November 13 doomsday prediction: Is the world really ending? - The News International
If a decades-old dystopian study is to be believed, humanity has just two weeks left.
Back in 1960, University of Illinois physicist Heinz von Foerster published a provocative paper in Science forecasting that Doomsday would strike on November 13, 2026, fittingly, a Friday the 13th!
According to the Austrian-American scientist, the apocalypse would occur against the backdrop of a human population that would increase exponentially to infinity, reaching to breaking and self-annihilating themselves.
The study’s titled “Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026” prediction caused panic among people who feared that humanity would be condemned to death due to population growing at unprecedented rate, the Earth would run out of space to accommodate them.
At this date human population will approach infinity if it grows as it has grown in the last two millennia,” the paper read. “Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve. They will be squeezed to death.”
Their predictions relied on past trends, peaking in the early 1960s but failed to accurately forecast the future.
Population growth saw an upward trajectory primarily due to improvements in medicine, sanitation, and food production, driving increased child survival rates.
At present, today's global birth rate is roughly half of what it was in 1960. The UN projects the global population will peak at 10.3 billion in 2084 before declining.
Experts and economists now worry that population stagnation and decline present a greater threat, potentially causing economic downturns and straining healthcare systems.
However, the scientists found a flaw in their prediction. As per researchers, global birth rates are now significantly lower, about half of the 1960 rate, and population growth began falling behind forecasts around 1993, rendering the prediction based on outdated figures.
Professor MacEachern assures everyone that November 13 will be an ordinary day and we will not be "squeezed to death."
He also presented a “stage magician” theory. As Foerster was a stage magician, MacEachern suggests the paper was a clever trick, using rigorous science wrapped in an absurd, attention-grabbing title and conclusion to highlight a serious matter.
