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About 109 billion people have lived & died. Each grain of sand represents 10 million.

This stunning data visualization of human life by Max Roser was published in 2022.

Today there would be 805 green grains representing 8.05 billion people living on Earth. #science #art

#art #science
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Bosque Bill
Bosque Bill
• •
I remember when the "conventional wisdom" was that there were as many people alive as had ever lived. Clearly not a data-driven conclusion. 🙄
in reply to Bosque Bill

Simon :donor:
Simon :donor:
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@bosquebill I thought I had heard this in the last year or so too, so this surprised me as it’s quite a difference!
@Bosque Bill
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Wendy Lady
Wendy Lady
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this is why I don't believe in ghosts. There would be way too much ghost noise evidence and chatter. It'd be really annoying.

And why would they stay on earth? I'm a ghost now? Send me to effing space! I'm gunna be a space ghost!

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Esslar2
Esslar2
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Oh, this is so good! I've always wondered about this, how many people have lived but the trouble is, what year, century, or millennia does h. sapiens become h. sapiens?
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Kalle Kniivilä
Kalle Kniivilä
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Fascinating. For some reason I imagined that the proportion of now living people would be even larger.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Micah
Micah
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the long termers got it wrong. We should be optimizing for the happiness of the dead.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Steve Moore :toad:
Steve Moore :toad:
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Each grain a unique collection of molecules and microbes, yet only a fraction of as many as stars in the Milky Way. Such a diverse world we inhabit.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Brian Dear
Brian Dear
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Theory: if you flipped the hourglass upside down, you'd depict all the livestock animals currently alive versus all the ones that ever lived?
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Richard Hector
Richard Hector
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So at some point in the future, there'll be no more room for dead people, which will prevent people dying?
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Peter Principle
Peter Principle
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"As sands through the hourglass, so too, are they days of our lives..."
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Graham Coop
Graham Coop
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What's the definition of a person here? Ie how far back in time does the red portion represent. Obviously there's not a concrete time at which humans first appears. That said the exponential growth of pop size may make the precise cutoff not that important.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Jonathan Hill
Jonathan Hill
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The accompanying article says that they’re only taking Homo sapiens into account, and beginning 200,000 years ago. But H. sapiens aren’t the only human species.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Peter Relph
Peter Relph
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Why is it an hourglass? Does the lower half serve any purpose?
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

0x10f
0x10f
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It's unclear whether an infographic like this is supposed to represent a 2D object or a 3D one. The ratio of areas is different from the ratio of volumes.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Timo
Timo
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There should be flames on the population at the top, to represent the Anthropocene #ClimateCrisis
#ClimateCrisis

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