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A comment on The richest families in Florence in 1427 are still the richest (2016). Parent comment

Re:The richest families in Florence in 1427 are still the ri... by iguy on Thursday January 10, 2019 @08:48AM (#18873756)
These points are true. And note that 2^24 is larger than the population of Italy at that time.

But you should be extremely cautious about presuming that these 2^24-minus-duplications ancestors were anything like uniformly distributed. Top-10% Florentines today may easily have a majority of their descent from top-10% ones 600 years ago. Because the rich had more kids, in a time of very slow overall population growth.

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Re:The richest families in Florence in 1427 are still the ri... by credit_guy on Friday January 11, 2019 @08:09AM (#18883281)
Well, my guess is that 100% of the Florentines today have easily a majority of their ancestors in the top 10% of the Florentines 600 years ago. Survival of the fittest and stuff ...
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Re:The richest families in Florence in 1427 are still the ri... by iguy on Monday January 14, 2019 @04:14AM (#18901741)
Could be, I was trying to be cautious!

But many, many, people are extremely surprised to think that survival of the fittest has any relevance within historical time. Let alone between us and Dante.

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