A few months ago when I was doing my family tree I had a doubt about the common ancestors. One of the branches of the family data records went back to the seventeenth century (around 1650), specifically the eleventh generation. Based on this I asked myself the following question: how many common relatives of the eleventh generation did I have?
To get the result I thought if the first generation we have 2 parents, the second 4 grandparents, the third 8 great-grandparents, the fourth 16 great-great-grandparents and so on. The number of members of each generation is double the previous one, it follows a serial pattern expressed with the equation: $Y = 2^n$, where Y: is the number of members of each generation n: is the number of the generation, $n \in N$.
Then for generation 11 (n=11) I already had the result $Y=2^{11}=2048$. A total of 2048 relatives of that generation. Like the game “2048”, which is to iterate 11 times the sum of deuces up to 2048 in puzzle without crashing. But a bigger question arose for me and how many relatives I had a thousand or two thousand years ago, since that case was for 4 centuries ago.
Explanation
$Y = 2^n$ is a fairly common exponential equation in nature because most things follow a di-vision (double vision). Cell division follows this growth where n represents the times the original cell or generation has divided. In the case of cells multiplying and dividing is the same, it is doubling their quantity.
The equation $Y=2^n$ has a very fast growth as you constantly double the number of people or add the same result over and over again.
It is famous the saying “If you fold a leaf over itself 42 times you would reach the distance from here to the Moon”, considering the official distance of a Moon at 360 000 km on average with respect to the Earth. This fact is based on doubling the result in each iteration, because when you fold a sheet in half the thickness becomes double in each fold. Physically it is impossible because after 14 folds you can not continue folding a sheet on itself and its width becomes very narrow. However, at a mathematical level it is possible to perform the equation and obtain a result. Taking into account that a sheet measures $0.1 mm = 1 \cdot 10^{-6} Km$ of thickness and that in each fold the thickness doubles, it is obtained that for 42 folds it exceeds 400 thousand kilometers: $2^{42} \cdot 10^{-6} = 439804.65 Km$.
Applying the equation
With this equation applied to a family tree we can travel to the “past” and calculate the number of people in each generation of our common ancestral family.
To do this we start with the following assumption:
- All ancestors had a child at 33 years of age on average, i.e. 3 generations per century (every 100 years), therefore 30 generations per millennium (1000 years).
- These generations coincided living at the same time at least in a period of time. With grandparents it is easy to think, now as we go backwards the differences between the age at which children are had in the different generations can vary a lot. So it is difficult to know if they coincided living at the same time.
- All parents are independent (each man has a child with only one woman). This fact is the most complicated to be fulfilled, a man can have children with several women and a woman can have children with several men (although usually the other way around).
It is difficult to make the calculation since the life expectancy was lower in the past and the relatives of that ancestral generation do not have to have coincided in life. Besides, families can be mixed, but let’s continue.
Calculation
This case is based on only children, not counting siblings, only from one family and with parents at age 33. This means that the numbers applied to the world population could be much higher.
With what was considered before, 1000 years ago corresponds to 30 generations (n=30). Applied to the equation we get the number of relatives of Generation 30: $Y=2^{30}=1.073.741.824$
According to Wikipedia data the total population in the year 1000 was around 310 million, 3 times smaller than the calculations made with 1 billion Gen-30 relatives. The data for the 33rd generation of my family tree is greater than the total population of The Earth at that time, yes under those assumptions but that is only 1000 years ago and not considering the rest of humans.
Questions
One of the questions is: why does the number of people grow into the past and not decrease, when the population is larger in the present? The answer is that it grows because it is only taking into account the ancestral family with respect to one child and not all the children of the planet.
It is understood that we all come from a common pair of human beings (Adam and Eve as cited in the Bible), by logic in the past we were less and towards the future the number of the population tends to increase.
But according to the extension of a family tree the ancestors follow the equation of $2^{n}$ in an increasing way up to a point from where the origin started. However, if we go back just one millennium, the data gets very out of order, when the official history places the ancient Egyptians in 3000 B.C. (about 5000 years ago). (about 5000 years ago). It is only necessary to look at our grandparents, they had a large family with at least 3 children and most of them before the age of 33.
I have to say that two members (without being a couple) of the 11th generation do not have to share absolutely nothing of family at first, only the offspring. The kinship between great-grandparents on the mother’s and father’s side is almost nil.
There are many unknown factors for the calculation but making a low ball estimate the number of ancestors does not fit the population data in the past.
Answers
The answers can be several:
- Dead:
- People had a short life span, died very young and did not increase the population.
- Many dead at some time either due to pandemics / historical resets.
- Nataliad:
- There have been times with low birth rate.
- A few have had many children during an epoch or there is parental sharing.
- Beginning of the human species:
- We are not that long-lived as a species.
The calculations may not be correct but they are an estimate at a minimum, taking into account only one family tree and the living people of that generation.
But I have more doubts, if we come from common parents call them what you will.
- Who created them? If it is by evolution it is still unanswered who created the beginning, if it is an external species more doubts arise and we do not come from chance. Chance, another superior being or God.
- How did they maintain their descendants? It had to be with incest if it was in a natural way and from there to increase the population with different families that diverge.
At the present time
Nowadays it is not even necessary to have a father to have offspring, since there is in vitro fertilization in a woman’s womb, the storage of gametes (male and female) and who knows if they have the technology to do it artificially, let’s hope not and that it is not carried out. With animals there have already been births in an artificial placenta.
However, in the past such technology was not supposed to exist, so they were all parents who would mostly see their children being born, if the father did not die before and the mother got through the birth without complications.
Nature tends to make a balance between men and women but the population could survive only with women if they could guarantee the offspring somehow with in vitro sperm.
And one of the main problems the elite/power groups have is that they know that the population numbers can skyrocket if life expectancy increases. They are afraid of losing power and not being able to control such a high number of people, and it is a problem for their status. That is why they warn and propagandize that natural resources are limited and can run out, that is why they define and delimit the extension of the planet’s territory. And that is why they resort to measures to reduce the number of the population, either by reducing the birth rate or by increasing the death rate.
When we talk about pandemics, we refer to the greatest pandemic of this century, and what happened in previous centuries? Did they also occur in the 1920s?
Conclusion
To change the world, you just need to change the minds of the coming generations for a period of about 100 years where you indoctrinate / educate the old, middle and young. And everyone who comes after will only know what they have been told or what they have access to through the records.
The power resides in each one of us, we all come from the same source and we all leave towards it. We are all united because we are part of the Whole.