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Sexrepro (Real Life) questions

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Numsgil:
But that's only part of the story.  You can show with Darwinbots pretty easy that even a large population of genetically identical bots move to outright internal war and cannibalism after very little time.

I could also point out symbiotic relationships between organisms that are billions of years seperated in genetic history, yet still require the other for survival.  In effect, they've become a single living entity.

I think genetic similarity is neither necessary nor sufficient for the creation of complex societies and eventually multicellular critters.  It's common, but I think it's commonality has more to do with feedback loops between member cells (a single DNA change has far reaching effects for all members of the societal multicritter).

cliftut:
The main reason I think reproduction wouldn't work for sperm is because they have no way of obtaining energy. Like Ramiro said, they have a single purpose; swim until you find an egg cell. They have no way of obtaining energy, and only have about enough energy to make their way to the egg cells. Reproducing on their own, would cause two problems;
1. it would spread their energy thin so that they would be incapable of making it to the egg cells.
2. it would increase the possibility of mutations in young, and even maybe allow multiple mutations. This is assuming, though, that the sperm would be capable of reaching the egg cells.

Also, for sperm to be able reproduce and still reach the egg cells, they would have to simultaneously gain the ability to gather energy. If the method of gathering energy was eating other organisms, that would mean that the sperm would start eating cells around them, and maybe even each other. This would probably result in sterility for male organisms, and the sperm would basically become bacteria, and keep eating and reproducing, which wouldn't bode well for the male that produced them... O_O

In short, repro in sperm would most likely be a bad thing in all cases.

Trafalgar:

--- Quote from: cliftut ---The main reason I think reproduction wouldn't work for sperm is because they have no way of obtaining energy.
...
Also, for sperm to be able reproduce and still reach the egg cells, they would have to simultaneously gain the ability to gather energy.
--- End quote ---

I made a league bot (named Nanite Detonators) which does not do any energy gathering whatsoever, no shooting, no tie feeding, nothing. Starting with 5 bots, it reproduces and flies all over the place, killing any enemy bots it notices (with an instakill tie attack - setting strvenom or strpoison to 10000 or so). It reaches a max population of around 550 bots, if the opponents aren't particularly tough (after which they begin to die off, but when you've got 550 bots flying around the map at high speed, pretty much nothing can hide). In a sim with wrapping sides, it wipes out every bot I tried it against from any league. When I made another bot look friendly to it, that bot still lost due to ( a ) trying to attack or feed on the nanites and getting killed in retaliation, and ( b ) there were no veggies to eat due to the nanites killing veggies shortly after they (re)spawned.

Given a bot starting with 3000 energy and 1000 body, which is what a league bot starts with, that single bot should be quite capable of splitting off half its energy and body to create 50 or more sperm bots, which would have quite a good chance of finding any eggs out there. If the main bot waited until it had 30000 energy and 10000 body to split off half of it, and that half went towards creating nothing but sperm, then it would make an equivalent amount of sperm bots (550) as the previously mentioned group of 5 bots using all their energy and body. (Here's a bit of very simple math showing why: If 5 bots with 3000 energy and 1000 body can make 550 sperm by using all their energy and body, then 1 bot using half of its could make 55, and if 1 bot had 30000 energy and 10000 body, and still spent half of it, it would be spending 10x as much resources as the 1 bot using half of 3000e/1000b. So, it could make 10 * 55 bots, which would be 550.)

Note: I didn't read the entire thread, I mostly just read the thread-necromancer's post.

Gobo:
The question is great. It is not about what organelles or energy stermatozoa lack to reproduce. Cytological mechanics answer question how they cannot reproduce, but not why.

Let's suppose, some spermatozoa obtained "free-living" gene. Could this gene be successful? I doubt. They are not adapted for hostile environment, since they are too specialized. If it were some primitive organism with less specialized gametes, it could happen. Though I'm not ready for now to give a real-life example when gametes act like single cell organisms occasionally.

Peter:
It is simple sperm isn't made to reproduce itself it lacks too many cel-stuff(organels)

Why does it lack those organels, becouse we don't want it to become indepentant of ours. It has just enough energie to come to the egg-cel and it basicly can't survive long in the hostile inviroment even if it had the energie.

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