The World Was Supposed To End Today, According To A 1960 Science Paper

A scientific paper published more than 60 years ago is named today, Friday 13 November 2026, as doomsday, according to a report in The Metro.

The paper was published in the journal Science on November 4, 1960. It was written by physicist Heinz von Foerster and his colleagues Patricia M. Mora and Lawrence W Amiot. Its title was Doomsday: Friday, November 13th, A.D. 2026.

The authors studied population estimates from about 400 BC to 1958. They found that the time taken for the world population to double kept getting shorter. Using that trend, they created a mathematical formula.

According to their formula, the world population would pass 25 billion by 2020 and would approach infinity by 2026.

The Metro reports that the paper did not predict an asteroid, a war or a natural disaster. It predicted a mathematical point where the equation would stop giving meaningful results. The authors wrote, "Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve. They will be squeezed to death."

The date was also personal. November 13 would have been von Foerster's 115th birthday, as he was born on November 13, 1911.

At the time, the prediction caused an immediate stir. Historian Alan MacEachern said the claims were widely discussed and even used in political debates.

But the prediction did not come true. The model worked well for about 30 years, but from around 1993 the real population began to fall behind the forecast.

The main reason was simple. Population growth slowed. The global birth rate today is slightly less than half what it was in 1960.

The United Nations now puts the world population at about 8.2 billion, not infinity. The formula had predicted about 131 billion people for 2025.

Experts say the paper was meant as a warning that growth at the 1960 rate could not continue forever. It was not a confirmed forecast that the world would end on this date.

As The Metro notes, there is no scientific reason to expect the world to end today.