On the uselessness of men - Comparison of sexual and asexual reproduction

A comparison of sexual with asexual reproduction in the Penna aging model f or a single species shows the separation into males and females at a disadv antage due to the halved number of births. Also meiotic and apomictic parth enogenesis and hermaphroditism seem better than sex, even when the individu als follow the suggestion of Jan et al. to engage in sex only when their li fes are endangered by a large number of harmful mutations. In our compariso n, we looked only for intrinsic effects, not for external influences like p arasites or environmental catastrophes.