🚀 go-pugleaf

meron@cars3.uchicago.edu wrote:
: In article <862824010.27724@dejanews.com>, hefeng@cz3.nus.sg writes:
: >Now: a normal person has two parents, and four great parents, and 8 great
: >great parents, and 16......
: >therefore whenever we trace back one generation, the number of our
: >ancestors doubles. But if we go back the years, the population decreases!
: >Therefore there will be a time when the no. of one's ancestors equals the
: >total population! and after that, even greater!
: >This is nonsense. But where did I go wrong?

: By overcounting.  You're implicictly assuming that all the ancestors 
: are different people.

        But there is an obvious problem, not with 
numbers, but with sir-names.   As the population
is studied backward, there has to be less last names,
so where do all the last names come from?
        And another factor is that with the current/past
convention of the wife taking the husbands last name,
and some families having no boy children, the total
number of last names should be decreasing, and that
does not seem possible considering the fact that
there must be more last names now than ever before.
        Studies of this kind may not have much use,
but it is a good exercise in learning to develop
original thoughts and see where problems and conflicts
exist.  :-)

Ken Fischer