BookTalk.org

Under the headlines 'Dear kid, welcome to our mess' - The Guardian printed readers' letters of advice and words of wisdom to this baby.

This was my favourite:

I am your fellow citizen of this planet, from Iraq. We all share a common ancestor and we are all heading in the same direction. Always follow the evidence, be curious, be sceptical, love science and art, never believe in superstitions that are called religion. Religion has divided us through centuries and still divides us today, but some people are growing out of it and they are thinking for themselves.

Be a human and act as a humanist. Don't ask the skies to help you or punish your enemy Life is wonderful if you know how to live!

faisalalmuar

You might find the others here, (although I couldn't):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/oct/31/g2

What would you say?

Find happiness in the smallest of things.

Funny how they can pick one child to represent the 7 billionth person on Earth. It was quite some time ago that October 31 was 'chosen' as the day for this, and I think there are many countries who have no idea how many citizens they have (Africa in particular has some countries that do not know their population to the nearest million). This makes me curious as to how accurate this 7 billion mark is. I guess it doesn't really matter, but was does matter greatly is that our world populations numbers are increasing way too fast.

No they couldn't possibly know, really, who was the seven billionth baby. Babies must be being born simultaneously all over the globe.

I suppose it is just symbolic. I did enjoy reading the selection of letters though. There were some really good ones.

According to this chart, on a worldwide basis, last year there were 4.2 births per second, 250 births per minute. I doubt many countries (if any) record time of birth down to the second so assuming perfect record keeping to the minute, there is a one in 250 chance of being identified as the seven billionth baby … unless they make a special effort, at hospitals around the world, to record time of birth down to the second at the critical moment, like New Year's babies ... then your odds of being the chosen one could go up to 1 in 4 ... in any case, it’s not the 7 billionth baby, it’s the 7 billionth live human walking the earth so recorded time of death and its accuracy would make a difference too. As noted above, the whole thing is subject to rounding error (odd to think that your birth could fall into rounding error).

It does make some sense as a symbolic thing, given the need to raise awareness of population issues, but I wonder how the people who are ‘identified’ as the 6 billionth or 7 billionth etc. feel about it? Maybe they feel some sense of ‘responsibility’, especially once they really understand what they symbolize. It might something special or it might be a burden?

Dear seven billionth baby (even though I'm not sure you can be defined as such)

See with altered eyes, see the beauty - be intimate with the world and remember that joy can be found even in the murkiest of places of this funny old place we plod along on.


p.s. Don't forget your towel.

misshapen skies wrote:

p.s. Don't forget your towel.

Ah, a 'Hitch-hikers Guide' fan.....They're always the best.

I think I would add (as my advice to the baby). Remember that you're only here for the entertainment. Pretend you're in a film and write your own screenplay.