Re: not even sort of old power, Short Vectors Versus Long Vectors

John Levine wrote:

According to MitchAlsup1 <mitchalsup@aol.com>:

So, you (and her) will have to pass over 10,000 of the others to end
up with a compatible partner.

For most of human history most people lived in communities of a few
hundred or a few thousand, with little option to travel very far, and
nonetheless most people managed to find someone to marry. I gather
that until the advent of railways in the 1800s, it was common for
second cousins to marry because that was as genetically far away as
you could get.

In the later stages of the Roman Empire, the average (non-slave)
person traveled more than 100 miles from where they were born/living
many times in their rather short lives.
After the fall of Rome, few people ventured much beyond their own
city/town.
From "A world lit only by Fire", Manchester.

It's also a question of expectations. If you expect to find someone
who exactly matches everything you're looking for, you'll probably be
out of luck.  But if you are looking for someone who matches on the
issues that are important, and you're willing to work out the details
as you go along, well, that's worked for me for the past 30 years.

(Perhaps we can find somewhere other than comp.arch to discuss this.
In my original message in which I reported about grad student wives
holding their husbands' places in line to use an IBM 650, I didn't
hear anything about how that did or did not affect their marriage. But
I would expect in that era, the wives said, yeah, whatever, grabbed
their blankets, and groused with each other about what a stupid setup
it was.)