Let’s say that I was a mad scientist who wanted to breed a race (if that’s even the right term) of…whatever. Brilliant scientists, beauty pageant winners, world class weightlifters, etc. Assuming that I had the ability to take from a sample size that was effectively the entire world’s population, how long would it be (in generations) before I was producing people who were essentially the pinnacle of human development in a given trait? If I were to try to make beautiful brilliant bodybuilders (holy alliteration!), would that be more difficult than just trying to breed one trait into a group of people? If I was going to go for all three, would I want to make try doing it all at once (i.e. match beautiful with strong, then smart with beautiful, then strong with smart, etc.), or would I want to develop three “strains” and then combine them?
IANAMS (I am not a Mad Scientist)
Just wondering why you’d bother with all this. If you were a half-decent Mad Scientist, you could just identify the various genes the lead to the phenotype you want, and decant your beatiful army of servile beauties from the bottle.
I suspect the answer lies in the genetic characteristics of the specific traits you want. There are some traits that are “on/off” (tongue-rolling gene), there are some that lie on a continuum (height, hair color). I would think the # of generations would be dependent on how the trait worked, genetically.
Also note that all your particular example are at least to some degree controlled by non-genetic factors – I doubt people are born as bodybuilders.
Serendipity: Gene mutation makes tot super strong
Top professional bodybuilders have extremely good genetics going for them, even on top of the drugs.
The OP did not refer to particularly strong people, it referred to bodybuilders – i.e. gym rats, someone who spends a lot of time building their body. My skepticism was that someone was born with a genetic predisposition to hitting the weights.
I should have said, “strong folk” I assumed that I wouldn’t be taken literally and was going for goofy alliteration.
How about this: if we were to take a simple on/off genetic trait, how far would we have to go to eliminate this? I understand that there are variations, but would it be a matter of scores of generations or hundreds?
How about if I were trying to breed a race of people who consistently had genius-level IQ?
Is that a bit more specific?
Well now you’re talking! Allow me to reformulate the problem…
There are 4 combinations. 0/0, 1/0, 0/1, and 1/1. 1s are dominant, and you like them. If any person has of the last three combinations, you keep them to breed, if it’s the 0/0, you kill 'em off. Each generation, either of the pair has a 50% chance of propogating to the next generation. So if a 1/0 bred with a 1/1, you’d have at 50% chance of getting a 1/0, and a 50% chance of getting a 1/1. And so on. Not being a genetics whiz, you have no way of separating out the 1/1s from the 1/0 and 0/1s.
Start with (example) 10,000 people, 25% with each combination. Each generation, after being pruned of all 0/0s, randomly breeds with each other. How many generations, on average, would it take to eliminate all 0s, or if that is impossible, to bring their percentage down to some arbitrary threshold.
Is that more or less where you’re going?
Yep, that’s what I’m getting at Muttrox, at least with the “eliminate X trait” part.
I suppose that’s a simple matter of mathematics, while my dreams of making a race of ultra fit nerd swimsuit models is a bit more complex.
If it’s a dominant trait, you can get rid of it in one generation - just kill anyone expressing that trait.
If it’s recessive, you’ll never get rid of it, assuming you only have phenotype to go by, because it will always be able to hide in carriers. If your mad scientist has access to some sort of DNA testing facility, so he can tell carriers from non-carriers, then, again, you can get rid of it in one generation, because you’ll know exactly who has that allele.