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?
How many people have ever lived on Earth?
161–170 of 180 posts
Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?
#162Earlier 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.
Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?
#163Earlier 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.
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?
#164Earlier 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.
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?
#165Earlier 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.
Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?
#166Earlier 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
Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?
#167Earlier 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.
Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?
#168Earlier 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)."
Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?
#169Earlier 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.
Re: How many people have ever lived on Earth?
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
So do Yolngu and Wiradjuri Dreamtime stories that date back 70,000+ years. Worth looking into?
How was it dated?
eg: at least 50k established by genetics for most of the land area: