Is Today “Cursed?” A Real 1960 Scientific Paper Predicted Friday, Nov 13, 2026 Would Be the End of the World

Outlook down, non-stop breaking news, AND it’s Friday the 13th. Turns out scientists in 1960 literally warned us about today…

If you are feeling like everything is piling up at once this week, take a deep breath. According to ABC News, a mathematical prediction published in the journal Science back in 1960, the world was actually supposed to end today, not with a nuclear bang or a dramatic natural disaster, but from an overwhelming surplus of humanity.

The 1960 “Doomsday” prophecy: Squeezed to death

Decades ago, three researchers calculated that on Friday, November 13, 2026, the global population would accelerate so rapidly that it would approach infinity as ABC News reported.

Using a mathematical formula based on fertility and death rates over the previous 2,000 years, the authors plotted population growth on a “hyperbolic curve,” where less and less time was needed for the population to double or triple. At the center of the joke was lead author Heinz von Foerster, an electrical engineering researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with the calculated apocalypse neatly landing on his birthday.

In their famous paper, the scientists wrote:

Though heavily criticised by social scientists at the time, UC Santa Barbara economist Javier Birchenall noted that the numbers surprisingly held up reasonably well until the 1980s. However, global growth eventually flattened, peaking globally at about 2.3% in 1963 rather than shooting off into infinity.

Why predicting population change is nearly impossible

Reflecting on the failed prophecy, University of Melbourne demographer Peter McDonald explained the fundamental flaw in trying to treat social behavior like a rigid physical law.

While past trends work well in the short term, long-term fertility rates inevitably respond to unforeseen social forces, such as the post-war baby boom, which caught mid-century demographers completely off guard.

Today, instead of overpopulation doomsday scenarios, global anxieties have completely flipped. While certain resource-strained regions like the Democratic Republic of the Congo still project rapid growth, many developed nations and East Asian countries are grappling with the opposite challenge: plummeting birth rates and rapidly aging populations.

So, while workplace tech glitches and Friday the 13th superstitions might make today feel a bit chaotic, we can rest easy knowing the 1960 population apocalypse was off by a mile!

Are you surviving Friday the 13th and the global tech disruptions so far? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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