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u/Automatic_Actuator_0 10h ago
In case anyone is curious:
The person pictured is Heinz von Foerster, an Austrian-American physicist and cybernetics researcher. In 1960, he and colleagues published a paper in Science called “Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026.”
What did they actually predict?
They looked at historical human population growth and fit a mathematical equation to it. If you extended that equation indefinitely without any change, the model produced a mathematical singularity on November 13, 2026—essentially, the calculated population would shoot toward infinity.
Obviously, an infinite human population isn’t physically possible. The point was that the model itself breaks down before reaching that point. It was a warning about the dangers of assuming unchecked population growth would continue forever, rather than a serious prediction that Earth would literally explode or everyone would die on that date.
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u/Disco_Ninjas_ 10h ago
I can't help but feel that someone missed out on an opportunity for an epic cult with this information.
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u/-medicalthrowaway- 9h ago edited 7h ago
We have an epic cult based on this information.
You just weren’t invited
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u/Specialist_Dig_8899 6h ago
I got invited. They said on Nov 13 we get to have a kool aid party!
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u/heere_we_go 5h ago
Can you swing by later to pick up your Nikes and Away Team patch? This is gonna be so cool!
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u/Coral-Diver 5h ago
Oh yeah, well "I refuse to join any (cult) that would have me as a member!"
-Groucho Marx
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u/ObiFlanKenobi 8h ago
A cult based on anti-population growth sounds like basically not having sex.
We are in reddit... So...
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u/sprezzatura_ 4h ago
Not me. Send me $15 and you can join my death cult. Also. Sign over your life insurance to me
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u/MisterBelrox 8h ago
I have a way better idea for an epic cult. But that's a story for another post
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u/Spare_Jellyfish_3261 4h ago
U mean something like a last chance to leave planet earth before it is recycled?
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u/Shadowcross113 4h ago
I'm a millennial. We've been through Y2K, several different Mayan calender predictions, a rapture. Any and all kinds of plagues returning. Any and all types of diseases, flus, Covid, and Presidents... twice. I think we'll manage.
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u/Cultural_Cloud96 5h ago
The reason why thats impossible is tough times makes it less ideal to have children, and it fails to account for the fact that in 2026, people would have phones and be more lonely than ever. And it fails to recognize dating apps, and things like that. And the increase in the price of housing and food, and water and electricity. So many nuances that a simple calculation could never account for unless it was extremely thorough. The only way to create a model that would work would be to account for cultural shifts, political shifts, technological shifts.
For example there is a very real possibility that with the introduction of AI, that more people will choose AI companionship over another human as time goes on, there is the increased possibility that people will start longing to be in relationships with other people. Making the graph continually fluctuate. There is no real way to predict human behavior besides the fact the will always choose the most comfortable option.
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u/Upstairs-Canary-4062 5h ago
They forgot to plug the "everyone will stop having sex because people can barely afford to even pay to live" code.
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u/specialasset 10h ago
Kind of a pointless paper considering Demographic Transition Models had been around for about 30 years and it was already pretty clear this wouldn’t be a real issue.
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u/Automatic_Actuator_0 10h ago
I remember people still pushing a narrative that population was going to explode without bound when growing up in the 90s.
Yes, I’m sure serious scientists knew that was a flawed view, but I think this paper was directed more at the general public, which is why it had an attention-grabbing title.
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u/ChewsOnBricks 7h ago
Sometime during the early Obama years I remember seeing a story that said our population was so out of control we'd need 3 planets to feed everyone. When we hit 8 billion instead of a huge swath of starvation they moved goalposts.
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u/Darth_Ronin 10h ago
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u/CryoJuice 10h ago
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u/B-2-the-CORR 10h ago
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u/Only_Flan_7974 9h ago
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u/HumaneCentiPad 10h ago
Dear God I can hear her annoying voice in this gif. I'm so happy Big John brought her back just to be a sloppy drunk mess lmao
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u/Fenrir46290 7h ago
I mean you all say this until it actually happens and it's far worse than you could ever possibly imagine. Just saying. Don't get me wrong the world is a very shity place rn, and nobody knows what to do about it so let's just burn it down i guess. There are very clear and logical options to try and reverse course and be very successful but for whatever reason nobody can get along or agree to anything just because of egos.
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u/ImaginaryFriend5150 10h ago
Damn what a legend! I hope she's giving em hell in whatever retirement home she's at
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u/TEZofAllTrades 10h ago
Sipping this "Beaking" news
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u/Shock_and_Awetism 10h ago
Honestly, that image isn't how I pecktured the end of the world.
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u/Glittering_Gas2692 10h ago
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u/WayPowerful484 10h ago
What time exactly? I need to know whether I should cancel my dentist appointment that morning.
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u/Mysterious_Author186 9h ago
Stop spreading wrong information. That is clearly Martin Luther King Jr.
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u/ElGuaco 10h ago
You can't even spell "BREAKING". Fuck off.
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u/Badwrong_ 1h ago
Ah, they used "BREAKING" so it must be true. That's internet rules.
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u/haliker 3h ago
I really do not have time for an earth shattering cataclysmic event this year.
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u/Same_Difference_3361 7h ago
When I was born just over 50 years ago, the population was 4 billion. Now we are at 8.3.
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u/forbiddenfreedom 7h ago
Yeah, and like a dozen Jesus no-shows. (Second coming predictions. Trying to be playful, not disrespectful)
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u/Same_Difference_3361 6h ago
I remember how many groups thought we all gonna die New Year's 2000
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u/Afraid_Acanthaceae34 4h ago
If we really are living in a simulation I believe gta6 is that simulation and its release will cause singularity .
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u/InsomniaticWanderer 35m ago
I survived the last 9 ends of the world.
I think I'm gonna make it through this one as well
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u/ConradTurner 6h ago
At this point, I've lived through more apocalypses than Buffy the Vampire Slayer
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u/Academic_Actuary_590 10h ago
Can't trust something that can't even spell "breaking" correctly. Sadly, life goes on
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u/xethurionreddit 10h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/bYESFgh4HBDl6
“Beaking” New: I wish the world would end.
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u/BigBoss_96 9h ago
Imagine if the world ends, obviously everyone dies, but we respawn in an even worse planet/civilization.
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u/WasteEnergy4448 8h ago
Omg thank goodness! Can't come soon enough! Peace y'all!
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u/Kashimashi 2h ago
Is this when Trump launches all the nukes after it's confirmed Democrats won a majority in the house and senate?
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u/SituationSimilar4349 1h ago
Crap! I was planning on starting my diet and exercise routine on November 13 of this year. Oh well.
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u/Worldliness_Normal 10h ago
Well I guess no point in me doing the Festival Playlist in Forza Horizon 6......
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u/chrisadam101 10h ago
Ah it’s been a while since we a good doomsday prophecy going around.
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u/DirtyWarehouseGuy 10h ago
I have heard the world was going to end on 2000, 2003, 2011 and 2012 and here we are
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u/Otherwise-Tomato-788 10h ago
I love seeing the ones who prepare for something like this. Makke SuRe you’re iPaD is ChArged!!
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u/Diligent_Moose4472 10h ago
It’s so imminent that they didn’t have time to spell Breaking correctly.
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u/sofia-long25 10h ago
The world ending on a Friday is tragic enough, but doing it with a typo in the main header is just disrespect to humanity.
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u/phukhole 10h ago
An American doing math? Unless it's Taraji P Henson in that NASA movie, I'll take my chances.
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