Economy and macroUpdated 1h ago

A 1960 paper projected infinite population for today.

The date sounds like a countdown, but it came from a conditional calculation. In a 1960 paper in Science, three scientists, including physicist Heinz von Foerster, carried past population growth forward on the assumption that it would keep accelerating at the same rate. That projection reached an infinite-population point on November 13, 2026. It was a mathematical limit, not a forecast that Earth or humanity would physically end that day. The result depends on the trend continuing; population growth doesn’t keep accelerating exponentially forever. The date has arrived, but what it marks is the far end of an assumption—not a doomsday appointment.

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