Belief in giants has persisted throughout history, captivating the imaginations of many. However, the mainstream scientific community remains skeptical, and for a very good reason.
The internet, with its vast expanse of information and platforms for communication, has become a breeding ground for conspiracy theories. It offers a space where individuals can easily share and amplify their beliefs, regardless of their credibility. From the moon landing to global events and political agendas, conspiracy theories find a receptive audience online, as like-minded individuals come together to reinforce and validate their perspectives. This abundance of conspiracy theories highlights the challenges of navigating the vast digital landscape and discerning fact from fiction.
Despite the increasing prevalence and rapid dissemination of conspiracy theories, it may still come as a surprise to discover that the Vatican, in collaboration with the esteemed Smithsonian Institution, is allegedly involved in concealing evidence regarding the existence of colossal human skeletons. These purported findings would provide confirmation of the existence of giants and potentially disrupt our understanding of human evolution.
There’s even ‘evidence’ of the giant humanoids, presented in the form of the most appalling Photoshop attempts that have ever surfaced. Check out the below Twitter post, for example. Immediately debunked.
This would not pass in my design classes. Please clean up with clone stamp. pic.twitter.com/qmB5sYGkns
— Stodgy Seagull (@feedmeshrimp) July 8, 2020
More recently, a black and white image that portrays a very tall man walking in a street among people of average height was shared on social media with the caption: “The last of the giants being paraded through the streets circa 1890.” As some independent fact checkers were quick to point out, the photo is of course not real: it was created with AI image generator software, most probably Midjourney, as it first surfaced on Reddit in a subreddit called “Midjourney”.
Now what does science has to say about all this? Well, basically that anything above the height of 9 feet (2.74 m) is not really possible for humans to regularly reproduce. Not in a human shape at least.
According to John Wass, an acromegalic gigantism specialist from the University of Oxford, our maximum height limit is approximately 9 feet. Above that height, the person would struggle to move around. And to sustain life in the 12-15 foot (3.65-4.57 m) range, even for a a few months, would be quite extraordinary, if not impossible. If we were to consistently give birth to individuals taller than 9 feet, it is likely that the reproductive pair would need to possess a different physique, deviating from the typical human form.
Why? It all comes down to the square-cube law, a principle that elucidates the relationship between size and volume. As an object, whether it be a cube or a living being like a conspiracy theorist, increases in size, its volume expands at a much faster rate than its surface area. In other words, the surface area grows proportionally to the square of the size, while the volume scales up proportionally to the cube of the size.
To give you an example to illustrate this, think of a cube with a height of 1m. If this cube became 10 times taller, its area would grow 100 times but its volume would grow 1000 times, as shown below.
So as you scale up a human, the volume experiences a significant increase relative to the overall dimensions, while the cross-section of the muscles and bones are squared. For instance, if we imagine a hypothetical scenario where a person is 18 meters (60 feet) tall, which is ten times the height of a 6-foot tall individual, their body would need to support a volume that is 100 times greater.
While a single cubic inch of bone possesses the capacity to bear an impressive 8,600 kilograms (19,000 pounds) of weight, when scaling up to a height of 18 meters (60 feet), the skeletal structure would need to withstand an immense load surpassing 250,047 kilograms (assuming the weight of a 63-kilogram or 10-stone average person).
In essence, if one were to grow to a size that compelled the Vatican to conceal their bones, the sheer weight would cause their bones to disintegrate into dust long before reaching such proportions.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4