In order to be born, you needed:

  • 2 parents
  • 4 grandparents
  • 8 great-grandparents
  • 16 second great-grandparents
  • 32 third great-grandparents
  • 64 fourth great-grandparents
  • 128 fifth great-grandparents
  • 256 sixth great-grandparents
  • 512 seventh great-grandparents
  • 1,024 eighth great-grandparents
  • 2,048 ninth great-grandparents

For you to be born today from 12 previous generations, you needed a total sum of 4,094 ancestors over the last 400 years.

Think for a moment – How many struggles? How many battles? How many difficulties? How much sadness? How much happiness? How many love stories? How many expressions of hope for the future? – did your ancestors have to undergo for you to exist in this present moment…

— Lyrical Zen

Ancestral Mathematics