{
  "id": 19826250,
  "title": "It's the end of the world as we know it, per a physicist's 1960 prediction",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-per-a-physicists-1960-19826250",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-11-13T15:09:39.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Ars Technica",
    "slug": "ars-technica",
    "url": "https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/11/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-per-a-physicists-1960-prediction/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Microsoft is still working to recover from a global outage that left millions of users unable to access critical tools on Friday. This comes on the day a physicist predicted the end of humanity, November 13, 2026. The physicist, Heinz von Foerster, wrote about overpopulation reaching a breaking point in a 1960 paper. Heinz von Foerster based his prediction on past population growth trends, assuming they would continue unchanged into the future. While his calculation projected exponential growth, he believed humanity would find solutions to the food supply problem rather than face an eventual collapse.",
  "summary": "Heinz von Foerster thought population would grow exponentially and \"squeeze\" us all to death.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}