In 1972, This Computer Program Predicted How the World Will End ... and So Far, We're Right On Track

In the early 1970s, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created a computer program to predict what will happen to planet Earth (and the humans who live on it).

The computer model, called World1, used data including pollution levels, population growth, the availability of natural resources and the overall quality of life. Here's what it found:

"At around 2020, the condition of the planet becomes highly critical. If we do nothing about it, the quality of life goes down to zero. Pollution becomes so seriously it will start to kill people, which in turn will cause the population to diminish, lower than it was in the 1900. At this stage, around 2040 to 2050, civilized life as we know it on this planet will cease to exist."

The bad news: according to the computer model, we're right on track to make that prediction come true.


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We need to hope for the best, but keep fighting against climate change deniers and for the environment. Meanwhile, we need to prepare for the worst. Just. In. Case. I'm not talking about just the "preppers," I'm talking about ways to preserve our best achievements in the arts and sciences. We need to start building Knowledge Arks, storehouses of books and recordings so future generations don't have to start from scratch.
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they've been predicting the end of the world for what seems like forever

last I remember , I think Stephen Hawking (at last word) said we had at least 1000 yrs if that …… of course who knows what the future holds for us
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I'd like to think we have a little bit of time left before the world ends... like a couple hundred years? I should get to see alligators in my home state of New York first...
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