World Politics4 min(s) read
Scientists predicted doomsday for November 13, 2026
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Way back in the 1960s, scientists predicted the end of the world - now, the date they predicted is just hours away.
He said that the world would end on November 13th, 2026 - that’s Friday 13th, and it’s also tomorrow.
Is the world going to end on November 13th?
As always with these things, we won’t be able to say for sure until the date comes and goes, but there are a few things to note first.
These weren't just any scientists, they were well-respected scientists who were writing articles in the 1960s, published in the respected journal Science.
They were the most-sciencey scientists going at the time - led by Austrian American physicist Heinz van Foerster.
He wrote and published the paper, which was called ‘Doomsday: Friday 13 November, AD 2026’.
Sharp, snappy and to the point, don’t you think?
In that cheery article, he and his two colleagues wrote: "Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve,
"They will be squeezed to death.”
The idea is simple really, they theorized that the population of the world would continue to grow and grow expontentially and eventually the world would be so full that there would be little space and resources for everyone to survive.
Ultimately, the finite amount of space on this planet would no longer be sufficient to host the burgeoning population of humans on it, and we would all - as it so elegantly argued - be ‘squeezed to death’.
As you’ve probably noticed, we aren’t currently rubbing shoulder to shoulder with other humans right now, for the most part, and therefore we should be OK for this November at least.
The problem with the theory - and something they got right
In Science, this time in October 2026, it said: "The work was based on a simple observation,
“The time it took for the human population to double in size kept getting shorter.”
Taking world population data from around 400BC to about 1958, the authors then ‘came up with an equation that best described the trend’.
According to that model, by 2020 there would be 25 billion people on earth, but they failed to account for when 'humanity would run out of food, land, or energy’.
They simply drew the conclusion that ‘at some point’ in 2026 their equation 'ceased to give meaningful results because the predicted population shot towards infinity’.
That obviously hasn’t happened, for a few reasons, but the research wasn’t totally without merit.
The world’s population has grown significantly, so they were right about that.
The article at the time was the subject of much discussion, with many taking it for what it was - a bit of a ’tongue in cheek’ observation on population growth.
While those who took it much more seriously pointed out that there were ‘obvious flaws’ in the logic.
One such account said that while ‘[the] time it takes for the number of humans to double could get a lot shorter’ this study didn’t take into account that it would be 'certainly not shorter than the nine months it takes for a baby to develop’.
Until about 1993, which was about half way to the suggested 'Doomsday' the predictions made in the study had been described as ‘remarkably accurate’.
However, after that, population began falling behind what was predicted and now the global birth rate is ’slightly less than half what it was in 1960’.
One scholar added: “Hopefully, we will all wake up on November 13 to an ordinary day.”
With global politics as it is, when was the last time we had one of those?
Still, the prediction draws interest, because although it will not come true on this November 13th - even with it being Friday 13th - it highlights that there is an obvious limit to what the planet can handle in terms of population.
That could theoretically be hit at some point in the future - just not for a while yet.