diff --git a/src/blog/ancestors.md b/src/blog/ancestors.md index 3738446..ea8d2e3 100644 --- a/src/blog/ancestors.md +++ b/src/blog/ancestors.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ --- layout: base.njk -title: "You (maybe?) have thousands of ancestors from the 1600s" +title: "You have thousands of ancestors from the 1500s" --- # {{ title }} @@ -25,187 +25,17 @@ A Very Short Introduction* by Jonathan Slack: > ancestry running back to the origin of life on Earth, we do not necessarily > have any DNA variants from most of our ancestors. -There's probably a point when the numbers get nonsensical, right? We double -the number of ancestors every generation. At what point does the number of -ancestors exceed the number of humans that were probably alive at that point -in time? I will surely mess up the math, but let's give it a shot. Slack -(the author, not the blackhole of knowledge) says that ten generations ago is -250-300 years, so let's take the low value (250) and assume 25 years between -each generation. We'll also assume that you were born today (happy birthday!): +[original version of this post]: https://web.archive.org/web/20230905030056/https://kayce.basqu.es/blog/ancestors/ +[Hacker News discussion]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37387341 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Year of birth# of generations before you# of ancestors
19981 (parents)2
19732 (grandparents)4
19483 (great-grandparents)8
1923416
1898532
1873664
18487128
18238256
17989512
1773101,024
1748112,048
1723124,096
1698138,192
16731416,384
16481532,768
16231665,536
159817131,072
157318262,144
154819524,288
1523201,048,576
1498212,097,152
1473224,194,304
1448238,388,608
14232416,777,216
13982533,554,432
13732667,108,864
134827134,217,728
132328268,435,456
129829536,870,912
1273301,073,741,824
+(In the [original version of this post] I did a thought experiment here to calculate +when the number of ancestors starts to get nonsensical, i.e. if you double the +number of ancestors every generation there's a point where the number of ancestors +exceeds the total number of humans at that point. I've removed this thought experiment +because I think it distracts from my main idea. See the [Hacker News discussion].) -If my calculations are correct, which they surely are not, then it seems like -the math [stops making sense](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r7X3f2gFz4&t=239s) -around 1300. [Estimates of historical world -population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population) -says that the world population around 1300 was between 300M and 500M, whereas my -hilariously flawed logic says that I should have more than 1B ancestors at that -point. +[pedigree collapse]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse -Regardless, I'm pretty sure the basic premise holds: you've got a lot of ancestors. - -Edit: Updated the title from `You have thousands of ancestors from the 1600s` -to `You (maybe?) have thousands of ancestors from the 1600s` to reflect multiple -comments from the [Hacker News discussion of this post](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37387341) -along the lines of "the real world situation is much more complicated". +Your exact number of ancestors depends on how much [pedigree collapse] there +is in your lineage, but I'm pretty sure the basic premise of this blog post +holds: you've got a lot of ancestors. diff --git a/src/favorites/words.md b/src/blog/words.md similarity index 95% rename from src/favorites/words.md rename to src/blog/words.md index c240a8c..0ed0b65 100644 --- a/src/favorites/words.md +++ b/src/blog/words.md @@ -1,11 +1,11 @@ --- layout: base.njk -title: My favorite words (and phrases) +title: My favorite words --- # {{ title }} -This page is a running list of my favorite words and phrases. +This page is a running list of my favorite words. * **Bochecha**. *Cheek* (Brazilian Portuguese). Sounds nice. Pronounced "bo-shay-shuh". @@ -15,15 +15,19 @@ This page is a running list of my favorite words and phrases. "jah-kuh-ray". Pronounce the J like "Jacques (Cousteau)". * **Malaphor**. *A blending of idioms and cliches* (English). E.g. "it's not rocket surgery". +* **Piker**. *A gambler who only makes small bets* (American English). +* **Samfai**. *Con man* (Jamaican). + +