alt Hacker News100×10^12 km is about 10.6 light years. There are about 16 other stars closer to the sun than that. It's a bit like a human body containing blood vessels with total length greater than twice the Earth's circumference.
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Reality appears to be fractal.
So it could be sentient but it's pace of thinking might be absolutely glacial.
I wonder if these measurements were done in similar fashion to how they measured kudzu coverage in the US. For the longest time it was assumed that one of the initial projections was correct; however, under closer examination that estimate was off by a factor of 30. Kudzu wasn’t enveloping the South. It did like the byways though.
Imagine if a 3year old has only one single blood vessel: The single blood vessel grows by approximately 88 kilometers per day since conception.
Here is the quick calculation using that timeline:
•Total Days: ~1,365 days (270 days in the womb + 1,095 days of life up to age 3).
•Total Length: ~120,000 kilometers.
That breaks down to an astonishing 3.7 kilometers of growth every single hour.
Typical adult walking speed: ~5 km/h . Next time you are walking then imagine the tiny thin blood vessel growing behind you almost at the same speed you are walking. If you slow down and stop it will catch up to you.
How many light years is the English coastline?