Repopulating the Earth

[Coach]

So the robot apocalypse has happened...
How many survivors are needed to make humanity come back without making us inbred?
Minimum number?
50 maybe, 25 of each sex?

[Coach]

So the robot apocalypse has happened...
How many survivors are needed to make humanity come back without making us inbred?
Minimum number?
50 maybe, 25 of each sex?
Oh and to go off a current trend..Are/would multiples be an advantage?
I would think twins and trips would be to an extent.. anything over that would be a problem.

[Dr Steve]

So the robot apocalypse has happened...
How many survivors are needed to make humanity come back without making us inbred?
Minimum number?
50 maybe, 25 of each sex?

As long as you can keep breeding people at the farthest reaches of their genetic family (i.e., no cousins marrying) and you don't let people with bad genetic diseases breed, you could probably do it with 50 people, 25 females, 25 males. Just a quick calculation shows me that you can keep cousins from breeding with about that many people.

Too many women or too many men and you have problems.

It's just a guess, though; I'm not a geneticist (like I'm not a physicist, for all you Kaku lovers out there who have emailed me.) So calculating the exact minimum number that will allow cousins to never breed is beyond my ken.

:smile:


your pal,


steve

[sailor]

what's wrong with cousins marrying? is it really so bad? i've heard no.

[PapaBear]

what's wrong with cousins marrying? is it really so bad? i've heard no.
Who said anything about marriage? We have a chance to start over. Let's get rid of the whole marriage thing!

[Dr Steve]

Who said anything about marriage? We have a chance to start over. Let's get rid of the whole marriage thing!

yeah, that was my parochial bias...I mean cousins BREEDING.

It does make a difference...too many close relatives --> too many recessive genes get paired up ---> genetic freaks.

[JohnGacysCrawlSpace]

First we have to focus on depopulating the planet. I'm rooting for the giant meteor.

[Dr Steve]

what's wrong with cousins marrying? is it really so bad? i've heard no.


when you're repopulating the Earth, you want as much genetic diversity as you can muster. That's what keeps one virus from wiping us all out in one fell swoop.

If you're on a desert island and there's only 4 of you, feel free to interbreed all you want; you gotta do with what you have.

[tanless1]

Thanks coach

[FrogSlayer]

So let me get this straight, sex with cousins is bad?
I just heard a sigh as all of Alamaba cried out

[STC-Dub]

So let me get this straight, sex with cousins is bad?
I just heard a sigh as all of Alamaba cried out

Cousins? Hmm, not the relatives I was thinking...

[opie's twisted balls]

what's wrong with cousins marrying? is it really so bad? i've heard no.
What could possibly happen.....

http://i36.tinypic.com/295g75j.jpg

http://i36.tinypic.com/23vgpyh.jpg

[Dr Steve]

So let me get this straight, sex with cousins is bad?
I just heard a sigh as all of Alamaba cried out


well, "Sex" with cousins might not be so bad, but "breeding" with cousins has its pitfalls.

[Misteriosa]

well, "Sex" with cousins might not be so bad, but "breeding" with cousins has its pitfalls.

mod quote if i ever saw one... :innocent:

[Dan 'Hampton]

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:jaHdRqrn-rABsM:http://www.realclearsports.com/blog/Dr.%20Strangelove.jpg10:1

[Enabler]

Genetic freaks be damned. I'll do it. I'll re-populate the planet single cockedly.

[boosterp]

I would certainly enjoy the practice of trying to repopulate the Earth, just would never inform the authorities that I had a vasectomy years earlier.