Heinz von Foerster, 90; Physicist Who Gave Date for End of the World

Heinz von Foerster, 90, a physicist, philosopher and eclectic researcher who once predicted the date for doomsday, died Oct. 2 of unspecified causes at his home in Pescadero, Calif.

A native of Vienna, Von Foerster studied physics there and got his doctorate at the University of Breslau. By hiding his Jewish ancestry, he was able to work in Berlin radar labs during World War II. Von Foerster moved to the United States in 1949 to head the Electron Tube Laboratory at the University of Illinois, and a decade later founded its Biological Computer Laboratory.

He also edited presentations from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Conferences in New York; it was material from various scientists that became the basis for future research ranging from biological physics to computer science. His research touched biophysics, mathematical biology, computational technology, cognition and epistemology.

In 1960, Von Foerster co-wrote a provocative study about burgeoning overpopulation in which he used a mathematical formula to calculate that doomsday would occur Nov. 13, 2026.

By that date, if birthrates could not be curbed, he said, world population would reach infinity. “Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve to death,” he said in an article published in The Times. “They will be squeezed to death.”