In some book by P G Wodehouse (inventor of Jeeves the butler), one character says (out of nowhere) that all the humans on the planet could fit in a cubic hole 1/2 mile on each side. It took me a little while to convince myself that was true. It still is, apparently

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divan 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There was a great post on this subject by Tim Urban: https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/03/7-3-billion-people-one-buildi...

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schnevets 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I usually say if every human being on the planet were placed in Texas, it would be less dense than Paris as an argument against an area being "too crowded", but this is an even more jarring comparison.

	▲	onionisafruit 14 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		If every human being on the planet was in Texas, Paris would have 0 people per square kilometer
	▲	DennisP 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Take food production into account and the planet looks a little more crowded.
	▲	pseudohadamard 39 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		All that biomass packed into one place would make a great energy source, although it'd be mostly anaerobic decomposition unless you were close to the surface. We wouldn't have to burn fossil fuels any more with the amount of energy it'd produce for all the humans... oh... wait... I think I've found a problem.

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delecti 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Dimensional analysis like this is a weird way to think about a large number of people. It depends a bit on what the average weight of a human, but yeah, that's at least pretty close to true.

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28%280.5+miles%29+%5E+...

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DoctorOetker an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

that sounds absurd, what about air conditioning and sewage systems at such population densities?

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santadays 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And we use one cubic mile of oil every year.

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GMoromisato 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Nightmare fuel for the next Terminator or Matrix sequel.