Quote Originally Posted by kamikasei View Post
I just want to take this opportunity to raise an eyebrow over one issue in Mass Effect.

We're told advanced medical technology has humans living to about 150, before the introduction of Citadel science which is expected to extend this further. I would assume this includes a longer active lifespan as well rather than people spending 50+ years as physically frail as the average modern 90-year-old.

Yet I think Hackett is the oldest character for whom I can recall being given a birthday and he's just over 50 in ME3. Anderson's just under 50. TIM may be older as he was a soldier in the First Contact War (which might put him ten or twenty years ahead of Anderson, say), Miranda's father is probably older just based on her age... but really, it's odd how few human characters we see who are older than the high end of middle age by today's standards.
Given those ages, most of the leaders we have encountered would have been 20-30 at the discovery of Mass Effect tech. I don't think its a great leap to think that this would be the type of people who would sign up to go running off and colonize wild worlds. people who are middle aged are established and settled, up rooting is tougher and less appetizing at that time. So we are seeing the first generation of leadership of the first adopters of spacer life. We never interact with the President of the United North American States or see the people in the board rooms on earth, or even the Parliament where I imagine there are more aged people.

Plus we know that the 3rd world is at late 20th century standards of living. So with the low birth rates in the first world, and a gap in quality of life you could say the average 1st worlder is 150 and the 3rd is 75ish like it is now for us. Just a theory.

Its all speculation, but the good kind