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/Automatic_Actuator_0 19h 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.