Adam and Eve, the sequel

[Pesto]

Imagine the whole human population is reduced to you and one member of the opposite sex.

Would you try to repopulate the Earth?

 

[The Nihilist]

That would work fine until my son tried to do my daughter. The subsequent human race would definitely have webbed feet. Assuming I had both sons and daughters.

 

[pneo]

Imagine the whole human population is reduced to you and one member of the opposite sex.

Would you try to repopulate the Earth?

Not unless I was given guidance from God to do so, for the very reasons RecoveringPhilosopher mentions. A gene pool of two is simply too small to result in a sustainable species.

It's interesting to observe the complicated kinship definitions small, isolated populations develop to prevent the worst instances of inbreeding. The smallest I have heard of requires 24 people: 12 couples. All would have to reproduce and keep to a kinship cycle to prevent inbreeding.

But even those kinds of gene pools count on occasional gene trading with other clans. I don't know what the minimum sustainable population would be from a geneticists perspective (it probably depends on the initial diversity).

 

[DailyBlessings]

Oh probably. If nothing else, it would give us something to do. Giving it a go and hang the genetic anomalies is better than just letting humanity die out without trying.

 

[Pesto]

Oh probably. If nothing else, it would give us something to do. Giving it a go and hang the genetic anomalies is better than just letting humanity die out without trying.

This is the crux of the issue. Is it important that the human race survive? Would it be morally acceptable to subject your descendants to the genetic diseases that will almost certainly arise? Not to mention what your sons and daughters will have to do to propogate the species.

 

[DailyBlessings]

This is the crux of the issue. Is it important that the human race survive? Would it be morally acceptable to subject your descendants to the genetic diseases that will almost certainly arise? Not to mention what your sons and daughters will have to do to propogate the species.

What else would I have to do? It would not be in my character to just sit around and patiently wait to die.

 

[TeddyKGB]

This is the crux of the issue. Is it important that the human race survive? Would it be morally acceptable to subject your descendants to the genetic diseases that will almost certainly arise? Not to mention what your sons and daughters will have to do to propogate the species.

It is not a straightforward moral issue, that is for sure. In any case, even brother-sister unions are not guaranteed to produce children laden with deleterious recessive conditions. There will be some normative offspring, and those offspring will have some normative offspring of their own. One assumes that natural selection takes care of the rest.

 

[Ophis]

Imagine the whole human population is reduced to you and one member of the opposite sex.

Would you try to repopulate the Earth?

Depends what the woman looks like.

 

[mnbvcxz87]

Imagine the whole human population is reduced to you and one member of the opposite sex.

Would you try to repopulate the Earth?

Now that's a good question. History has shown that humans = violence, so if anything it would be a mercy to other species in not procreating. I'll have to dwell on this one.

 

[David Gould]

It would depend. Was the internet still up and running? Are there embroyos in storage? Sperm? How many libraries on genetics around the place? There are solutions to these problems out there, and we would have a few decades to try and find them.

 

[R0D]

Imagine the whole human population is reduced to you and one member of the opposite sex.

Would you try to repopulate the Earth?

You betcha.

 

[Species8472]

Imagine the whole human population is reduced to you and one member of the opposite sex.

Would you try to repopulate the Earth?

If it were just me and one member of the opposite sex then I would call that Heaven.

 

[Pesto]

You betcha.

Why?

Would it be for your own physical gratification?
Is it because the human race is that important?
Would the likely complications of inbreeding change that decision?