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1960 Population Model Pinned to 2026 Doomsday
In 1960, mathematician Heinz von Foerster and colleagues published a population-growth model in Science that predicted a population explosion to 'infinity' by November 13, 2026. However, today's United Nations projections suggest that the world population will peak around 10 billion in the 2080s, highlighting the limitations of the original model. The article discusses how the von Foerster model largely ignored changes in fertility, education, urbanization, and women's workforce participation, which have significantly impacted population growth over the past decades.