It's Been 10 Years Since World Was Supposed To End And Next Doomsday Is Coming Up Soon

We're 10 years on from the ominous 2012 predictions, but don't worry, another is right around the corner.

Yep, in the news that absolutely everyone wants to see, the world might be ending sooner than we think.

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To be fair, the end of the world has been predicted numerous times in the past few decades.

Who could forget the millennium when people thought the computers going to 00 would wipe out technology? Or 2012, when the Mayan calendar ran out and everyone assumed that was the end of life as we knew it.

Others even argued that the 2012 prediction was wrong and that the actual end of the world was 2021 and, to be fair, it did feel like it at one point.

While none of these predictions came true (thankfully) a new date has gained traction: Friday 13 November 2026.

A cool four years away and a real horror-movie date to go with it, so who knows? Maybe this is the one.

So, where did this prediction come from? Well, like all good predictions, it came from a scientist, Heinz von Foerster, a Vienna native that spent much of his adult career working at the University of Illinois.

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In 1960, the physicist, philosopher, and researcher suggested that the world would end due to over-population in 2026, using a mathematical formula to calculate the date.

Foerster wrote in his study that: "Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve to death" but that they "will be squeezed to death" sounds like trying to change floors at the club but cool.

In the study, Foerster also says of November 2026: "at this date human population will approach infinity if it grows as it has grown in the last two millennia."

Don't worry too much though, because while the population is increasing, it's not set to reach infinity, with the UN projecting that: "The world population is projected to reach 8.5 billion in 2030, and to increase further to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100."

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What's more, both Foerster and the UN's population predictions are subject to change.

For instance, the UN's figures are "based on the medium projection variant, which assumes a decline of fertility for countries where large families are still prevalent, as well as a slight increase of fertility in several countries with fewer than two children per woman on average."

Still, despite the variables in calculating the population's growth, Foerster suggested that our greatest hope to avert disaster is maintaining the view that as our "environment becomes less and less influenced by 'natural forces' and is more and more defined by social forces determined by man, he himself can take control over his fate in this matter."

So, essentially, we could be dying soon, but we've still got time to do something about it.

Topics: News, World News

Shola Lee