h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here's an easy one....

If I have two parents and each of my parents had two parents and each of those grandparents each had two parents, then it follows that there used to be a huge population on Earth and we are the only ones left. Why don't we have an infinite number of ancestors?

I once heard an answer to this, but I can't remember the full details. It's something to do with inter-marriage, marrying more than once (or not marrying at all), having more than one child ... I hope that someone out there heard (or saw) the same programme as the one I'm on about - can't remember whether it was TV or radio, but it was some time ago.

Well, if our ancestors were immortal, I suppose they'd all still be around and we would have a world population rapidly approaching (but never reaching, as we all know) infinity. But, sadly, people do kick the bucket. If you've got in-laws, you can be thankful for this.

Could you imagine? A world in which one can only add, and never take away... the thought makes me shiver. Think about it... there'd be famine, and overcrowing, and we'd all probably be mucking about in pools of our own-- well, you get the picture.

Adam

At the very least we'd have populated Mars by now.

It's just that you're only looking at part of the network. You can do it the other way round too: If I have two children, and each of them marry and have two children, and each of them... and so on. The problem with my question is that is assumes that I am the only ancestor, just as your question assumes you are the only descendant. In reality, you are not the only grandchild of your grandparents, or the only great-grandchild of your great-grandparents. But then, I think you knew the answer already...

At the *very* least. Consider how much space people take up (especially hyper-active children) and the rate at which they're born. We'd literally be doubling our population every so often, exponentially augmenting the total number of humans to the point at which counting them would be an idle curiousity, hardly something that we could actually *do* even with the highest powered computers. With all of these people, our space requirements would go beyond the simple inhabitation of nearby planets. We'd begin to manufacture entirely new planets, probably.

Unless, that is, we all died of the horrible famine that would surely exist as a result of quintillions of mouths to feed, and only so many hamburgers and bowls of rice to go round.

Are all these people on h2g2? Just wondering if that was the reason the server crashed a minute ago.

Really? Is that all you have to say? Let's see about that! [rolls up his sleeves as if in preparation for a small battle]

Does anyone know the result of the small battle(is it took place) between gorogoro and ?