1960 Scientific Forecast Named 13 November 2026 as Date of Humanity's End
A 1960 paper in the journal Science put humanity's end at 13 November 2026. With less than a month to go, the publication is drawing fresh attention.
About a month remains until 13 November 2026, the date given as the end of humanity in a forecast published in 1960 in the respected scientific journal Science. The source mentions no real sign that the date is approaching as a catastrophe, but the forecast is now being recalled as a curious episode in the history of science.
Who made the forecast
The paper was prepared by Heinz von Foerster, an Austrian-born American physicist and cyberneticist, together with two students, Lawrence Amiot and Patricia Mora. The forecast was unusually specific because it named an exact date.
How scientific and prophetic predictions differ
The author of the source article notes that Wikipedia has an entire entry on doomsdays predicted throughout history. These include early clergy awaiting the Last Judgment and the 2012 excitement over an end of the world supposedly foretold by the Maya calendar.
According to the author, prophets usually give a specific date, or at least a month and a year, to create the impression of special knowledge. Scientific estimates of the demise of civilization or the Earth, by contrast, generally do not name a particular year. They speak of hypothetical events, such as a supervolcano eruption, that may or may not happen within the next half a million, one million or 10 million years.
The von Foerster paper did not follow this usual scientific practice, which is why the 1960 forecast is being mentioned today.
