I googled the amount of people that lived on earth throughout its entire history, it’s roughly 108 billions. If I take 1 person and multiply by 2 for each generation of ancestors, at the 37th generation it already outnumbers that 108 billions. (it’s 137 billions). If we take 20 years for 1 generation, it’s only 740 years by the 37th generation.
How??
(I suck at math, I recounted it like 20 times, got that 137 billions at 37th, 38th and 39th generation, so forgive me if it’s not actually at 37th, but it’s still no more than 800 years back in history)
In: 1391
You’re assuming that everyone alive right now has different ancestors.
This is wrong because you and your sibling have the same parents. Your parents and their siblings have the same parents which means you have the same grandparents as your cousins. Follow it back enough and every ancestral line joins up eventually.
If everyone in history was an only child then your calculations would be correct, except for the fact that if that was the case then the population would decrease over time.
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