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A comment on Isaac Newton's prediction that the world would not end before 2060 (2015).

Re:Isaac Newton's prediction that the world would not end be... by ChuckMcM on Sunday September 17, 2017 @02:40PM (#15271030)
Complaints about the headline aside, it is the perfect sort of doomsday prophecy story. It is far enough away that the people who pulled it out of Newton's writing will be forgotten, its near enough that the reader could imagine being alive at that time and wondering what would happen. Erich von Däniken exploited this in his "Ancient Astronauts" stuff, predicting the Mayan's called it with a 2012 extinction event (whoops :-).

Since you only get one end of the world prophesy (when it passes you're a crackpot and everyone who believed you now hates you intensely) you need to pick it to land post retirement at least since you'll not have any credibility afterward. Predicting '2060' (and yes I know Newton wrote no earlier than) as the folks who have used Newton's works to date it, being a bit more than 40 years away will have all of these folks retired by then. My guess is they will really try to milk it for all it is worth in the 2040's.

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Re:Isaac Newton's prediction that the world would not end be... by taprun on Sunday September 17, 2017 @03:19PM (#15271227)
This idea was explored at the beginning of Ghostbutsters II when Venkman interviewed someone who didn't leave enough time to print paperbacks of his prophesy. One should always think about the economics of a doomsday before committing to a specific date.
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Re:Isaac Newton's prediction that the world would not end be... by Tossrock on Sunday September 17, 2017 @05:15PM (#15271741)
Credibility isn't necessarily lost over failed doomsday predictions, at least among the faithful - "When Prophecy Fails" is the classic example of this. And these people tend not to have any credibility outside the faithful to begin with.
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Re:Isaac Newton's prediction that the world would not end be... by diminish on Sunday September 17, 2017 @03:15PM (#15271192)
Singularity prediction dates are subject to a similar reasoning.

But the deadline guarantees a second public attention in your life time when you can promote a new deadline for the same or a nee story.

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