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Every one of us had an instant in time that we were the youngest person on Earth, and we were too young to appreciate that fact... but practically no one will ever become the oldest person on Earth.
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xia lemmy.sdf.org xia@lemmy.sdf.org
Joined: 2023-09-08
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98   Original
username_1 discuss.tchncs.de username_1@discuss.tchncs.de
Joined: 2026-06-01
#2 · (edited) Quote Reply

Anyone can be the oldest person at any given moment of time: they just should start considering other people shit, not persons.

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Multiplexer discuss.tchncs.de Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de
Joined: 2025-08-25
#3 · Quote Reply

But if you happen to be the oldest person on Earth, you will be it for a significantly longer time than you would ever be the youngest person.

So, on average, people are just as long the youngest, as they are the oldest person on Earth.

And that, my dear friends, is the reason why you should never look at the average, but always at the median value!

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xia lemmy.sdf.org xia@lemmy.sdf.org
Joined: 2023-09-08
#4 · Quote Reply

But if you happen to be the oldest person on Earth, you will be it for a significantly longer time than you would ever be the youngest person. So, on average, people are just as long the youngest, as they are the oldest person on Earth. And that, my dear friends, is the reason why you should never look at the average, but always at the median value!

(Second-oldest person): "If I can hold out a bit longer, then I'll have years left ahead of me"

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anakin78z lemmy.world anakin78z@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-01
#5 · Quote Reply

When you get to be the oldest person, every single person who was alive at your time of birth, billions of them, are now dead.

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Corngood lemmy.ml Corngood@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2020-06-24
#6 · Quote Reply

I just watched this doc the other week:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oldest_Person_in_the_World

It goes through this exact thought

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Jax sh.itjust.works Jax@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-08-22
#7 · Quote Reply

You were the youngest person on earth, if you're lucky, by a fraction of a second.

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TrackinDaKraken lemmy.world DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-02-26
#8 · Quote Reply

The Youngest Person on Earth is Murdered | Children of Men

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Seaguy05 lemmy.world Seaguy05@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-08
#9 · Quote Reply

I guess the best I can hope for is an incredibly unique death so people remember me forever.

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AdolfSchmitler lemmy.world AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-01
#10 · Quote Reply

The Youngest Person on Earth is Murdered | Children of Men

Bro never even got a sip of his coffee :[

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GreenKnight23 lemmy.world GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-09-21
#11 · Quote Reply

I guess the best I can hope for is an incredibly unique death so people remember me forever.

don't just hope, make your dreams come true.

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mechoman444 lemmy.world mechoman444@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-07
#12 · Quote Reply

260 children are being born every minute on this planet. There are only 60 seconds in a minute, which means that multiple children are necessarily being born at the same time.

But at what precise point does birth actually take place? After the water breaks? During labor? When the first limb emerges?

Or does the process begin at conception, during embryonic development? Is it when the embryo first develops recognizable organs? When the structures that eventually become the lungs begin to form?

There is no single, objectively identifiable “youngest person on Earth.” There is simply a continuous process of human development, with no meaningful point at which one individual suddenly becomes more or less human than they were a moment before.

And perhaps there is no meaningful “oldest person” either. There is simply a continuous human lifespan, measured from one arbitrary point to another.

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Alexstarfire lemmy.world Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-08-06
#13 · Quote Reply

260 children are being born every minute on this planet. There are only 60 seconds in a minute, which means that multiple children are necessarily being born at the same time. But at what precise point does birth actually take place? After the water breaks? During labor? When the first limb emerges? Or does the process begin at conception, during embryonic development? Is it when the embryo fir...

I'm uninviting you to the party.

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CrazyLikeGollum lemmy.world CrazyLikeGollum@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-12
#14 · Quote Reply

I'm uninviting you to the party.

That's fine, they're my plus one.

It's not a party until someone disagrees in detail.

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Frettchen lemmy.world Frettchen@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-07-30
#15 · Quote Reply

260 children are being born every minute on this planet. There are only 60 seconds in a minute, which means that multiple children are necessarily being born at the same time. But at what precise point does birth actually take place? After the water breaks? During labor? When the first limb emerges? Or does the process begin at conception, during embryonic development? Is it when the embryo fir...

Let's take a random moment and define it the birth moment. Let's take a moment that is precise measured like the first air touching the skin. Or uninterrupted light. Or whatever then we just need to go down to milliseconds and we have a youngest human.

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Engywook lemmy.zip Engywuck@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2025-06-23
#16 · Quote Reply

Anyone can be the oldest person at any given moment of time: they just should start considering other people shit, not persons.

Sooo, I should be the oldest person alive since I'm 16...

2
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