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What's the minimum number of people needed to survive an apocalypse?
Live Science ^ | 05/05/2021 | By Patrick Pester

Posted on 05/06/2021 3:38:00 PM PDT by BenLurkin

The short answer is, it depends... However, putting some of these conditions aside and focusing on population size, the minimum number is likely very small compared with the approximately 7.8 billion people alive today.

Smith's research into early human civilizations and space colonization gives him pretty good insight into our apocalypse survival hopes. He expects big cities would be most vulnerable if global civilization were to crumble, as they import almost all of their food and are heavily reliant on electricity. Surviving populations would, therefore, likely spread out to find resources.

A surviving population of just a few hundred people would need a way of maintaining a breeding system, Smith said. Inbreeding, or breeding between closely related individuals, is one major challenge small populations face.

A sufficient number of breeding-age individuals of the opposite sex, known as the effective population size, would also be required for successful interbreeding to take place.

A starting crew of just 98 people would be enough for a 6,300-year-long journey (travelling in a hypothetical spacecraft at speeds that are possible with current technology) to Proxima Centauri b, a potentially habitable Earth-like exoplanet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun, according to a 2018 study published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society led by Frédéric Marin, an astrophysicist...

The Proxima Centauri b crew would not consist of a random sample of 98 humans, but rather 49 unrelated breeding pairs, ready to pass on their genes. The population would only remain genetically diverse and healthy over time under certain conditions, so for example, the crew's breeding would have to be monitored and restricted. Furthermore, a larger starting crew of 500 would likely be a safer choice, as they would be more likely to retain their genetic diversity with more breeding pairs...

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: apocalypse; astronomy; catastrophism; minimum; people; repopulation; science; thebidencatastrophe; thecartercatastrophe; theobamacatastrophe
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To: SubMareener

https://www.progressivecattle.com/topics/reproduction/common-methods-to-avoid-inbreeding


41 posted on 05/06/2021 4:24:54 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: marktwain

Reason, logic, analysis, rationality.

Those aren’t understood today.


42 posted on 05/06/2021 4:25:25 PM PDT by ifinnegan ( Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: KC_Lion

The minimum is one.

CHARISMA +10 is the max, IIRC, but you can always shuffle them between settlements.


43 posted on 05/06/2021 4:25:52 PM PDT by AF_Blue (My decision-making skills closely resemble those of a squirrel when crossing a road)
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To: BenLurkin

The early Don Johnson movie, “A Boy and His Dog”, showed some ideas on how to survive. In the underground city of Topeka Kansas they wanted him to help replenish the population. The method was a bit different than he thought it was going to be:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072730/


44 posted on 05/06/2021 4:27:19 PM PDT by dynachrome ("I will not be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.")
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To: Jewbacca

Had to read that twice to make sure.....


45 posted on 05/06/2021 4:28:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: marktwain

Damn. You thought about this. I was going to wing it.


46 posted on 05/06/2021 4:32:04 PM PDT by wgmalabama (Tag line for rent. )
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To: BenLurkin

There will be the apocalypse.
Only a few will survive the carnage.
Jesus will rescue the Jews from imminent extinction.
He will rule the world from Jerusalem.
Jewish women will have babies by the bus load.


47 posted on 05/06/2021 4:35:05 PM PDT by lurk ( )
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To: Cboldt

do the math! It isn’t happening


48 posted on 05/06/2021 4:41:36 PM PDT by dirtymac ( Now Is The Time For All Good Men To ComeTo The Aid Of Their Country! NOW)
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To: ifinnegan; marktwain

Though it does not inform on the subject of space exploration whish is the main thrust of the article, it is an interesting point.


49 posted on 05/06/2021 4:46:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: dynachrome
The early Don Johnson movie, “A Boy and His Dog”, showed some ideas on how to survive. In the underground city of Topeka Kansas they wanted him to help replenish the population. The method was a bit different than he thought it was going to be:

The movie was based on the Harlan Ellison story "A Boy and His Dog". It was pretty much and attack on western civilization and human nature, as we know it.

Ellison was a degenerate misanthrope who had talent and wrote well.

50 posted on 05/06/2021 4:46:31 PM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries. )
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To: BenLurkin

The obvious answer is “One.”


51 posted on 05/06/2021 4:49:51 PM PDT by Liberty Tree Surgeon
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To: wgmalabama; marktwain

Projected deaths from all-out nuclear war is a mere one billion people.


52 posted on 05/06/2021 4:54:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

The experiment has already been done: Mitochondrial Eve and her sperm donor.


53 posted on 05/06/2021 4:55:28 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: BenLurkin
the crew's breeding would have to be monitored and restricted.

"What?? HIM??!!

(Breeding population decreases by one, but, then what do you do with the perp?)

54 posted on 05/06/2021 4:58:51 PM PDT by Paul R. (You know your pullets are dumb if they don't recognize a half Whopper as food!)
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To: Adder

Good one!!!


55 posted on 05/06/2021 5:07:47 PM PDT by hoe_cake (A Descendant of the Signers of the Constitution. )
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To: Rinnwald

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testament_of_Arkadia


56 posted on 05/06/2021 5:12:32 PM PDT by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure.)
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To: BenLurkin

Five in the Appalachians or MS or AL.


57 posted on 05/06/2021 5:16:51 PM PDT by Pollard
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To: BenLurkin

I am guessing that is why stuff kept going downhill after Noah.


58 posted on 05/06/2021 5:16:53 PM PDT by algore
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To: BenLurkin

Two .... one of God’s each ... male and female, about 18 or 20 years old (or as I suspect, about 33 ... but that’s a different theological theory)


59 posted on 05/06/2021 5:22:58 PM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true, I have no proof, but they're true !)
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To: LadyDoc

Or...maybe frozen sperm AND eggs and a robot?


60 posted on 05/06/2021 5:26:32 PM PDT by bigbob
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