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		How many people have ever been born? (newscientist.com)		157
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16318 clicks; posted to Main » on 31 Oct 2012 at 9:16 AM | Favorite | share:

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cman		2012-10-31 07:59:36 AM

99.9% of every species in existence that has ever lived has gone extinct

I_Am_Weasel		2012-10-31 08:15:12 AM

All of them.

Slaxl		2012-10-31 08:30:09 AM

GooberMcFly		2012-10-31 08:46:15 AM

Boy, Jesus really kicked off a population boom, didn't He?

clancifer		2012-10-31 08:52:54 AM

I_Am_Weasel: All of them.

farkkkk yoooooouuuuu

Barfmaker		2012-10-31 09:05:28 AM

Still?

Anderson's Pooper		2012-10-31 09:18:22 AM

Just me. The rest of you were hatched.

fruitloop		2012-10-31 09:19:43 AM

We should count. I'll start...

1

Contrabulous Flabtraption		2012-10-31 09:21:11 AM

Threeve

PirateKing		2012-10-31 09:21:35 AM

That's funny, because I would have sworn that you are all figments of my imagination.

/solipsism seems like a cool philosophy. I wonder why there aren't more of us.

TeddyRooseveltsMustache		2012-10-31 09:22:51 AM

Why does that chart indicate that there were 0 people until 8000 BC? That makes no sense.

Jairzinho		2012-10-31 09:23:32 AM

Let's see...
Adam 1, Eve 2...oh wait, they weren't born. So we have to start counting from Cain 1, Abel 2.... etc.

karnal		2012-10-31 09:23:51 AM

Time to thin out the herd

Biness		2012-10-31 09:23:52 AM

fewer than should have been, thanks to abortion.

Gleeman		2012-10-31 09:24:45 AM

Kinda puts a crimp in reincarnation theories...

notmtwain		2012-10-31 09:25:08 AM

Interesting graphic but it's taken from How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth by Carl Haub which includes an explanation of how the estimates were derived.

Jairzinho		2012-10-31 09:25:48 AM

karnal: Time to thin out the herd

At the pace earth resources are being consumed and depleted with any regard for future generations, that will take care of itself relatively soon.

coheringthroughwalls		2012-10-31 09:27:08 AM

maybe it sits at 0 because of the previous zombie outbreaks putting us in the negative! ^_^

Hickory-smoked		2012-10-31 09:27:30 AM

"Which are more numerous, the living or the dead?"

"The living... For the dead no longer exist."

- The Mahabraratta

Jairzinho		2012-10-31 09:28:05 AM

Jairzinho: karnal: Time to thin out the herd

At the pace earth resources are being consumed and depleted without any regard for future generations, that will take care of itself relatively soon.

FTFM

prekrasno		2012-10-31 09:29:38 AM

Eleventy billion.

ajgeek		2012-10-31 09:29:43 AM

Funny how the population boom started at the end of the last ice age. It's as if we started exploring the planet at that point.

karnal		2012-10-31 09:31:03 AM

Jairzinho

karnal: Time to thin out the herd

At the pace earth resources are being consumed and depleted with any regard for future generations, that will take care of itself relatively soon.

Nature takes care of overpopulation in its own way.....Disease, Starvation.....Predators

rogue49		2012-10-31 09:31:35 AM

That's a whole lotta lovin'...

gweilo8888		2012-10-31 09:31:40 AM

Five, plus or minus a margin of error.

Millennium		2012-10-31 09:32:56 AM

TeddyRooseveltsMustache: Why does that chart indicate that there were 0 people until 8000 BC? That makes no sense.

Not zero; just less than one billion.

stuhayes2010		2012-10-31 09:33:41 AM

Boy things took off 8,000 years ago. Was that agriculture?

How long until the Christian fundies grab this, manipulate it to say seeeeeeeeeeeee even scientists agree with bible!

Brontes		2012-10-31 09:34:04 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_argument

Sybarite		2012-10-31 09:34:15 AM

Well, let me put it this way. If all the corpses buried around here were to stand up all at once we'd have one hell of a population problem.

Hack Patooey		2012-10-31 09:34:35 AM

Year Population
50,000 B.C. 2

Um...

Molavian		2012-10-31 09:34:45 AM

People have had sex hundreds of billions of times.

Just not you.

ThrobblefootSpectre		2012-10-31 09:35:25 AM

The dalai lama tells me it's much less, since most of these are rebirths of people who didn't get it right the first time.

