If you had to choose twenty people to

[jorno67]

repopulate Earth (or start a new colony in another system), what (not WHO) would these people be? Could the fate of mankind survive some poor choices, for example, a supply side CEO?

[Snoggera]

1. The people that used to wear

rainbow dresses and hats and dance at Grateful Dead concerts.

I'm not kidding.

Why populate with the same group that destroyed the previous incarnation?

[mike1963]

2. Me and 19 Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders?

:evilgrin:

[taxidriver]

3. how about ten olympic athletes and ten MIT geniuses?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Mystics and spiritual people

many of whom will be wearing rainbow colors and danced to the Grateful Dead.....

[MadChatter]

5. It certainly would

have to survive some poor choices, since one of my choices would be ME! LOL!

[newyawker99]

9. Hi MadChatter!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[kayell]

6. Wouldn't work

You need a larger genetic base, at least 50 IIRC.

[jorno67]

8. OK go with 50.

Would the list be supermodels and farmers?

[Zorra]

7. Rainbow Family "elders".

It's not what they do occupationally, it is who they are and what they have learned and practice as human beings:

The interesting thing is that we all consider ourselves to be part of a huge, extended family, no matter what our reason for gathering, no matter what our spiritual or religious or political or economic or social views may be. And many people who have not yet had an opportunity to attend a gathering also feel they are part of this family.

Another interesting thing is that there is no formal organizational structure. There are no membership qualifications, no fees or dues, no leaders, and virtually no rules other than the one of "peaceful respect." Each year, individuals take personal responsibility and work together with others on whatever they are inspired to do, from office work, to scouting, to building the kitchens at the gatherings, to hauling in food and first-aid supplies, to peacekeeping, etc. Every project undertaken operates essentially on a consensus basis. Participation, communication, and cooperation are how things get done.

http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow.html

[kvnf]

10. Why would you want

to screw up a perfectly good planet by putting humans on it?
That's just sadistic.

Actually, I defer to Stanley Kubrick on this one:
"It could easily be accomplished with a computer. And a computer could be set and programmed to accept factors from youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, and a cross section of necessary skills. Of course it would be absolutely vital that our top government and military men be included to foster and impart the required principles of leadership and tradition....I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature. " --Dr. Strangelove

[Bombtrack]

11. Me, some older men I admire, and about a dozen ultra-babes

So when the old guys kick I'm left with all the ultra babes.

I know that you said what not who, but I'll just give some examples

So what older guys do I think are really admirable and I'd like to spend time with? George Carlin, Hugh Hefner, Stan Lee, Bill Maher, Ted Kennedy, and a couple nobel prize winners in science and medicine.

As far as ultra babes, Josie Maran and Jessica Simpson come to mind, although for the latter I'd have to breed her with one of the geniuses.

[jorno67]

12. You just had the words "Jessica Simpson" and "mind" in the same sentence.

[Nobody]

13. I'd breed for brains not beauty

And since I'm going ultra-utilitarian with this, we have 6 billion to choose from, so we can afford to choose the best of the best.

I want geniuses who are proven able to get along with others, no mad scientist types or people with poor social skills. People in good health with as few physical abnormalities as possible. A small gene pool will bring all the deadly elements together, so let's try to avoid this. Let's choose a variety of ethnicities so we can combine the best of all of humanity. We also want people predisposed to a long healthy life. There should be more females than males due to the legnth of pregnancies, and each woman should be predisposed to easy pregnancies and childbirth. Each person, man or woman, should be fertile. I don't care about sexual orientation, the important thing is to have kids one way or another. I'm assuming the tech will be low for a while, so the easy pregnancies and childbirth is especially important.

If the tech exists to create children from artificial wombs and we can bring an entire sperm bank along with donated ovaries, we can have even more genetic diversity. Each person not going would have the opportunity to donate gametes of whatever they have.

And if we have a geneticist with the crew going, we can weed out the things like blindness, predisposition to cancer, congenital diseases and mental retardation. This will help a tiny colony without the sperm/ovary bank option.

The knowledge base we want would include science, history, education, farming, and the ability to Mcgyver stuff together using the wrong tools. having knowledge is not as useful if you can't pass it along effectively.

Note that this excludes me on many counts. One: I'm female about 15 years away from menopause. Two: There are lots of people smarter than me with knowledge that is more useful than what I have. Three: I have too many genetic defects.

My message to those going: Create a better world than what we have here.