The exhibit “Of All The People in All The World” is traveling the world to show all the people exactly how many of them there are by using rice. Sometimes it’s hard to get your mind around millions and billions of humans and their varying statistics. By representing each person as a single piece of rice this showcase helps people understand varying numbers such as how many people have walked on the moon and the population of the United States (pictured). See link for more in depth video.
The show adapts to its setting: the country, city and building it is in. The amount of rice used varies according to which version is performed, Of All The People In All The World: UK is a standard small version using 1,000Kg of rice to represent 60,000,000 people. Of All The People In All The World: Europe at 12,000Kg is an example of a medium size version. So far there has been a single presentation of Of All The People In All The World in which the whole world's population was represented by 104 tons of rice in Stuttgart.
http://www.stanscafe.co.uk/ofallthepeople/
Then there is this pile of rice.
Good catch! It is something of a philosophical dilemma for the adept to resolve the use of classifications in the face of the arbitrariness of those classifications, and for all appearances they may be identical. This paradox is illustrated in the Buddhist story of a young monk, who saw an enlightened master trodding down a path carrying a bundle of wood and pale of water. The young monk asks "Master, tell me what is enlightenment like?" at this the old master unhinged the bundle of wood from his shoulder, set it on the ground and placed the bucket of water next to it. "I see" said the young monk, "and what is it like after enlightenment?" To this the old master picked up the wood and water and continued trodding down the path.
A difference of utility perhaps, but not of appearances. My classification of persons is a highly arbitrary classification with no exclusion principle and it is available to anyone. It is the difference of a classification to draw some arbitrary boundary for the purpose of distinction and to make a point, and the classification as concretely meaningful and exclusionary. If you want to experience that state and thus be 'classified' as such, you can, the only thing stopping you is you. There is no committee taking applications for this 'club'.
I have some more lyrics for you, these are even better:
"Well I don't want to be in your hospitality
And I don't want to live in false reality
See I'm the one obsessed with truth and honesty
I just want to scream" - Scream, Collective Soul
"Pardon me while I burst
into flames.
I've had enough of the world
and its people's mindless games.
So pardon me while I burn
and rise above the flame.
Pardon me, pardon me..." - Pardon Me, Incubus
Yes, yes, pardon me, sorry to ruin your fun, I didn't mean to offend your sensibilities.