Evolution, through the eyes of a metaphorically inclined computer programmer:

Old age is a feature, not a bug. With less turn-over it would be difficult to life as a whole to adapt to changing environment. It has drawbacks as knowledge lost by the dead individual. Advanced life forms overcome that with culture. Earlier simpler life forms probably lacked the aging feature, and were superseded by others who had it.

Thank you, Wiley, for passing that along. Your ability to stay current with the Slashdot comments is both a mystery and an inspiration.