After 32 generations (~800 years) you have more genealogical ancestors than there are base pairs in human DNA. There literally isn’t enough resolution to store a “record” of each of your ancestors, even if you inherited exactly 1 base pair from each ancestor.

Additional complications make it an even shorter timeline. After about 8 generations, you share no more DNA with your ancestors than you do with a random stranger.

Politically this should be more well known. Of course, racists and fascists rely on “blood quantum” arguments to justify racial or ethnic oppression. But they don’t invent this idea of strict genetic identity. It’s latent in the population.

Leftists should more frequently call out genetic tests like 23andMe as inherently racist because it’s based in race science nonsense. It may not be as obvious as Nazis invoking aryan genes or whatever; but it’s still just as incorrect when your aunt at Thanksgiving talks about how she discovered she’s 2% Choctaw or whatever

pickle-liz

  • Xavienth
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    24 days ago

    Yeah, the post says at 32 generations (800 years) there’s more ancestors than base pairs, but at 37 generations, there’s more ancestors than humans that have ever existed.

      • Xavienth
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        24 days ago

        No it’s like 900 years. So the fact that 900 years back, you should have over 100 billion ancestors indicates a lot of inbreeding. And to be clear, not necessarily familial inbreeding (though ofc that too), but just like, being distantly related too.