On my late-night Internet meanderings, I stumble upon a blog post called 'The Human Cube: The Volume of Humanity'. The premise is simple: how does one measure the space occupied by human bodies? The article offers a back-of-envelope calculation for the approximate volume of space occupied by all human bodies on Earth. The author estimates that if one was able to pack every person currently alive (a population of approximately 7.6 billion people with an average weight of 62kg per body) closely next to one other, it would add up to a volume of 0.47km~3 - that is the equivalent of a cube measuring 770m on each side. The accompanying visualisation, which offers a comparison between the cube and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, demonstrates that the actual space occupied by human bodies on Earth is in fact the scale of an architectural megaproject. And although we are yet to construct a building of that size, it is not outside of humanity's capabilities, as the cube is only 36 times bigger than the largest building currently in existence, the Boeing Everett Factory in the us (measuring 0.013km~3).
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