Given how often "Star Trek" has dealt with the concept of small groups of colonists splitting off on their own and establishing enclosed communities, this is a very interesting article.
The basic idea seems to fit what we've generally believed so far, that a certain number of people are needed to maintain genetic stability -- but I'd never have guessed that the number would be less than 200.
I guess this is the kind of information that makes generational starships even more likely -- if a relatively "small" number of people (compared to the hundreds or thousands of people normally considered) can survive for such a long time, then maybe Trek isn't quite as "fantastic" as some people think.
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I gathered it was around the 200 mark, but 80. . . hmm, the keyword here is "social engineering" (yes, Tim, I know that's a term or phrase, not a word). That means you control who mates with whom. I read a SF story where at one point a colony is faced with such a dilemma, with the person having the power (who'd killed half the colony when taking it over) getting to choose.
posted
Imagine if 80 Star Trek fans were stuck in a space ark! They'd either not make it to the second generation (no reproductive ability or killed arguing over the length of Defiant) or become Morlocks pretty damned soon. (present company excluded, of course. I'm talking about other Star Trek fans!)
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
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posted
look at the stats.. we seem to have a pretty elite group of 700 or so here that do pretty well.. we are students, have jobs, girlfriends, normal lives, stuff like that.. but then look at the 11,000 or so Trekkies over at TrekBBS that should have been aborted.
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posted
Small problem: The number of women here can be counted on one hand. Maybe two.
But we could make one hell of a man train.
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-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
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posted
It's funny, I have so many things to say about the man train thing but I'm not.
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Registered: May 1999
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So, how is it that we keep the "bad" trekbbs folks out of here?
I just went there yesterday for the first time - yikes! (I migrated here from rec.***.trek and haven't looked any farther for the most part).
What is the secret of the fanboy barrier?
On the topic however - I live in Iceland which was settled by some hundreds of Vikings w/ associated "wives" they had accumulated about 1000 years ago.
While there has obviously been contact with the outside all along, Icelanders are a fairly homogeneous (no not the man train) population and are the subject of several on-going genetic studies (National Geographic had a good summary a couple of years ago).
Thought I should add - we should NOT use the viking model to get mates for the USS Flare. No Mimm Monkey, NO! Bad monkey.
[ February 21, 2002, 11:37: Message edited by: Toadkiller ]
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posted
Bright colors, the absence of board ranks like Captain and Ensign...
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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Toadkiller needs to buy me things in Iceland & ship them to me to satisfy my fetish.
In a way...we DO use a uniquely Icelandic concept, that of the go�ar & the b�ndr. See, in medieval Iceland (that being roughly the time of settlement in the 800s to about AD 1200) the Icelanders were NOT as one might think marauding Vikings with blood & murder on their minds. Indeed, they were the perhaps the most law-abiding & anarchistic group in the history of the "civilized" world; their conversion to Christianity around 1000 was even a legal decision that was come to after much debate at the Althing.
ANyway, back to go�ar & b�ndr. All Icelanders were b�ndr, simple citizen-farmers. However, some of them were also go�ar, a sort of "more influential" farmer who had the generally-recognized influence to mediate disputes & the like, & exerted it over a rough area called a go�ord. (I'm REALLY oversimplifying things here) A go�i (the singular form) knew that his position came from the b�ndr & could be shifted at anytime. Some b�ndr pledged to go�ar who were 2 days' walk away, so there was no need to take to the local one.
The key here was that while a go�i was slightly elevated in status, he was stil at heart just another bondi (also singular). Similarly, here at Flare we have moderators who have slightly elevated positions, yet still know that they're just "regular farmers," so to speak. Their power (mostly) comes from us, the masses, & they know better than to lord their position over us. I bet TrekBBS moderators get all wankerific.
I know far too much about Icelandic political history.
[ February 21, 2002, 13:53: Message edited by: Shik ]
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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I am a retard who hits wrong buttons. Please punish me anally.
[ February 21, 2002, 13:54: Message edited by: Shik ]
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posted
Actually, I thought we "refrained from lording over others" because CC has go-like powers over this place, and he'd kick our asses if we did. :-)
On the other hand, every time I hear the word "homogeneous" I think of Alan Turing, so what do I know?
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