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 ...
Then you’re kids would have to have sex with each other.
Be careful what you wish for. 10,000 nagging pregnant women would be hell to deal with.
2
It worked before.
With my luck it would be me and a “trans woman”.
just one is needed to survive ME!!!... ideally there would be about 1,000 women to care for my needs and a hand full of guys so I would not over dose on all that estrogen.
>>” I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.”
Wouldn’t work today.
They would announce the future is female and say that they don’t want to be held back by raising a child.
13 Women
Bill Haley 1954
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOSGEEswmqQ
The Renegades 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu2pKXSIzr4
Related (a little), SpaceX successfully landed Starship SN 15 yesterday, so Elon is making progress toward his goal(s)...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9eoubnO-pE
That’s how to Wilt the Stilt
The real issue is food and water supplies. Security from others might need numbers, however it just gets back to the food supply for any given number.
There was murder even among Cain and Abel
Sure, but who is going to kill the spiders?
Great lyrics (and a wee bit suggestive, too!)
I had two gals every morning
Seeing that I was well fed
And believe you me
One sweetened my tea
While another one buttered my bread
Two gals gave me my money
Two gals made me my clothes
And another sweet thing
Bought me a diamond ring
About forty carets, I suppose
So a spacecraft travels more than 6000 years to get to Proxima Centauri. Then what? They find that there’s nothing interesting there and come back? When their descendants reach earth no one has any knowledge of the project and nobody can understand English as it had been spoken 12,000 years earlier? At least maybe they can stay in touch with the people back on earth via Facebook.
Two very healthy ones.
and the viagra....don't forget the viagra so you can actually participate.....
There were eight on the ark.
They are reviewing Facebook posts right now to weed out the undesirables. :)
Someone’s got to kill the spiders.
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