And I don’t mean in the William Wallace “Every man dies, but not every man truly lives” sense. I just mean breathing air on this planet as a human being.
How many people have existed in human history? We know there are approximately 7 billion human beings on the planet alive today. Minus Kim-Jong-Il. But how many people have ever lived? Ever? What’s that number?
According to this article, an educated guess is that close to 108 billion people have walked the earth since the dawn of humanity. Although we’re the only ones that get to walk the earth with iPhones. Sweet. So, based on these figures all of us today represent about 6% of human history. But is there a time you would have rather been alive than today? Not me.
People always say, oh, I should have been born in France during the Rennaisance, or I should have been a gunslinger in the Old West or whatever. Forget that. Our life expectancy has never been higher. We’ve never known more about what it means to be a human being or how to improve the human experience than right now. And life in 2011 is pretty darn exciting. Consider that the internet didn’t even really exist 15 years ago. What’s going to exist 15 years from now that we can’t even imagine? 30 years? It’s an amazing time to be alive. But not for everybody.
Too many of us aren’t very lucky at all. Homelessness, starvation, mental and political oppression. How can we know more than ever but still have figured out so little in terms of recognizing the interconnectivity of humanity? I don’t know. It feels great to be alive, but why don’t we want everyone to share this feeling? In 3011 everyone we’ve ever known or loved will be a footnote in history. Isn’t it our responsibility as human beings alive today to look out for one another and try and do something positive to advance our species and try and help the next 7 billion? Call me crazy, but that’s what I’m gonna try and do as long as I’m part of the 6%.
Josh, great article and very thought provoking. I have often wondered about that number, so it is nice to see someone has done some research and made an educated guess. As a woman of 57, I want to stay in touch with new technology so I can enjoy my senior years as an informed human being. I think back on just how much has been invented in my lifetime and it is amazing and I feel blessed that I have been here to enjoy this life. Rebecca
This is exactly why I’m such a Sam Harris fanboy. The time for pretending that we don’t know anything about maximizing human flourishing is over. We know there are right and wrong ways to cultivate happiness and well-being, which is why virtually nobody is lamenting the loss of Mr. Jong Il besides the unfortunate citizens of North Korea. If it’s our responsibility, as The Living, to advance the species, then it must also be our responsibility to notice and speak up when some of us do the opposite.