Dhaka, Oct. 1 -- A 1960 paper in the journal Science that predicted human population would approach infinity on Nov 13, 2026, is back in focus as the date draws near.

Titled "Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, AD 2026", it was written by Austrian-American cybernetics expert Heinz von Foerster and two of his students, Patricia Mora and Lawrence Amiot.

They argued that humans, unlike other species, can cooperate to solve problems, so more people could mean faster growth, not slower. Their warning was that future generations would be "squeezed to death", according to The Independent.

Using 24 estimates of world population across 2,000 years, they projected the trend forward and found that numbers would be near infinity in 2026.

The claim mad...