# Heinz von Foerster Back to [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/People/People|Lomborg People]] · [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/BjornLomborg-x-profile|@BjornLomborg]] · Topic: [[Topics/Climate Change Science and Policy Debate/Climate Change Science and Policy Debate|Climate Change Science and Policy Debate]] **Role:** Austrian-American physicist and cybernetician (1911–2002); professor at the University of Illinois, where he founded the Biological Computer Laboratory; lead author of the 1960 'Doomsday' paper in Science - Lead author of von Foerster, Mora and Amiot (1960), [Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.132.3436.1291), *Science* 132(3436):1291–1295, published Nov 4, 1960. - The paper fitted 24 estimates of world population from year 0 to 1958 to a hyperbolic curve, N = 1.79×10¹¹/(2026.87 − t)^0.99, which reaches infinity in A.D. 2026.87; the authors picked Friday, 13 November 2026 as the date. It was framed as a conditional (if growth continued as it had for two millennia). - The paper joked that our descendants "will not starve to death. They will be squeezed to death", and proposed a "peoplo-stat" to hold population constant (as summarised by Roger Pielke Jr, Nov 13, 2026). - Track record: the curve implied ~2.8 billion in 1960 and ~5.0 billion in 1990, close to reality, then failed; it implied 26.6 billion in 2020 against about 7.8 billion actual (Pielke). - Better known for second-order cybernetics and constructivist epistemology; director of the Biological Computer Laboratory at Illinois, 1958–1976 ⚠️ (biographical dates from memory, not re-checked this run). - Lomborg used the paper on its "doomsday" date; see the [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - BjornLomborg on the 1960 Doomsday Paper and Population Hitting Infinity on Nov 13 2026 (2026-11-13)|Nov 13, 2026 Doomsday analysis]]. Related: [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/People/Roger Pielke Jr|Roger Pielke Jr]].