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How many people have ever lived on Earth?

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Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#111

Post by orra »

damontal wrote: post #104

What is meant by People? There is cave art and other relics dating back to 25,000 years ago. Do Neanderthals count?

Way further back!

This article starts 190 000 years back. Our species, Homo Sapien, goes back anywhere from then, up to 300 000 years ago. The genus Homo around two million years.

I think it's a very interesting question, what does human mean? It's easy to think early humans were intrinsically different, merely because not much physical evidence survives. But given Neanderthals were doing cave art 64 000 years ago, maybe even they weren't that different.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#113

Post by pcthrowaway »

nunuvit wrote: post #98
KSPAtlas wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they happened (which is unlikely considering how professional and monitored the ISS is), it would have not been in a way that can conceive a child

I know people who work in mission operations, where they're basically on a Skype call with the ISS all day. Several years ago, there was one astronaut in particular who had to be frequently reminded to cover up. Once they're up there, no one can prevent them from doing what they want, especially if it's their last flight. They're professional in the sense of completing the mission, but they're humans with pilot perso…

Who would honestly turn down the opportunity to have sex in 0G if given the chance

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#114

Post by Aaargh20318 »

flakeoil wrote: post #77
lyu07282 wrote: post #33

Makes me wonder how many more billions will have to die before we bother to put some actual effort into ending death, but I know that's a very obscure opinion. https://nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon

Wow, imagine having 117B people walking around on earth right now. No thank you.

If me manage to cure death, then there is no need to stick around on earth. We can start exploring the universe.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#115

Post by orra »

wanderingmind wrote: post #11
tjpnz wrote: post #3

Why do I keep (mis)remembering a fact that most members of the human race are alive right now?

exponential growth is something our brains cant naturally process.

I think it's precisely this. We see exponential population growth of population, so we naturally assume most humans are alive now. What this intuition fails to grasp is quite how long humans have been around: eventually that adds up.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#116

Post by jncfhnb »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #114
flakeoil wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, imagine having 117B people walking around on earth right now. No thank you.

If me manage to cure death, then there is no need to stick around on earth. We can start exploring the universe.

How are those two concepts related

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#118

Post by wongarsu »

sigg3 wrote: post #83
Gualdrapo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now wonder how many people have been born anywhere but Earth

Apparently there have been cases of sexual intercourse on the ISS, so we could potentially have a human conceived there.

My money would actually be on sexual intercourse having happened on Mir, if it happened in space at all. Smaller crew size, and being under the supervision of the slowly failing Soviet Union followed by early Russia surely made it much easier to ignore certain orders than it is on the ISS.

But if it ever happened it hasn't been made public. Not that that's saying much.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#119

Post by theodorejb »

lucozade wrote: post #86
theodorejb wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus claimed to offer everlasting life to those who believe in him (see Gospel of John). Worth looking into?

All of the people that Jesus was referring to did, in fact, die. So that's not going to help the person you're responding to.

Eyewitnesses wrote that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and later rose from the dead himself. If this really happened it makes sense why none of the apostles were afraid to die for what they were certain was true.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#120

Post by planede »

orra wrote: post #115
wanderingmind wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exponential growth is something our brains cant naturally process.

I think it's precisely this. We see exponential population growth of population, so we naturally assume most humans are alive now. What this intuition fails to grasp is quite how long humans have been around: eventually that adds up.

With a precise exponential the tail wouldn't really add up all that much. The integral to infinity is a finite number.
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