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If I say don't think of a purple elephant, what is the first thing you think of? If you're honest with yourself, it would be a purple elephant. Why? Because we are first and foremost visual creatures. As such, the following visualizations are an attempt to illustrate how our seemingly objective experience in this world, is far more subjective than we could ever imagine.
On a day to day basis, it is easy to forget that we are one of seven billion. It's understandable considering that from my perspective, the world as I know it revolves around me. Everything I've ever experienced is about how I feel or what I want. It's not a bad thing by any means––its perfectly normal since the only existence that I have ever experienced is from my own perspective. What this means, however, is that while I recognize my life is technically subjective, my experience within it usually leads me to believe that my reality is some objective reality.
In an attempt to wrap our minds around what it means to live in a world that revolves around the sun--yet simultaneously gives the illusion that we are at its center, I have made a few visualizations. While they are not perfect, nor exhaustive, I hope that they can enrich your life so that the next time you're tempted to be rude to someone who is late to a meeting, you'll stop for a moment and consider what their life could be like, and how in the grand scheme of things, there is something more important than
Understanding 7 Billion
Factually speaking, it is easy to know that there are over 7 billion people in the world. But genuinely understanding this fact, is something entierly different. As complex of beings as we are, we tend to have difficulty wrapping out minds around numbers larger than a few hundred. So what does 7 billion really look like?
Perceiving the Population
Select either 'Countries' or 'Continents' in the options below, and enter in a value in the underlined text box to explore how much its population contributes to the world's population.
If the whole world were reduced to 100 people, how many of them would be from...
?
The Lottery of Birth
If you were born today, you would have an 88.2% chance of being born into a developing country. To simulate what country you'd be born into, click the button below.