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>This says that the reason we die is because there is an absence of selective pressure for the individual in a species to live longer

Or there is a selective pressure making sure organisms don't have indefinite lifespans. You need death for a constant stream of sexual reproduction.

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The longer an organism lives the more it can reproduce, the more copies of it's genes there will be. Any gene that increases (reproductive) lifespan is strongly selected for.

It seems like the rate of reproduction rather than total reproductive lifespan is what matters for selection. A longer lifespan at the expense of a lower rate of reproduction would not be selected for.

I don't see any reason why this would require that tradeoff.

Not correct, though intuitive. Consider each offspring to be 50% of the genes of the parent. A parent with three children is competing with hir own genetics, and losing.

Your reasoning makes no sense. If the parent can live longer they can reproduce more and therefore propagate more of their genes.

It does. 150% (more than the parent) of the genes have teamed up with a foreign 150% of genes against the parent.

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