Question: Terrarium for a human?
How big should a sealed terrarium be such that one human could survive a lifetime? So, ignoring social needs, all the resources one human requires (x liters of fresh drinking water, x calories of food, x liters of breathable air) are generated reliably on a daily basis in the sealed system.
Since the earth is essentially a sealed system (terrarium), I cannot see/imagine a point where growing the terrarium from vase-size to earth-size, the sustainability of it would fail. That would mean that there is an inflection point where the size is such that there are enough resources to sustain a human.
nb. also posted this at r/TheRestIsScience, and reddit suggested to post it here as well.
Posted Jul 30, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC
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