This was a fun project. If you could randomly draw from all humans who have ever lived, what would their life look like?  

To make this site, I collected the best historical statistics that I could (around 100 different mostly-academic data sets), and compiled tables for lifespans, occupations, mortality rates, famines, etc., for as many different places and times as were available. Then I built a site which lets you draw a random time and location, and describes a human based on the statistics for that time and place.

There's a more complete "About" section that I wrote for the project: https://anyhumanever.com/about

Hope it's interesting; any feedback appreciated.  After this project, my net conclusion is that I'm happy to live in 2026.

—
Eponymoustache

35 comments

  1. It would really be nice to let people have more control over the choices. Even when you let them select a year, they have to select it from a chart, with limited granularity. And then it seemed to randomly decide whether it was a man or woman, and I didn’t see a way to change it?

  3. A boy born in the 1970s in the Eastern US has a life expectancy at birth of 59 years? That doesn’t seem right.

  4. This is really cool. I wish we had some more control over the choices though.

  5. This is so cool, I actually felt a little a shock when the first person I drew died at 9 months old.

  6. This is really fab, great work. I could use this in a classroom setting.

  7. This is a fascinating and thought-provoking site. Thank you for taking the time to create it.

  8. This is an amazing project that makes us reflect on the experience of being human. Thanks.

  9. It’s super cool! I love the concept and I think not trying to select and seeing the full randomness is the most interesting part. Did you run it enough times to see if its drawing out truly random examples? I tried a bunch of times (about 7?) and it seemed to draw further back than I would have expected on all of them (like neolithic, pre-classic, the nearest was 1600s), but it’s too small a sample to conclude anything.

  10. very cool! my first draw was a man from 4846 BCE who lived in the Ethiopian highlands and died at 67. really interesting!

  13. I got a woman from Amiens who died fighting in a war in Venezuela despite not traveling more than 30 miles from home 

  14. >>*The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.*
    Muriel Rukeyser

    Love it.

  15. Devi was born in the countryside of the Ganges Plain, in 463 BCE. She lived in a village of about 250 people. In a family of six children, she was the first. She lived only days, dying in an accident. After death, Devi was buried rather than burned for a child who had not yet had the tonsure.

    Damn

  16. I forced it to recreate myself three times and it was odd that one of the mes spoke Algonquin and another spoke Iroquois.

    Eastern US in 1979.

  19. Image generation for North america ~1700s seems a bit off. Got modern clothing/style.

  20. This is really cool and generally makes sense.

    Ran it maybe 20 times, the only thing I’ve seen that was noticeably off is a man born in Louisville, US in 1972 that speaks “A Muskogean Language”. He also got married 37, is 54 now, and somehow has 5 grandkids, which I guess is possible but unlikely.

    Edit; and an AI image of a woman from the British Isles born in 1989 shows a black woman in traditional African garb, who speaks Welsh as a first language.

  21. i really liked this, interesting to know that hookworm killed so many people in south america

  22. My first draw was Meda from the Balkans about 2,100 years ago, one of 6 kids and she died at childbirth from complications. Excellent

  23. My first ever person was a Chinese baby from 1156 BC that died from dysentery at 10 months old 😭

    Other than that shock this is an incredible app

  25. I was a girl in the Bengal Delta, born 395 CE, and I died at 1 to typhoid.

  26. Amazing project you’ve made. There are a couple things off about, for example: one person I generated was born 3 years ago, and labeled as the first of 7 children. Outside of adoption, multiple marriages, etc., this wouldn’t be a possible thing.

    Otherwise, this is honestly the most fun I’ve had messing around with something in a while. Beautiful presentation too.

  27. Very cool, though from 6 lives run so far none has lived past 2.

    Life before the modern world was dire.

  28. This reminds me of a site I would’ve found in the golden age of StumbleUpon. It’s a beautiful site; well done!

  29. I drew Central Asian steppe girl in 1091 CE that died of smallpox at 7 months old

  30. Very interesting! You might want to check the randomization. Almost all of my hits were earlier than ~300 C.E. Only two made it to middle ages (~10%) – nothing later than 1500 C.E. where about 30% of human lives have happened. Feels off.

    Added – I just did 10 more after I switched from linear to log scale, and got more than 50% later than 1500 CE. Still seems off. (Of course, most are still dying in childhood.)

    It might be useful to allow a toggle for only dates after X year (e.g. after 1500 CE) so that people can generate more lives that get to live longer and are from more places.

  32. Social Studies teachers are gonna LOVE this. Really cool stuff here!

  34. A boy born in 1974 in the UK has a 68% chance of marrying. I ran the life story a LOT of times and the only one who didn’t marry died at 29.

    The results from those odds seem off.

  35. This is an interesting concept but the low quality AI images really cheapen the experience IMHO.

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