The Doomsday is on Friday 13 November 2026
Aug. 4th, 2008 03:26 pmEMBO reports 9, 8, 703–708 (2008)
doi:10.1038/embor.2008.138
AOP Published online: 18 July 2008
'Finitics'. A plea for biological realism
Ladislav Ková
Ladislav Ková is Professor of Biochemistry at Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
The history of human thought can be separated into two periods: before Darwin (BD) and after Darwin (AD). The former period covers 150,000 years of the existence of modern humans; the latter a thousand times less. Yet, as this paper argues, the burden of pre-Darwinian thinking continues to prevent us from realistically appreciating the present evolutionary stage of the human species. Therefore, I suggest that it might be time to substitute our current illusions, either about a bright future or imminent doomsday for humanity, with a radical Darwinian alternative.
...Von Foerster and colleagues extrapolated the hyperbolic curve of human population growth and indicated that the population should reach infinity and the doubling time zero on Friday 13 November 2026: a date they dramatically called "doomsday" (von Foerster et al, 1960)
http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v9/n8/full/embor2008138.html
doi:10.1038/embor.2008.138
AOP Published online: 18 July 2008
'Finitics'. A plea for biological realism
Ladislav Ková
Ladislav Ková is Professor of Biochemistry at Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
The history of human thought can be separated into two periods: before Darwin (BD) and after Darwin (AD). The former period covers 150,000 years of the existence of modern humans; the latter a thousand times less. Yet, as this paper argues, the burden of pre-Darwinian thinking continues to prevent us from realistically appreciating the present evolutionary stage of the human species. Therefore, I suggest that it might be time to substitute our current illusions, either about a bright future or imminent doomsday for humanity, with a radical Darwinian alternative.
...Von Foerster and colleagues extrapolated the hyperbolic curve of human population growth and indicated that the population should reach infinity and the doubling time zero on Friday 13 November 2026: a date they dramatically called "doomsday" (von Foerster et al, 1960)
http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v9/n8/full/embor2008138.html