it’s a bit tricky to breed from people who are already old
The Howard Foundation’s method [1] was to look for people with four centenarian grandparents, and make it known to them that if they chose to marry and have children with someone else on their list, they would receive a large financial reward.
[1] The fictional organisation described in Heinlein’s Methuselah’s Children, not any real-world foundation, of which there is at least one, that happens to have that name.
I thought it was four living grandparents when recipients were of an age to start a family.
Anyone have an idea of how common that would have been in 1941?
I’m sure it wouldn’t have been centenarian grandparents, at least for the earlier generations—by the time it’s clear that a woman has grandparents that old, she wouldn’t be fertile.
The Howard Foundation’s method [1] was to look for people with four centenarian grandparents, and make it known to them that if they chose to marry and have children with someone else on their list, they would receive a large financial reward.
[1] The fictional organisation described in Heinlein’s Methuselah’s Children, not any real-world foundation, of which there is at least one, that happens to have that name.
I thought it was four living grandparents when recipients were of an age to start a family.
Anyone have an idea of how common that would have been in 1941?
I’m sure it wouldn’t have been centenarian grandparents, at least for the earlier generations—by the time it’s clear that a woman has grandparents that old, she wouldn’t be fertile.
Could well be—it’s a long time since I read the book.