The story is cut short. You are left, it would seem, surviving with your daughter, the last two humans on the planet. But the choices are only just beginning. Do you give yourself every possible chance to save the species? Do you “shut up and multiply”?
I didn’t catch the meaning of the grandparent until I read your comment, then I re-read it and the implication hit me in the face. Thank you for making me realize that it was supposed to be cringe inducing.
It depends I think on the nature of the cure or antidote. Is it a substance that has to be replicated and continually administered or is it a vaccine?
The Earth is a really big place and I think if the father has an IQ of about 140+ (seem probable considering the team he was a part of) and the daughter is somewhere about 130+ he could probably be able to eventually teach his daughter everything he knows in his own field.
A few decades living off supplies seems like plenty of time for them to find a way to splice up resistance into a simple photosynthesis capable organism. Worst case scenario they can structure everything around making sure the technology behind replicating more of the substance is completely understood and simplified as much as possible to keep the few crops alive.
Genetically speaking I think we can find a easy way around father daughter incest, some sperm banks are presumably still intact. However the real problem is with the daughter giving birth to enough children to have a viable population. Also keeping those children in line without them going wild will be hard with a adult who is severely traumatised and the young mother who will have a very great dependency on him (all social interaction ever until the children grow somewhat).
I’m trying to figure out what is better, earlier pregnancies (17+ ish) for a larger and more variable starting population of the world’s last animals? Or more years studying medicine in hopes of minimizing the odds of the daughter dying in childbirth?
Sexuality would be very explosive in such a tiny community of half siblings, a aligning old grandfather and a somewhat confused and out of place mother (who is possibly fixated on the grandfather sexually, a major side order of frustration, as well as emotionally). Perhaps it would be wisest to make the first generation all female in order to maximize reproductive potential? Perhaps using drugs that kill the libido should become a fixture for the society until there are at least a few settlements of perhaps a dozen people each with the full know how of replicating the antidote to keep sexual issues on a hold for a few generations?
Assuming that sperm banks are more well-stocked than egg banks, making the first generation all female would have the additional benefit of allowing you to reintroduce more diversity into the population, so the third generation only has 1⁄4 of your daughter’s genes.
Hard to say but I’d guess a rather long time. There earth is a big place and there wouldn’t be much else around to consume or otherwise destroy the reserves of the necessities of life.
But without wanting to distract with too many technical qualifications I was actually working on the assumption from elsewhere in this thread that the trees turned out ok.
The story is cut short. You are left, it would seem, surviving with your daughter, the last two humans on the planet. But the choices are only just beginning. Do you give yourself every possible chance to save the species? Do you “shut up and multiply”?
Upvoted for making me cringe.
I didn’t catch the meaning of the grandparent until I read your comment, then I re-read it and the implication hit me in the face. Thank you for making me realize that it was supposed to be cringe inducing.
How long do you really think they’re going to survive if ‘every living cell on the planet died’ is even 90% accurate?
It depends I think on the nature of the cure or antidote. Is it a substance that has to be replicated and continually administered or is it a vaccine?
The Earth is a really big place and I think if the father has an IQ of about 140+ (seem probable considering the team he was a part of) and the daughter is somewhere about 130+ he could probably be able to eventually teach his daughter everything he knows in his own field.
A few decades living off supplies seems like plenty of time for them to find a way to splice up resistance into a simple photosynthesis capable organism. Worst case scenario they can structure everything around making sure the technology behind replicating more of the substance is completely understood and simplified as much as possible to keep the few crops alive.
Genetically speaking I think we can find a easy way around father daughter incest, some sperm banks are presumably still intact. However the real problem is with the daughter giving birth to enough children to have a viable population. Also keeping those children in line without them going wild will be hard with a adult who is severely traumatised and the young mother who will have a very great dependency on him (all social interaction ever until the children grow somewhat).
I’m trying to figure out what is better, earlier pregnancies (17+ ish) for a larger and more variable starting population of the world’s last animals? Or more years studying medicine in hopes of minimizing the odds of the daughter dying in childbirth?
Sexuality would be very explosive in such a tiny community of half siblings, a aligning old grandfather and a somewhat confused and out of place mother (who is possibly fixated on the grandfather sexually, a major side order of frustration, as well as emotionally). Perhaps it would be wisest to make the first generation all female in order to maximize reproductive potential? Perhaps using drugs that kill the libido should become a fixture for the society until there are at least a few settlements of perhaps a dozen people each with the full know how of replicating the antidote to keep sexual issues on a hold for a few generations?
Assuming that sperm banks are more well-stocked than egg banks, making the first generation all female would have the additional benefit of allowing you to reintroduce more diversity into the population, so the third generation only has 1⁄4 of your daughter’s genes.
Hard to say but I’d guess a rather long time. There earth is a big place and there wouldn’t be much else around to consume or otherwise destroy the reserves of the necessities of life.
But without wanting to distract with too many technical qualifications I was actually working on the assumption from elsewhere in this thread that the trees turned out ok.