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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?

#161
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> they're basically on a Skype call with the ISS all day. Do they still use Skype up there?

No idea. Perhaps someone who's still affiliated can answer.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#162
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

True. Maybe the fallacy is seeing exponential(ish) growth now, and pretending it was always exponential. Maybe population was linear(ish), for a very, very, long time.

It can't be exponential. If in 1800 there was 1G people, in 1900 2G people and in 2000 6G people, and we fit an exponential curve thought that we get less than 10 people alive in the year 0.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#163
post #80
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't know that.

You do know it. All empirical evidence from thousands of years of scrutiny points to you ending when your body dies. You dont treat any other piece of knowledge with the same demand as you do the (lack of) afterlife.

It's not empirically testable. Nobody has truly died and come back and no one can. Even if all religions are false it does not follow that there is absolutely nothing after clinical death.

This is just a limitation of science, because we need a conscious mind to test and/or interpret the results.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#164
post #163
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know it. All empirical evidence from thousands of years of scrutiny points to you ending when your body dies. You dont treat any other piece of knowledge with the same demand as you do the (lack of) afterlife.

It's not empirically testable. Nobody has truly died and come back and no one can. Even if all religions are false it does not follow that there is absolutely nothing after clinical death. This is just a limitation of science, because we need a conscious mind to test and/or interpret the results.

> it does not follow that there is absolutely nothing after clinical death.

Where's your evidence?

What if I claimed when you die you are reincarnated as a zebra on omnicrom-5? Why is that more or less reasonable than an explanation some religious leader made up one time when he was high?

Anyone can come up with some ungabunga, but unless you have evidence there's no rational to believe it.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#165
post #81
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah pretty much any pagan religion has some sort of post mortuary soothing story. Worth looking into?

Seems redundant given 'pagan' means either * not Christian other religions in the Roman Empire, or (more generally) * not Christian religions. Easier to say most, if not all, religions have an afterlife story.

How interesting. Is there any religion without any opinion on the afterlife or is that the unifying thing for all religions.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't argue with that tbh. only that we then start to talk about unimaginable timeframes.

I would argue that by invoking the concept of immortality, you have therefore invoked the “unimaginable timeframe” of infinity to the conversation from the outset. so it’s not like it was ever not part of the conversation

I also specified that this jellyfish is BIOLOGICAL immortal. If it were provided with a livable space indefinitely, it would live forever.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#167
post #83

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.

There was once a married couple, Jan Davis and Mark Lee who both flew on STS-47, a 7 day mission to Spacelab in 1992. Not saying sex did happen, but this would be the incident with the highest probability.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#168
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a much more firm reason you're right - life expectancy isn't increasing how most think it is. There was an interesting study [1] that examined the life expectancy of all known individuals from Ancient Greece, excluding those with violent deaths (assassination, forced suicide, etc) and found the average male born before 100BC lived to 72 years old on average. In America in 2019 (to avoid COVID biases),…

That study is based on a very biased sample, and is very much not about life expectancy at birth. It is based on records of noteworthy people: "both ancient and modern samples were comparable with respect to males who survived into adulthood and who achieved notability (or notoriety)."

This was all covered in the post you are responding to.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#169
post #164
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not empirically testable. Nobody has truly died and come back and no one can. Even if all religions are false it does not follow that there is absolutely nothing after clinical death. This is just a limitation of science, because we need a conscious mind to test and/or interpret the results.

> it does not follow that there is absolutely nothing after clinical death. Where's your evidence? What if I claimed when you die you are reincarnated as a zebra on omnicrom-5? Why is that more or less reasonable than an explanation some religious leader made up one time when he was high? Anyone can come up with some ungabunga, but unless you have evidence there's no rational to believe it.

The point is there is no evidence, and also there is no claim that I am making. It is unknown. The only claims of resurrections are religious in nature, which proves my point.

Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?

#170
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So do Yolngu and Wiradjuri Dreamtime stories that date back 70,000+ years. Worth looking into?

How was it dated?

Stable persistent settlement has been dated by genetic clocks, various types of radiological markers on rock art and layered artifacts and middens with ranges at differing locations from comfortably 30k years out to 70k years at a stretch - it's a very big country.

eg: at least 50k established by genetics for most of the land area:

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21416

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