Tommy Moo		2012-10-31 09:37:44 AM

Jairzinho: karnal: Time to thin out the herd

At the pace earth resources are being consumed and depleted with any regard for future generations, that will take care of itself relatively soon.

Yeah, but wouldn't it be nice if politicians acted like grownups and initiated a serious discussion with the public about how we can make choices that transition to a sustainable population level in the least painful way possible before the enviro-economy makes those decisions for us, catastrophically?

HotIgneous Intruder		2012-10-31 09:38:12 AM

If that were true, there would be many, many more cemeteries.

Holocaust Agnostic		2012-10-31 09:38:25 AM

Gonna need a definition of "person" first.

Tommy Moo		2012-10-31 09:39:04 AM

Hack Patooey: Year Population
50,000 B.C. 2

Um...

It's a bit arbitrary, but you have to draw the line somewhere for where "human" begins. IIRC, 50k BC is around the time of Mitochondrial Eve, which seems a decent place.

cman		2012-10-31 09:39:15 AM

Hack Patooey: Year Population
50,000 B.C. 2

Um...

Human population is older than that

cman		2012-10-31 09:39:58 AM

Tommy Moo: Hack Patooey: Year Population
50,000 B.C. 2

Um...

It's a bit arbitrary, but you have to draw the line somewhere for where "human" begins. IIRC, 50k BC is around the time of Mitochondrial Eve, which seems a decent place.

Mitochondrial Eve is estimated to have lived around 200,000 years ago,[2] most likely in East Africa,[3] when Homo sapiens sapiens (anatomically modern humans) were developing as a population distinct from other human sub-species.

From Wikipedia

Epoch_Zero		2012-10-31 09:41:01 AM

How many people have ever been born?

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

phrawgh		2012-10-31 09:42:27 AM

Including subby, one too many.

Frankenstorm		2012-10-31 09:42:40 AM

kdawg7736		2012-10-31 09:42:50 AM

I remember this being a million dollar question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? It was from a few years ago when they said 101 billion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9OVpPjlxHw

Mrs.Sharpier		2012-10-31 09:43:10 AM

Epoch_Zero: How many people have ever been born?

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

You've got to be kidding me. I've been further even more decided to use even go need to do look more as anyone can. Can you really be far even as decided half as much to use go wish for that? My guess is that when one really been far even as decided once to use even go want, it is then that he has really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like. It's just common sense.

Billy Bathsalt		2012-10-31 09:44:30 AM

Gleeman: Kinda puts a crimp in reincarnation theories...

My explanation is that there are the same number of people with souls, and a lot of hollow men.

Random Anonymous Blackmail		2012-10-31 09:45:18 AM

Molavian

People have had sex hundreds of billions of times.

Just not you.

Now we got subbys mom out of the way, we can start counting.

notmtwain		2012-10-31 09:46:52 AM

Hack Patooey: Year Population
50,000 B.C. 2

Um...

from the How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth article by Carl Haub:

Any such exercise can be only a highly speculative enterprise, to be undertaken with far less seriousness than most demographic inquiries. Nonetheless, it is a somewhat intriguing idea that can be approached on at least a semi-scientific basis.

And semi-scientific it must be, because there are, of course, absolutely no demographic data available for 99 percent of the span of the human stay on Earth. Still, with some speculation concerning prehistoric populations, we can at least approach a guesstimate of this elusive number.

// Haub realizes that it's just a "highly speculative" "semi-scientific" estimate. Do you? I am sure he would be intrigued to learn your better approach...

Another Pretentious Nickname		2012-10-31 09:47:09 AM

Molavian: People have had sex hundreds of billions of times.

Just not you.

We've clearly hit a trillion. There's no way total sexual encounters / children had is less than 10.

That's something to be proud of, as a species. 1 trillion farks. I'd like Carl Haub to estimate when the trillionth fark happened.

abfalter		2012-10-31 09:47:18 AM

Daddy Daddy. It was just like you said
Now that the living outnumber the dead.

Where I come from it's a long thin thread
Across an ocean. Down a river of red.
Now that the living outnumber the dead. I'm one of many.

Daddy Daddy. It was just like you said
Now that the living outnumber the dead.
Speak my language.

Hello. Hello.
Here come the quick. There go the dead.
here they come. Bright red. Speak my language

-- Laurie Anderson