I was talking to a young UC Berkeley philosophy student named Kurt a few days ago and, after discussing Zeno’s paradox (which proves the impossibility of motion) and other philosophical concerns, I brought up the generational study used in The Prosperos in its Advance Seminar class.

Which is:

Each of us had two parents.  And they each had two parents.  And each of them had two parents.  And each of them had two parents.  It doesn’t take long for us to reach an astronomical and impossible number.

Let’s do the math:

Assuming a generation is 25 years.  And just doing the math for one person (let’s say, a 25 year old college student):

25 years ago:  2 people (their parents)
50 years ago:  4 people (their parents)
75 years ago:  8 people (their parents)
100 years ago:  16 people (their parents)
125 years ago:  32 people (their parents)
150 years ago:  64 people (their parents)
175 years ago:  128 people (their parents)
200 years ago:  256 people (their parents)
225 years ago:  512 people (their parents)
250 years ago:  1024 people (their parents)
275 years ago:  2048 people (their parents)
300 years ago:  4096 people (their parents)
325 years ago:  8192 people (their parents)
350 years ago:  16,384 people (their parents)
375 years ago:  32,768 people (their parents)
400 years ago:  65,536 people (their parents)
425 years ago:  131,072 people (their parents)
450 years ago:  262,144 people (their parents)
475 years ago:  524,288 people (their parents)
500 years ago:  1,048,576 people (their parents)
525 years ago:  2,097,152 people (their parents)
550 years ago:  4,194,304 people (their parents)
575 years ago:  8,388,608 people (their parents)
600 years ago: 16,777,216 people (their parents)
625 years ago:  33,554,432 people (their parents)
650 years ago:  67,108,864 people (their parents)
675 years ago:  134,217,728 people (their parents)
700 years ago:  268,435,456 people (their parents)
725 years ago:  536,870,912 people (their parents)
750 years ago:  1,073,741,824 people (their parents)
775 years ago:  2,147,483,648 people (their parents)
800 years ago:  4,294,967,296 people (their parents)
825 years ago:  8,589,934,592 people (their parents)
850 years ago:  17,179,869,184 people (their parents)
875 years ago:  34,359,738,368 people (their parents)
900 years ago:  68,719,476,736 people (their parents)
925 years ago:  137,438,953,472 people (their parents)
950 years ago:  274,877,906,944 people (their parents)
975 years ago:  549,755,813,888 people (their parents)
1000 years ago:  1,099,511,627,776 people (their parents)

And we could go on.

The population of the Earth is approximately 7 billion today.  So, 1000 years ago, there were not one trillion people on the planet.  And that’s only going back 1000 years.  We could go back a lot further, n’est-ce pas?  And, remember, these are the number of ancestors necessary for just for one person, you or me.

So, Kurt’s question to me was:  What does this mean?  To me, it means that the theory that our origin is physical and that our identity if physical is suspect.

My question to Kurt is:  What does it mean to you?