 150th birthday party as well. So, basically, they can keep people alive and kicking for a long-ass time, but they can't really retard the gradual failure of the body as it ages; I would reckon 150-160 is the upper limit there.

[Lord Pounder]

IIRC from those books McCoy is the current record holder oflongest lived person.

[brianeyci]

DAX
Because when you've lived eight
lifetimes, you develop certain
instincts. And my instincts tell
me that you, Miles Edward O'Brien,
are going to live to be a hundred
and forty and die in bed,
surrounded by family and friends.

So a realistic upper limit would probably be 140. There would be a few McCoy's here and there, but Dax was probably talking like we would today, "You'll live to be 80".

Brian

[Comosicus]

Of course this does not aply to the regular redshirt and ensign from the Starfleet, right?

[Jason von Evil]

Of course this does not aply to the regular redshirt and ensign from the Starfleet, right?

Fuck no. They consider it a good day if they can make it to the bathroom without having a EPS conduit explode in their face.

[paladin]

I remember reading in a paperback about the original series stated human lifespan was 130 years. The paperback was printed sometime in the 1970s.