Hacker News Reader

> You could fit all 7+ billion humans in New Zealand if we all lived as densely as Manhattan. [1]

Can stop spreading these factoids as if they would be feasible in any way?

You can't just stick people vertically on a small plot of land ad infinitum, it doesn't scale. Think about all the services required for all 7 billion people to function properly, New Zealand would collapse on itself.

View on HN

I ran some calcuations, and the mass of 7 billion people at an average of 60kg each, spread uniformly over New Zealand, would definitely not cause it to collapse, sink, crack, or tip over. Please stop using such hyperbole.

I think they mean the utilities and services, not the land mass.

Your sibling pointed out what I was talking about; transportation, sanitation, food services, EVERYTHING that makes a city function.

You cannot scale that efficiently in your proposed scenario in reality, it is absurd.

Don't worry, New Zealand is safe. This imaginary scenario exists only as a fun thought experiment!

From what I read recently, New Zealand was already struggling to cope with its tourist population. That means they're already on the edge. Probably not a problem anymore since COVID, but we'll see what happens when/if things go back to normal.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com