Scientists Used A Computer To Predict Exactly When Society Would Collapse

In the 1970s, scientists used a computer model to predict when society would fall. According to their predictions, hold off on making any long-term plans. To predict when our society would collapse, scientists from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) looked at data patterns from various sources, such as natural resources, energy usage, and population.

The researchers predicted that our society would fall near the midpoint of the 21st century. To be exact, 2040. Great! Now no need to make plans that far away in the future.

The team's study, published by the Club of Rome, identified upcoming 'limits to growth that would cause the industrial collapse. However, at the time, the report wasn't taken too seriously and did attract some ridicule, the Guardian reports.

Of course, there are skeptics out there. So in 2009, a different team of researchers did the same study, which was published by American Scientist and said that the model's results were 'almost precisely on course some 35 years later in 2008 (with a few appropriate assumptions)... it is essential to recognize that its predictions have not been invalidated and in fact seem entirely on target. We are not aware of any economists' model that is as accurate over such a long time span.

Just last year, Gaya Herrington, a dutch sustainability researcher, affirmed the bleak predictions made in the study. Herrington, who works at KPMG, a multinational accounting firm, made a statement to the Guardian, said: "From a research perspective, I felt a data check of a decades-old model against empirical observations would be an interesting exercise."

Herrington's findings were grim, The data from the 1972 research aligns with today's data with a worst-case scenario of economic growth coming to a halt at the end of this decade and collapsing around 10 years later.

But before canceling all your plans for the future, Herrington did have good news. She said to the Guardian: "The key finding of my study is that we still have a choice to align with a scenario that does not end in collapse. "With innovation in business, along with new developments by governments and civil society, continuing to update the model provides another perspective on the challenges and opportunities we have to create a more sustainable world."

Maybe check out ISA after all.