If You and Your Sister Were the Last Humans on Earth

If only two people survived, their kids would have exactly one option… each other. So how many people does it REALLY take to save humanity? We put the last humans on an ark and test every number: 2, 32, 27, 98, 250, 1,280 and 40,000. A computer simulation gives one crew a 0% chance. 27 people burn their ship on a hidden island, and 10 years later only one man is alive. An island where everyone shares just 7 family names. And the tiny group that filled two entire continents. Write your number in the comments BEFORE you watch the ending 👇 00:00 27 people, one island, one survivor 01:03 Level 1: Two people 03:09 Level 2: Thirty-two 04:00 Level 3: The island (Pitcairn) 06:20 Level 4: Ninety-eight (Tristan da Cunha) 07:44 Level 5: Two hundred and fifty 08:43 Level 6: 1,280 09:31 Level 7: Forty thousand 10:45 The answer Sources: Marin & Beluffi (2018), Journal of the British Interplanetary Society — arXiv:1806.03856 Smith, C. (2014), Acta Astronautica — "Estimation of a genetically viable population for multigenerational interstellar voyaging" O'Brien et al. (1985), Science — cheetah genetic uniformity and skin grafts Isle Royale wolf–moose study (Michigan Tech) Fagundes et al. (2018), Genetics and Molecular Biology — Native American founding population (~250) Hu et al. (2023), Science — the 1,280 bottleneck claim (disputed) Tristan da Cunha Government — population and family names History of Pitcairn Island and the Bounty mutineers #humanity #survival #history #science #apocalypse