A theory from TikTok creator Lukas (@lukasg007) posits that Wikipedia’s final edit is already decided. According to him, there is a long-running prediction pool among Wikipedia contributors attempting to guess what the last-ever article on the site will be. When that article is eventually published, there is a separate pool for the final edit on that final article. Though it’s all in good fun, the theory raises questions about the future of the internet’s most valued information repository, and the forces that might eventually bring it to an end.
“We already know what the last edit Wikipedia will ever get will be,” Lukas states in the video.
This “Wikipedia: last topic pool” isn’t an official Wikimedia event, but it has fascinated editors and readers for years. It’s essentially a bet among contributors, guessing what topic will mark the end of Wikipedia’s updates.
Because of this, the article about the pool is destined to be the very last page changed, making it a strange, self-referential ending. It’s Wikipedia editing itself about Wikipedia’s own end.
When (and why) would Wikipedia end?
While the site could theoretically continue forever, the video touches on real-world concerns. Lukas mentioned that Wikipedia’s future depends on many things, like its financing model and whether it’s even possible to “cover everything in the world eventually, in thousands of years.”
@lukasg007 Crazy that they know what the final edit will be because there’s a final article contest #wikipedia #wikilore #facts ♬ original sound – Twitch: LukasG
These existential questions resonated with viewers, with his TikTok video reaching over 331.9K views and 31.8K likes. After all, most people take the internet’s most trusted encyclopedia for granted.
Moreover, Lukas encouraged his audience to check out the article about the pool, calling it “an interesting page read.” He highlighted the speculation surrounding how, and why, Wikipedia might eventually stop growing.
Some suggestions on the Wikipedia article include the website going under, interest dwindling “to the point that nobody edits it ever again,” the end of the world as we know it, or even simply Wikipedia changing its name, thus the “last article” becoming the last one under the old name.
Even though no one knows exactly how Wikipedia’s story ends, this oddly poetic detail suggests it’s already written…or at least predicted.
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