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Asked by anon-220957 on 19 Jun 2019.
Question: can there be a world of just women
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Matthew Bareford answered on 19 Jun 2019:
In terms of alternate universes, if the theory stands then yes there is no reason why not.
in terms of for the future, then in theory there could in terms of the science needed for reproduction. But alternatively this could be the same for the opposite… or even for neither!
I personally think any world of just men or just women would be rather boring and rather less awesome!
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David Wilson answered on 19 Jun 2019: last edited 20 Jun 2019 8:43 am
EDIT: I’ve come back to edit my answer and offer something a bit more sensible.
Can there be a world of just women? Theoretically, YES. Have a look at this experiment: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2001/07/egg-fertilized-without-sperm
researchers have fertilised mouse eggs with cells from another mouse’s body–instead of sperm. The work is the first demonstration that embryos can develop from the combination of an intact egg and a nonreproductive cell. But don’t discount the importance of sperm just yet–it’s not yet clear whether any of the early-stage embryos could develop further.
This was 18 years ago and i’ve not heard anything since so i suspect nothing much came of if but then i came across this while double checking my answer: https://institutions.newscientist.com/article/mg23831730-300-making-babies-how-to-create-human-embryos-with-no-egg-or-sperm/ which was written last year.
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The genre of SciFi might seem a little crazy at times but some of the best books and films have a firm footing in the science we know and understand.
I’m currently reading a book called Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, it tells the story of the end of the Earth as we know it and the establishment of the remaining human race, a group of women, in orbit around the Earth. 1000’s of year later the Earth is repopulated from these women and the stored genetic data and tissue of the old-Earth.
A fanciful story but the genetic theory makes sense. -
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Kate Timms answered on 19 Jun 2019:
If we could perfect the science of creating an embryo from just egg cells and not sperm, then yes. It has been done before in mice, so I suppose it’s only a matter of time before it can be done in humans. When that happens, it would be perfectly possible to sustain a population with just women.
Just XY men would be harder because of our current need for a womb to grow the baby. Pregnancy and the placenta are both incredibly complex processes, so the chance of an artificial womb being created successfully is very low indeed. There are far too many factors involved. -
Kaitlin Wade answered on 19 Jun 2019:
As life exists now, I don’t think that would be sustainable but it would be possible. Originally, I thought that it might not be possible given the way that way we have evolved to reproduce but people get over this every single day with IVF or artificial insemination to create a beautiful human life. So actually, there’s no reason why this couldn’t happen. In order for this to be sustainable though, we’d need an obscene amount of stored sperm in order to procreate, which seems like it would be messy and quite logistically challenging…. so doesn’t seem like something that would happen!
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Nina Rzechorzek answered on 19 Jun 2019:
Theoretically possible but why would you want a less diverse world? I think the knack to sustain our species for millennia to come is to have as many ‘genetic tricks up our sleeve’ as possible – so if conditions change, we have more material to choose from to help us adapt. There are some species that have figured out how to reproduce asexually through parthenogenesis – a neat tactic if mates are hard to come by, but it still has the drawback of less genetic diversity:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/asexual-lizards/
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/zebra-shark-virgin-birth-reproduction/ -
Thiloka Ratnaike answered on 20 Jun 2019:
In a time of empowering women for achieving a more equal standing in higher social positions, it is easy to forget that it is as important to consider the role of men in the current day and age! We need both sexes for a balanced, ongoing human population!
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