novices.... You guys are thinking way too much about making babies, and not enough about recreating civilization, but there's no reason that the son of Addrienne and Max cannot reproduce with Natasha..... Listen, your goal is to repopulate the land, and ensure the progression of modern civilization.... so you take people in fields that are able to recreate the modern world.... michelle, only use is to make babies, poor candidate caroline, just a pilot, possibly needed to pilot the ship back to earth, possible candidate sumiyo, good for making babies, also works in the medical field, good candidate etc etc, its not all about making babies unless you want to really live like them fools in the movie The Time Machine (2002)
Yup, after all those years we're finally getting to the good stuff! Anyone think it would be a good idea for some of the menthat are not going to survive to get some of the surviving women pregnant while they're on the ship? Pugs
Sergei: strong and healthy. still young enough to have offspring and care for them until they become adults. Angelo: grew up on a farm so he knows how to work the land. Natasha: intelligent and young enough to have children. miscarriage may be a concern. Adrianne: her skills as a bontanist will be invaluable. still young and able to have kids. Max: in good shape. six children mean hes not shooting blanks. hypertension can be controlled by diet and exercise. he is a physician. Steven: young and in good health.
Well civilization can always "re-learn" things that are lost. Or worse case have those knowledgeable write books, but I would assume if mankind were in this situation, they would have wikipedia saved on a disk somewhere . As for having the men impregnate the women before dying, well they are going to be living in space for 6 months. I have no idea what that would do to the development of a baby. Better to just save their sperm and do in vitro later if the equipment is the ship.
Wes brought that up. It is a good idea, as long as it doesn't mess with oxygen/food. And there is also the issue of having 4 6month pregnant women and 2 men to recreate the world upon landing. (or whatever ratio you end up with)
Great advice everyone, it is much appreciated. To me it is looking like: 1 - you must have a pilot 2 - 2 men and 4 women is probably the best way to go 3 - you should have a doctor/physician (although I wouldn't think this is a 100% must) 4 - people with chlidren may be the best way to go, they did it once you would assume they can do it again. Although in this scenario, age seems to be just as important (the younger the better). Pugs
I agree on the 4 women 2 men. Definitely need at least two penises. As for the reasoning? You're going to need people who can do a lot of physical stuff once they get back - they're going to have to clean up a bunch of crap, rebuild stuff... You're going to need relatively healthy people for that - that's the primary indicator. Secondarily, their area of knowledge - not as important, but having a doctor or a botanist around is a pretty good bonus since they can tell you what to eat, what's poisonous, or what's wrong with your leg. 1. Michelle 3. Sumiyo 4. Natasha 5. Addrienne 10. Rahim 14. Dimitri
If I were one of the men on that ship, I wouldn't hesitate to off the other males, to ensure the survival of my bloodline. Also to ensure that the kids have a smart daDDY, CUZ HAVE 2 MEN IS JUST IG-NANT~
(note - several of these have been previously mentioned, just want to write my thoughts quickly and be done) ideal situation is 2 guys and 4 women. Avoid the women over 30, especially the ones over 35. Knock out the two with eye problems and the one that had cancer. Hypertension is allowable, since you can live with that through 50 without much worry. The medical, woodworking, and gardening/botany skills are crucial, the pure astronomers aren't. You probably need someone that can fly and land the shuttle. I'd probably go with these:
Whoever mentioned saving the sperm probably had the best idea. 2 men, 4 women (or 3,3)...then save the sperm from the other dudes and use it later.
actually, this is all irrelevant.... it'll take centuries for the dust to settle and for light to re-enter the atmosphere all shall perish all your base are belong to us.
This reminds me of a book called Beyond Realtime by Vernor Vinge.. basically built on the premise of a smallish group of human beings who are able to live in a time-immune bubble, turn the bubble on, turn it back off, hundreds, thousands, even millions of years may have passed outside the bubble. Don't know how accurate the biology was, but it was made clear in the book that even with a population numbering in the thousands, it was not diverse or healthy enough to do anything but dwindle. Look at the population growth rates (or in many Western societies, the population decline), and these are societies numbering in the *millions*. I know that is apples and oranges to this hypothetical exercise in critical thinking, but still. And it brings up other considerations - if you were to take 4 women and 2 men, or in the extreme case, 1 man and 5 women, or heck even 3 & 3, then you have at minimum half of your remaining population either pregnant, nursing, or caring for infants *all the time*. People who need a great deal of care, and who would be hard-pressed to be productive enough on a farm or whatever and still remain healthy enough to constantly bear children. Sorry, but if all that were left of the entire human race was 6 people, it's game over man.
I think the proper question is how many generations do you need to go before you can say with certain confidence (e.g. 95%) that you will not see r****ded kids. My estimate is 5 generations.
Natasha, Adrianne, Caroline, Rahim, Jorge, Max My reasoning is as follows... I think people are focusing too much on the need to have extra women. Yes, women get pregnant and carry babies to term. But without men, there are no babies either. That reduces the need for 4 (or 5, though I think that 5 women is pretty much ruled out) women, as opposed to an even 3/3 split, to concern about a woman dying in childbirth and the ability to have 4 women pregnant at once as opposed to three. Personally, I'd do the following: - Natasha and Adrianne definitely come. Adrianne is relatively young and proven she can have kids. Natasha is very young and has proven she can get pregnant (though the miscarriage is a risk). - Rahim and Jorge definitely come. Rahim is relatively young, reproduces like crazy and pilots the ship. Jorge is the youngest male and has already had one kid. - Caroline definitely comes. She is quite young for this group. Though she has no children. This is where it gets tricky. Another woman to go 4/2 or another man to go 3/3. I'm going to choose another man. This increases genetic diversity down the line. - Max comes. He's young, a reproduction machine and a doctor. The reason he is the 3rd, on the bubble, male is because of the high blood pressure. I'd almost even make him explain how he can keep this under control on the new earth. Now that you have the 6 chosen, just before they kill themselves to reduce the number to six, all the other guys need to try their hardest to get the 3 girls Natasha, Adrianne and Caroline pregnant. there you go.
I would take this 3/3 ratio. With three males you get a doctor, a spiritual carpenter with a green thumb, and a farmer. Hiro looks like he might be a good pick too. His business savy could come in handy during personal disputes and his slow metabolic genes might be better for offspring to survive droughts and/or tough winters...
your other points might be vaild, but for this, just land the space ship far away from the meteor site but still close to what was a very largely populated city. Canned food.
i think we arent considering the fact that there will be survivors on earth. however, after 6 months in pitch black, they would have probably turned into blood sucking vampires.
I think those pushing for 3v3 over 4v2 might be right. 4v2 one couple's offspring only has 3 other possible mating lines. 3v3 has 4 mating lines it can match with. That and quite honestly, the 4th woman you select has some serious red flags. Although, this math probably changes if you go with 'sperm/impregnate before suicide'.
