6 Billion: The Game of the New Millennium

[Christopher K.]

It has been at least twenty years since this astonishing Australian tabletop game made its debut. Inspired by the announcement that the world population was soon the pass the six billion mark (the current estimate is 7.6 billion), David Coutts designed an amazing and evocative set of rules; I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else, really. I was fortunate enough to grab a copy years ago when the game was still brand new. I've played it only two or three times but the gameplay and the questions it poses stayed with me.

More information:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/bnbg6bil ... illion.htm

U.S. Census Bureau Population Clocks:
https://www.census.gov/popclock/

[Christopher K.]

A pandemic is distinguished from an epidemic by the lack of a central point on the globe, being widespread across the continents. I suppose that now when I think of 6 Billion, I think sometimes of past pandemics and whether human populations on other bodies in the Solar System would be safe from a pandemic on the Earth.

More information:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resour ... index.html