XKCD: Could we survive eating only humans?

[Umbran]

I feel like you are building directly on Jonathan Swift's work with your suggestion, as Irish people and potatoes are just a natural pairing.

The usual cooking maxim is that if it grows together, it goes together.

And the classic...

 

[Morrus]

Presumably if everybody had to eat humans, then the population would halve every month or so (assuming one human is enough to feed one human for one month).

10B
5B
2.5B
1.25B
65M
33M
16M
8M
4M
2M
1M
500K

So the population would be down from 10B to 500K in one year. A whole planet down to one city. Unless I've messed up the halvings.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Presumably if everybody had to eat humans, then the population would halve every month or so (assuming one human is enough to feed one human for one month).

10B
5B
2.5B
1.25B
65M
33M
16M
8M
4M
2M
1M
500K

So the population would be down from 10B to 500K in one year. A whole planet down to one city. Unless I've messed up the halvings.

I can just see the latest pitch in Hollywood...

It's like, um, Highlander crossed with Alive crossed with Iron Chef ... THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

 

[kermit4karate]

I STILL sing that song around the house nearly every day! I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back... I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back...

CHILIIII'S BABY BACK RIIIIBS! CHILI'S BABY BACK RIBS!

BARBEQUE SAAAAUCE!

 

[Gradine]

Presumably if everybody had to eat humans, then the population would halve every month or so (assuming one human is enough to feed one human for one month).

10B
5B
2.5B
1.25B
65M
33M
16M
8M
4M
2M
1M
500K

So the population would be down from 10B to 500K in one year. A whole planet down to one city. Unless I've messed up the halvings.

You have, it looks like the 65M should be 650M, which would put us at 5M at the end of year. Still down to one city, the city would just be Sydney instead of Atlanta

 

[TwoSix]

You have, it looks like the 65M should be 650M, which would put us at 5M at the end of year. Still down to one city, the city would just be Sydney instead of Atlanta

Hmm. Halving the population every month for a year would lower the population by a factor of 2^12, or 4096. Current world population estimate is in the low 8 billions, so that would put the final population at just over 2 million.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

So the population would be down from 10B to 500K in one year. A whole planet down to one city. Unless I've messed up the halvings.

You calculation are indeed correct, but at some point, humans would become sparse enough than meating, err, meeting another human would become difficult. At the end of the curve, I fear the population reduction would increase quicker as remaining isolated humans would start starving (it's difficult to cover large distance to hunt while moving a human carcass to feed off in a cart).

 

[Ryujin]

You calculation are indeed correct, but at some point, humans would become sparse enough than meating, err, meeting another human would become difficult. At the end of the curve, I fear the population reduction would increase quicker as remaining isolated humans would start starving (it's difficult to cover large distance to hunt while moving a human carcass to feed off in a cart).

The weight would be greatly reduced by flaying the carcasses and making human jerky(tm).

 

[trappedslider]

It's not like the video doesn't include the actual math till there's only one left.

 

[Umbran]

You calculation are indeed correct

Well, no, it isn't. As was already noted by Gradine above, at one point Morrus cuts the population by a factor of 20, instead of a factor of 2, by dropping a zero.

but at some point, humans would become sparse enough than meating, err, meeting another human would become difficult.

I don't think the entire planet playing the most dangerous game once a month and lugging their kills around in a cart for the rest of the month is the best working model for the proposed events.