Is the end of the world just one month away? A 1960 scientific paper predicted this exact date

According to The Independent, a study published in 1960 in the prestigious journal Science predicted that humanity would face the catastrophic consequences of unlimited population growth on Friday, November 13, 2026.

The paper was written by Austrian-American physicist Heinz von Foerster and his colleagues at the University of Illinois.

Analyzing historical demographic trends, they concluded that the world’s population was growing at a hyper-exponential rate, meaning that its growth was accelerating.

“By that date, the number of people on Earth would approach infinity if it continued to grow at the rate recorded over the previous two millennia,” the paper stated, issuing a dramatic warning:

“Our great-great-great-grandchildren will not starve to death. They will be crushed to death.”

The publication of the study on the end of the world sparked controversy among demographers at the time, but its projections of global population growth remained relatively consistent with actual trends until the 1990s.

In the meantime, birth rates have fallen significantly. According to more recent United Nations projections, the world’s population is expected to peak at approximately 10.3 billion people in 2084, after which it is projected to begin declining.

This development has led contemporary economists to warn that declining birth rates could pose a greater challenge to society than overpopulation. Potential consequences include economic stagnation and increasing pressure on healthcare systems.

Shutterstock/zef art

The study was published at the height of the Cold War, during a period of heightened concern about the possibility of a catastrophe that could destroy civilization, whether through resource shortages or the spread of nuclear weapons.

More than six decades later, warnings about a possible global catastrophe are once again in the spotlight, this time partly because of the rapid development of artificial intelligence.

A symbol of such warnings is the Doomsday Clock, established in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Its hands are currently set at 85 seconds to midnight, closer to the symbolic end than ever before. A year earlier, they stood at 89 seconds to midnight.