Using segmented linear regression as evidence for the limit of human lifespan Nature published this year the following paper: Evidence for a limit to human lifespan1, in which the authors argue their "results strongly suggest that the maximum lifespan of humans is fixed and subject to natural constraints."
One of this paper's statistical analysis has been panned at some sites already, including Nature article is wrong about 115 year limit on human lifespan and Evidence for a limit to effective peer review, since it turned up in some popular media.
The study is based, among several things, on data from databases detailing the yearly maximum age of death. Among their analyses, the following figure is included:

Basically the authors argue there's a breakpoint, and so they performed a segmented regression before circa 1995 and after that point onward. The regression is used as evidence for the limit of human lifespan.
Does it make sense though? If not, what method could better be employed to study these data?
[1] Dong, Xiao, Brandon Milholland, and Jan Vijg. "Evidence for a limit to human lifespan." Nature 538.7624 (2016): 257-259.
 A: I think the nature of the conclusions are totally bunk. We see between 1950 and 2015 an increasing trend followed by a decreasing trend. It is a classic fallacy of applying data which are suggestive of a hypothesis different than the one tested and presenting them as such. With these data, a segmented regression can interpolate and predict that in 1995 a local maxima of lifespan was about 115 years $\pm$ whatever error they estimate from segmented regression. This does not preclude 2020 or 2030 trends superseding that value.


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*The concept of natural lifespan conflicts with the preponderance of research in aging, genetics, and telomeres.

*An experimental design to address natural human lifespan is needed using "body on a chip" technology.

*50 years is utterly trivial in the course of human history. There have been many points in the past where an upward trend in lifespan was followed by a downward one.

*Data such as those presented could have been simulated from a non-linear model having discontinuities and/or asymptotes which are unmeasurable.

*Since the model's goal is prediction, distributional assumptions, and mean-model correctness are needed, and neither (it seems) were these checked nor are they met.

