Physicist's 66-year-old prediction of exact day in 2026 humans will be 'squeezed to death' surfaces

Doomsday could hit Earth in 2026, if a report by Time Magazine is to be believed. Physicist Heinz von Foerster claimed in 1960 in the "Science" magazine that the world would end sometime in the 2020s, and even gave a date. According to his prediction carried by Time, doomsday will strike on November 13, 2026. von Foerster wrote in his report, "Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve. They will be squeezed to death." von Foerster said the reason for this annihilation will be "infinite" overpopulation, that is, if humans do not self-destruct from nuclear weapons or something else. "When the number of 'people goes to infinity, and the clever population annihilates itself...The most likely date for it is Friday, Nov. 13, A.D. 2026," the physicist said, according to the report. He foresaw the accelerating human population 66 years ago and was sure that things would turn out for the worse. What's worrying is that he wasn't a psychic telling about something he saw in a dream, but he based his prediction on mathematical models and the rate at which the population was growing.

"Any population that increases at an accelerating rate (as the human race has been doing) is headed for ultimate trouble. Even the best food technology, he says, cannot race ahead of an ever-steepening curve," he wrote. The physicist also suggested ways to prevent this catastrophe, although we might be too late for it. He said that the "doomsday of infinitely crowded population" could be avoided if a control mechanism, a "peoplo-stat," is implemented to keep the world’s population at a desired level. This he said could be done "at present" using ways such as, "heavy taxation on families with more than two children." He warned that "tomorrow, of course, it will be more difficult, since the gap between birth rate and death rate is widening every minute."

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Doomsday date wasn't exact, but meant to show how things stand

von Foerster argued using his model that population growth accelerates when communication and the human ability for cooperation push it to grow. In such a scenario, the population approaches infinity, hence doomsday. Based on his equation, this day will arrive on November 13, 2026. But he didn't mention the date as a fact and merely used his birthday as a way to show that things need to change for humans to survive in this world.

Critics of von Foerster's theory

However, like everything else, even this theory had its critics, as not everyone agreed with von Foerster's assessment. They argued that biological constraints—specifically the human gestation period—and the historical tendency for exponential growth to plateau rendered his theory improbable. In 1961, demographic researcher Ansley J. Coale submitted a letter to Science, saying that most demographers thought his paper was a joke. To this, von Foerster responded that what they meant to show was that human population growth cannot be simply defined by mortality and fertility. Experts say things will not likely turn out the way the physicist suggested since humans have managed to increase their resources over the years.