Today, Friday 13, 2026, is officially the end of the world, according to a 1960 paper in the journal Science. The prediction, made by physicist Heinz von Foerster and his team, said humanity's population would hit infinity on this exact date, chosen for being the unluckiest in their projected timeframe.
The 1960 Prediction
Von Foerster and his team analyzed 2,000 years of population data. They concluded that if late-1950s birth rates and medical breakthroughs continued, humanity would trigger an apocalyptic resource scramble. The researchers warned that descendants wouldn't starve to death but would be "squeezed to death."
The scientists proposed solutions to avoid this literal squeeze, including taxing larger families or launching permanent, one-way colonies on the moon and nearby planets. This was written months before the first human reached space, making the interplanetary backup plan ambitious.
Microsoft Outage Adds to Chaos
Adding to the Friday the 13th chaos, Microsoft is working to restore services after a global outage hit 365, Teams, Outlook, and Copilot users in 73 countries and territories. The company admits its first fix was "not taking as expected." At the peak, Downdetector logged more than 130,000 Outlook problem reports in the US and over 3,000 in the UK. Numbers have dropped but thousands of reports remain.
Microsoft says the cause was "elevated load" on its infrastructure and has ruled out a cyberattack. Executive vice president Charles Lamanna said there is "no indication this is the result of malicious or cyber activity."
Impact on UK Services
Several UK police forces, including Greater Manchester, the Met, Hertfordshire, and Dorset, have had problems with online forms, and some GP surgeries reportedly cannot book appointments. The UK Government says "robust contingency plans" are in place to limit disruption. Australia's spy agency and federal police were affected, and US courts have reportedly been hit too.
Microsoft reports "positive results" after applying an authentication/routing configuration patch to part of its infrastructure, and is working to roll it out to more servers. A full root-cause report will follow once the issue is resolved.
