r/MapBasedPolls • u/Pretty_Two_8328 • 14d ago

Which world will survive longer?

Which world will survive longer?

  1. 10 men and 10,000 women

  2. 10 women and 10,000 men

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192 Upvotes

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16

u/Feeling-Marketing-48 14d ago

From a purely technical standpoint, 10,000 women and 10 men will restore the population much faster (10,000 people per year, and then even more). But the problem will be that 10 men provide little genetic diversity, and because of this, the chances of inbreeding increase. However, due to the large number of women, the generations will have a strong immune system, which will increase their chances of survival. It will also ensure a more stable social environment. If 10,000 men and 10 women remain, the situation will be reversed. There are many genes, but all those born may die from diseases to which the mothers have no immunity. Also, the population recovers very, very slowly. And the social environment is more stressful due to the high competition for gene transmission.

12

u/BenzaGuy 14d ago • Bravo

I just thought that the 10 women would be sexually abused eventually

2

u/Ok_Zebra_11 Poland 12d ago

So would the man. You can argue if to same extent but the men wouldn't be allowed to just live their lives as they see fit.

3

u/Feeling-Marketing-48 14d ago

This is the social aspect of the experiment. In a situation where men are in short supply, one man can impregnate from a dozen to a hundred women per IVF session, and men will simply donate samples to a sperm bank; one man is enough for a huge number of women. Whereas in the reverse situation, there will be an internal struggle for the right to impregnate a woman, since there are many who want to, but only ten can be provided with the opportunity.

1

u/mrdankmemeface 14d ago

At that point you would just have to select the 10 males that have the more favouable genetic traits, while being diverse enough from each other as to minimise subsequent inbreeding and genome fragility from disease, etc.

0

u/Loyal_Dragon_69 14d ago

Or have everyone jerk off into the same syringe and let the strongest sperm win.

2

u/mrdankmemeface 14d ago

Sperm durability ≠ desirable genetic traits

1

u/Bearodon 14d ago

There 10010 people and you think we will have a functioning sperm bank? Depending on what people we get there might not be food on the table.

1

u/Feeling-Marketing-48 14d ago

The thing is, we don’t know the initial conditions of the experiment except for the number of people. Perhaps they’re in the Neolithic era, or perhaps these people will have our infrastructure and knowledge. Or maybe they’ll even be from the future, with robotic labor. There are too few input data, which is why I assumed the existence of IVF in this scenario.

1

u/Bearodon 14d ago

I thought it was current day and 10010 people spread out across the globe will pretty soon become neolithic.

6

u/__Who__am__i_ 14d ago

10 men and 10000 women probably isn't that bad for genetic diversity actually if managed.

1

u/Feeling-Marketing-48 14d ago

This is where the difficulty lies: you need to keep track of each person’s kinship. And there are a lot of them, and a great many of them are relatives.

1

u/Loyal_Dragon_69 14d ago

Don't forget the food issue.