"There are approximately 7 billion people in the world. The average life expectancy is somewhere around 67.5 years. So in the next 67.5 years 7 billion people will die"
Really? I have the feeling that the author confuses "average life expectancy from birth" with "average life expectancy from now on". And thinks that a live expectancy of 67.5 years means that all people alive today are dead in 67.5 years. And forgets to take into account the deaths of people who are born in the future.
The average live expectancy of all living persons is much lower then 67.5 more years from now. Maybe half of that? Additionally people will have children and some of these will also die earlier then in 67.5 years. And some of the children will have children who die earlier etc.
The result could actually be right, but it would need some more explanation how it was calculated.
Maybe all this is true, but even if 8 billion people die in that period, the author's statement is still true since 7 billion people have to die in order for 8 billion to die.
I don't see the point of this kind of nitpicking. It's doing nothing to further any sort of conversation on the topic -- it just seems needlessly critical.
The key insight is that data retention may, in the long term, exceed human life expectancy. So that most of the visible records of people will be about the dead rather than the living.
US (and to some extent European) culture tends to have a big taboo surrounding death and the dead, and only a small part of it is to do with the USA being a very young nation that has grown rapidly in population (so that it has a much higher living:dead ratio than many other countries). In pre-computer times, our records of our dead were confined to dusty parish registers and the occasional photograph. What does it mean to live in a society where dead people all leave thousands of geotagged photographs, videos, lifelogs, blog entries, and canned rants?
The long term cultural implications are fascinating ...
Really? I have the feeling that the author confuses "average life expectancy from birth" with "average life expectancy from now on". And thinks that a live expectancy of 67.5 years means that all people alive today are dead in 67.5 years. And forgets to take into account the deaths of people who are born in the future.
The average live expectancy of all living persons is much lower then 67.5 more years from now. Maybe half of that? Additionally people will have children and some of these will also die earlier then in 67.5 years. And some of the children will have children who die earlier etc.
The result could actually be right, but it would need some more explanation how it was calculated.