this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
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[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 65 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The world population has quadrupled in my lifetime, so I would be willing to believe the old bit about β€œmore people are alive now than have ever died.” But it’s bunk. Estimated count of all people ever is 100 billion. There weren’t that many people in the past but our species goes back 50,000 years and that makes it up.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-living-outnumber-dead/

[–] Fondots@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The book is over half a century old now, so the numbers may be a bit off, but this sort of conversation always reminds me of this quote

"Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth."

-Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

[–] raresbears@iusearchlinux.fyi 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kinda reminds me of this

Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Whole generations lived and died just to find out which mushrooms can be eaten.

[–] hrimfaxi_work@midwest.social 11 points 1 year ago

We're even older than that! There is compelling evidence that Homo Sapiens has existed for 400k years, and there's unprovocative evidence that we've been around for 250k years or so.

[–] TempleSquare@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

More adults are alive now than adults who died.

Most of humanity didn't survive to adulthood.

[–] Chainweasel@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Which is why the average life expectancy was in the 30s forever. If you made it past childhood you were likely to make it to old age, but the infant mortality rate was through the roof which brought the average down to less than half of what it is today. People regularly lived into their 70s-80s before, but the average of 30 years makes people think that's all the longer people normally lived.

Even if you look at monarchs (with relatively good living standards) who died of natural causes, those who make it to their 70s and certainly their 80s are pretty rare. Doesn’t mean the β€˜everyone died in their 30s’ thing is true, but I’d say making it to your 50s and maybe 60s would be a more reasonable expectation

[–] Applejuicy@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2020/03/Life-expectancy-by-age-in-the-UK-1700-to-2013-1536x1022.png

Although your general sentiment is right, even adult life expectancy has gone up dramatically. For instance, for 20 year olds he life expectancy was about 60 in 1850, but now is around 82.

[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If the population quadrupled in your lifetime you must be over 100 years old?

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah you’re right it’s more like doubled.

[–] Stillhart@lemm.ee 47 points 1 year ago (6 children)

"The days get shorter in the winter."

Actually winter begins on the shortest day of the year so the days are getting longer in the winter.

[–] hrimfaxi_work@midwest.social 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Plus, I'm pretty sure that days are always about 24 hours long πŸ™ƒ

[–] Bunnylux@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Ok you silly pedant

[–] Bumblefumble@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Depends a lot on your definition of winter. In Scandinavia, winter is defined as starting December first.

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 44 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

In Shrek 2 Pinocchio is trying to avoid lying by using double negatives. He knows where Shrek is. He says "I don't know where he's not." This is actually a lie (though his nose doesn't grow). If he knew where Shrek was he would know everywhere Shrek isn't. You can't just randomly throw negatives into a sentence and expect it to be a double negative.

Edit: It was Shrek the Third, not Shrek 2.

[–] sunbytes@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I guess it depends on if the nose grows with untrue information, or lies.

Because if it's lies all he needs to do is THINK it's the truth and his nose won't grow.

If his nose grows because the information is not true, then this is one hell of a power. You could get him to theorise on the meaning of life.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The intent of the scene was clear. He's just trying to say a lot of double negatives and be confusing. It's not a moment of world building for the mechanics of Pinocchio's nose lol

Pinochio the philosophical scholar.

[–] sunbytes@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

So I guess in that case part of the trick is confusing himself.

If he's not sure what he said, it's tough to rule it as a lie.

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

That would make an interesting story about a superhero with that power.

[–] mvee@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll have it done by the end of the week

[–] hrimfaxi_work@midwest.social 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Eskimos have a kabrillion words for snow.

Indigenous Alaskan/north Canadian languages have a few more words for snow than English, but it's not that that much more.

[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 year ago

Oh this one for sure.

[–] Interesting_Test_814@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (14 children)

If an object isn't pushed by any force, it'll stop moving. (It'll actually keep moving at the same speed).

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[–] bady@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Earth is flat!

[–] Neon@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The pyramids were already hundreds of years old when the last Woolly Mammoth died.

[–] tillimarleen@feddit.de 12 points 1 year ago

looking here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolly_mammoth and here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza tells me that the last woolly mammoths died around 4000 years ago and the pyramids of Gizeh were built around 4500 years ago.

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