Posted by Larry Hoover on May 29, 2006, at 10:35:35
In reply to Most people are long dead » saturn, posted by pseudoname on May 29, 2006, at 10:28:19
> But the total number of human beings who have ever lived and are now dead is far greater. According to the Population Reference Bureau, there are at least 20 times more people in the earth than on it, so to speak. A lower estimate is that about 100 billion people have already passed on.
Excellent. A controversy.
Does it not depend, though, on how you define humans? Surely, if we include Lucy, and all the proto-human lineages, we have a different answer than if you count only historical humans, i.e. modern humans.
> The figures take some guesswork and line-drawing, but there can't be any question about which category is greater in number, even if we only begin counting at about the time of Christ. There's an interesting essay about how to "guesstimate" such figures here: http://www.prb.org/Template.cfm?Section=PRB&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=7421
Thanks!
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:649672
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060527/msgs/650066.html