A Census of Sapient Beings in the Universe

(Note: The total has been changed, drastically.  Not because of mass birth, but because in the former total I had left out nine zeroes from one of the multiples--I multiplied the population of the Milky Way by 500 rather than 500 billion.)

Life on Terra, Planet Earth, has existed 4.1 billion years.

The whole primate genus Homo has existed only 2.8 million years.  The entire H. sapiens species has been around just 200,000 years.  The H. sapiens sapiens race (subspecies), aka “modern humans”, is only 30,000 years old. 

H. sapiens sapiens is the only remaining race of the H. sapiens species, with the other races (H. sapiens denisova, H. sapiens idaltu, H. sapiens neanderthalensis), being extinct.  The other species of the genus Homo—H. naledi, H. habilis, H. erectus, H. rudolfensis, H. heidelbergensis, H. floresiensis—and other genera of hominids—Paranthropus, Australopithecus, Kenyanthropus, Ardipithecus, and Orrorin—have been extinct even longer.

Genetic testing has proven that “modern humans”, H. sapiens sapiens, mated and bred with members of earlier human species at least as old as H. habilis.

A single human of the H. sapiens sapiens race is, on average, 664 billionths (0.000000000664 or 6.64 x 10^-11) km³ in volume, with an average lifespan of 67.2 years. 

There are 7.3 billion H. sapiens sapiens individuals on Terra (Planet Earth).

Forty billion of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way support Class-M planets and 8-10 billion of these host sapient life analogous to humans.

If Terra’s current human population is the median, there are 61.6 quintillion (61.6 x 10¹⁸) sapient beings in our galaxy.

There are around 500 billion galaxies in the Universe.

Hypothesizing the Milky Way’s sapient population as the median, there are 30.8 nonillion (30.8 x 10³⁰)  apient beings in the Universe at any one time.

Think about those statistics next time someone talks about, or claims to be or to follow, the Anointed One, the Chosen People, the Exceptional Nation, or the Elect Species.