The idea of a genetic legacy is a poor one. I understand the biological drive for it. I understand the desire to have children of your own, to pass on you’re wisdom and knowledge, so that they can reject it and then realize you may not have been such a fool as they originally thought when they reach a more mature age.
As Mark Twain said, “When I got back from college, I was amazed at how much my father had learned.”
But lets look at simple numbers. Two men: the provider that has two children in his 30s and the Cad that starts having children at 19 or so, and doesn’t stop, except for his stints in jail and has 10 children over his lifetime.
I am going to skip over the fact that some of the cads children will more than likely be reproducing before the providers (which only makes the situation worse for the provider.)
I am also going to assume that all the children have reproductive success and follow the pattern of their fathers (this is a big assumption).
Generation of Descendants Cad Provider
Children 10 2
Grandchildren 100 4
Great grandchildren 1,000 8
Great great grandchildren 10,000 16
5th Generation 100,000 32
6th Generation 1,000,000 64
7th Generation 10,000,000 128
8th Generation 100,000,000 256
9th Generation 1,000,000,000 512
10th Generation 10,000,000,000 Completely washed away
I recognize that there will be descendants of each side that will not get to reproduce, and I can see arguments for it cutting either way (Without the nanny state social programs, it would cut against the Cad, in the current order it cuts against the provider). The provider’s children could have more children, but raised as they are, they are unlikely to do so, and the Cad’s children may not have a full ten children, but they are more likely to follow in his footsteps for as long as society allows them to do so.
I have known men that have spent over twenty years in prison and have produced more children than the number of years they have served.
Now here is the interesting thing about the provider with two children and so on. With the children, half of them is made up of his DNA. With his grandchildren, there are four of them and and one fourth of their DNA comes from him. At great grandchildren, there are eight of them and one eighth of his DNA comes from him. With each generation, the amount of his genetic material that passes down is the same quantity, it does not increase and that number equals one (it is not equivalent to all his DNA, because of the shuffling his full genetic legacy does not pass on, it’s closer to about 75%)
Now with the guy that has ten children, that’s ten children with half their DNA from him, that makes the number in terms of quantity equal to 5 (and much closer to all his DNA passing on). The next generation, its 100 children with one fourth their DNA from him that is equal to quantity of 25 times what the provider has contributed to the pool. At great grandchildren, they all have an eighth of his DNA and he has 125 times the amount of genetic material in the gene pool that the provider does.
On it goes, with his genes becoming more dominant and growing by a factor of 5 each time.
There is a reason so many people in Asia are descended from Genghis Khan.
