3 ms·

The question I’m interested in is the mass comparison of “all humans” to “all ants”. I mean the back-of-my-eyelids math calculates that Human-tron vs Ant-tron i

The question I’m interested in is the mass comparison of “all humans” to “all ants”. I mean the back-of-my-eyelids math calculates that Human-tron vs Ant-tron is in ants favor.

kilovoltaire 4y ago
The abstract answers this, I believe. Human-tron is 5x as massive! > ...a biomass of ∼12 megatons of dry carbon... equivalent to ∼20% of human biomass Honestly the unfathomable biomass of humans creeps me out more than the biomass of ants...
- netrus 4y ago
  This picture put it into perspective for me [0]. We use most of the Earth's dry surface to feed ... What ever that picture shows. Disclaimer: I did not check their math, but it is in the right ball park. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/p0qws3/self_if_you_blended_all_788_billion_people_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/p0qws3/self...
  - happyopossum 4y ago
    > We use most of the Earth's dry surface to feed We don't even come close to using 10% of the earth's dry surface for food production, let alone most of it.
    - TSiege 4y ago
      This is wrong, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, we currently use ~38% of the earths surface for agriculture.[1] Most of that is used for pastor lands. But crops alone are 10%. Now imagine how much of the earth's surface is actually suitable for agriculture and livestock. We use most of the earths surface for ourselves. In fact it's estimated that only 23% of the land on earth, excluding Antartica, is devoted to wildlife.[2] [1] https://www.fao.org/sustainability/news/detail/en/c/1274219/ https://www.fao.org/sustainability/news/detail/en/c/1274219/ [2] https://theconversation.com/five-maps-that-reveal-the-worlds-remaining-wilderness-110061 https://theconversation.com/five-maps-that-reveal-the-worlds...
      - noselasd 4y ago
        And about 1/3 of earths surface is deserts. (While they're not devoid of life or agriculture, they provide very little support for flora and fauna compared to most non-desert areas). We'll be squeezing out pretty much all remaining wildlife in a few hundred years,
  - B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
    "a sphere of human goo just under 1 km wide. I made a visualization of how that would look like in the middle of Central Park in NYC." You may want to pass on that, it's right at the top of that reddit page.
- retzkek 4y ago
  This sounds even more terrifying than Popolac vs. Podujevo from "In the Hills, the Cities" by Clive Barker. (spoilers) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_Blood#%22In_the_Hills,_the_Cities%22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_Blood#%22In_the_Hills...
- otabdeveloper4 4y ago
  Ants are tiny. 100 grams of seeds is enough to feed a small ant family for a whole year.
  - raydiatian 4y ago
    Help me find my brain please you just blew it straight out my backside.
- raydiatian 4y ago
  I simply am astonished that it is true: Humans are (ballpark) 2,000,000x more massive than ants. I was thinking 100,000 range tops. They real are tiny.

The question I’m interested in is the mass comparison of “all humans” to “all ants”. I mean the back-of-my-eyelids math calculates that Human-tron vs Ant-tron is in ants favor.

kilovoltaire 4y ago

The abstract answers this, I believe. Human-tron is 5x as massive! > ...a biomass of ∼12 megatons of dry carbon... equivalent to ∼20% of human biomass Honestly the unfathomable biomass of humans creeps me out more than the biomass of ants...

netrus 4y ago
This picture put it into perspective for me [0]. We use most of the Earth's dry surface to feed ... What ever that picture shows. Disclaimer: I did not check their math, but it is in the right ball park. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/p0qws3/self_if_you_blended_all_788_billion_people_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/p0qws3/self...
- happyopossum 4y ago
  > We use most of the Earth's dry surface to feed We don't even come close to using 10% of the earth's dry surface for food production, let alone most of it.
  - TSiege 4y ago
    This is wrong, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, we currently use ~38% of the earths surface for agriculture.[1] Most of that is used for pastor lands. But crops alone are 10%. Now imagine how much of the earth's surface is actually suitable for agriculture and livestock. We use most of the earths surface for ourselves. In fact it's estimated that only 23% of the land on earth, excluding Antartica, is devoted to wildlife.[2] [1] https://www.fao.org/sustainability/news/detail/en/c/1274219/ https://www.fao.org/sustainability/news/detail/en/c/1274219/ [2] https://theconversation.com/five-maps-that-reveal-the-worlds-remaining-wilderness-110061 https://theconversation.com/five-maps-that-reveal-the-worlds...
    - noselasd 4y ago
      And about 1/3 of earths surface is deserts. (While they're not devoid of life or agriculture, they provide very little support for flora and fauna compared to most non-desert areas). We'll be squeezing out pretty much all remaining wildlife in a few hundred years,
- B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
  "a sphere of human goo just under 1 km wide. I made a visualization of how that would look like in the middle of Central Park in NYC." You may want to pass on that, it's right at the top of that reddit page.
retzkek 4y ago
This sounds even more terrifying than Popolac vs. Podujevo from "In the Hills, the Cities" by Clive Barker. (spoilers) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_Blood#%22In_the_Hills,_the_Cities%22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_Blood#%22In_the_Hills...
otabdeveloper4 4y ago
Ants are tiny. 100 grams of seeds is enough to feed a small ant family for a whole year.
- raydiatian 4y ago
  Help me find my brain please you just blew it straight out my backside.
raydiatian 4y ago
I simply am astonished that it is true: Humans are (ballpark) 2,000,000x more massive than ants. I was thinking 100,000 range tops. They real are tiny.