this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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[–] kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone 113 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

The 250 year thing is basically completely made up BS

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

Indeed. The empire you left to make your own with blackjack and hookers was nearly double that. If you want to be facetious too, then probably triple.

[–] daydrinkingchickadee@lemmy.ml -1 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

250 years is just a rough estimate. As an expert, what's the number you've arrived at?

[–] kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It's straight up not a thing, there is no number of years which tends to correspond to the life expectancy of empires

[–] daydrinkingchickadee@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

We're talking about the average life expectancy of an empire. It's a fairly straightforward calculation if one has all the data ready.

[–] essell@lemmy.world 9 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Sure, we could also work out the average life expectancy of a mammal.

But, would it really be useful, predictive or meaningful, given the variety and variability of the conditions the data emerges from?

[–] daydrinkingchickadee@lemmy.ml -4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Yes. The average life expectancy of a human for instance is a useful statistic in healthcare, social services, financial and retirement planning, etc.

[–] essell@lemmy.world 8 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, because of the relatively similar conditions and needs of humans

Something empires don't have!

[–] daydrinkingchickadee@lemmy.ml -3 points 2 hours ago

Interesting... 😂

[–] silasmariner@programming.dev 18 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It's not really that straightforward though, is it? Firstly is it a mean or a median average? What counts as an empire? When do we date the rise and fall of specific empires? These are not questions with straightforwards answers. Would Hitler's Germany count as an empire? How many Roman empires were there?

[–] _g_be@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

It being an average number, pulled out of it's context, doesn't necessarily mean anything beyond just the average

[–] daydrinkingchickadee@lemmy.ml -3 points 7 hours ago

Regardless, that is the number we are interested in.