doomer

plural doomers

1. A doom-and-gloomer; a pessimist.

   I soon found out it was a common belief among doomers, or people who believe a global catastrophe will happen within the next few years.

   2015 January 31, Dylan Evans, “I quit my job to set up a post-apocalyptic commune”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC

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   I am not normally a pessimist, not by nature one of the doomers of this world whereas Cashem seems to be getting worse and worse. What did he mean by ‘attempt’?

   2004, Barbara Anderson, Change of Heart, Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 132

   1. One who believes that petroleum depletion will inevitably lead to a severe recession or depression, followed by a Malthusian catastrophe.

      […] while a Minnesotan in her early thirties summed up the general influence of apocalyptic popular culture: “I think it has made me more of a doomer. […]

      2015, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture, page 114

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      Those who suggest the likely return of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (famine, pestilence, war, and death) are more vocal than ever before despite being labeled Malthusian or just "doomer."

      2009, David Holmgren, Future Scenarios, Chelsea Green

      There is an ever louder babble of apocalypse-predicting subcultures, amplified and partly sustained by the internet: peak-oil doomers, who believe the world's energy supplies will collapse and mass famine will follow; […].

      2011 December 18, Andy Beckett, “The news is terrible. Is the world really doomed?”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC

   2. capitalizedneologismsometimesSomeone who is apathetic or has a negative prospect towards the world.

      Tim Joung, a 20-year-old student in New York, agrees with almost everything that so-called doomers believe: individual action makes little difference, and unscrupulous corporations are at fault for climate change.

      2020 September 21, Alexandra Villarreal, “Meet the doomers: why some young US voters have given up hope on climate”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC

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      Doomers, meanwhile, are the nihilistic cousins of "Bloomers" and "Gloomers," all three gradients of the same 20-something. Whereas Bloomers are well adjusted and Gloomers are depressed because they are not, Doomers have simply stopped trying. They are no longer pursuing friendships or relationships, and get no joy from anything because they know that the world is coming to an end.

      2020 February 3, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “The Misogynistic Joke that Became a Goth-meme Fairy Tale”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC

   3. A techno-pessimist, in particular concerning artificial intelligence.

      She added, perhaps to the chagrin of the AI doomers in the crowd: "This is not a trial on the safety risks of artificial intelligence."

      2026 May 9, Dara Kerr, “What I saw at the Musk-OpenAI trial: petty billionaires, protests and a stern judge”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC

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      To this day, some doomers work on the inside, nudging the big A.I. labs toward caution, and some work on the outside, arguing that the big A.I. labs should not exist.

      2024 March 18, Andrew Marantz, “О.К., Doomer”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 47

      Today [Eliezer] Yudkowsky is regarded as a leader of the “doomers”, a faction whose members believe that superintelligent AI will be unambiguously bad for humanity and perhaps even cause our extinction.

      2025 March 5, J. Oliver Conroy, “They wanted to save us from a dark AI future. Then six people were killed”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC

      It was a rare issue in which the interests of Doomers, Boomers, and profit-motivated corporates aligned: Keeping frontier models front and center in government regulatory discussions was ideologically imperative to Doomers and convenient to Boomers and corporates for shifting attention away from regulating existing AI models and their problems.

      2025, Karen Hao, Empire of AI, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN

      Antonyms: boomer

2. archaicrareOne who, or that which, dooms, or pronounces a sentence; a judge.

   Are not the heauens doomers of mens deedes?

   1590, T[homas] L[odge], “Saladyne”, in Rosalynde. Euphues Golden Legacie: […], London: […] Thomas Orwin for T. G[ubbin] and John Busbie, →OCLC, folio 26, recto

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   That fatal look of a common intelligence, of a common assent, was exchanged among the doomers of the prisoner's life and death, as the judge concluded.

   1869, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Prose Works

plural Doomers

1. informalvideo gamesA player of the video game Doom.

   On the downside, they’ve created such indelible demons and Death match tournaments that Doomers of all ages have reported actual perception changes.

   1996, Faith Popcorn, Lys Marigold, Clicking: 16 Trends to Future Fit Your Life, Your Work, and Your Business, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 86

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   Doomers, ranging from children to senior citizens, are up all night hunting specters, imps, and other hellspawn, battling each other in so-called Deathmatch tournaments, and checking out the latest Doom lore by conversing with the game’s developers over computer chat lines. […] What’s ahead for Doomers? Id has authorized a company called Austin Virtual Gaming to license an eight-screen Doom arcade setup around the country.

   1994, BusinessWeek, page 16

   I am not a female Doomer, but I did "catch" my fiance playing Doom the other day. It led us to a discussion of why ID didn't put the option in to choose a female character.

   1994 April 30, Ricardo Lopez, “Are there any *female* doomers out there?”, in alt.games.doom (Usenet)

   The sense of reality is so seamless that on the Internet, where many Doomers gather, there is a FAQ (frequently asked questions) document that talks about Doom-induced motion sickness. […] At one point, Carnegie Mellon University’s 25,000-user network had so many student Doomers playing that the system nearly ground to a halt.

   1994 September 23, Robert S. Cauthorn, “‘Doom’s Day’: Oct. 10 is release date for sequel to wildly popular game”, in The Arizona Daily Star, volume 153, number 264, Tucson, Ariz., section E, page twelve

   #doom This channel is a cousin of #vidgames […] And some players use it to find others who have the Internet Head-to-Head Daemon (IHHD) software, which lets folks play Doom over the Net. (Note: Some “Doomers” may want to try finding the #modemdoom channel if #doom is not active for some reason.)

   1995, Donald Rose, Internet Chat Quick Tour: Real-time Conversations & Communications Online, Ventana Press, →ISBN, page 119

   By intentionally leaving cracks in his source code, [John] Carmack encouraged Doomers to hack the game and create their own elaborate levels — new battlegrounds upon which the carnage took place.

   1999, The New York Times Biographical Service, page 786

2. Alternative letter-case form of doomer.

plural DOOMers

1. Alternative letter-case form of Doomer (“player of DOOM”).

   Although diehard DOOMers will no doubt revel in killing the thrice re-animated creatures, this is essentially a dead game in more ways than one.

   1997, Shane Mooney, Nintendo 64 Ultimate Strategy Guide, SYBEX, →ISBN, page 56

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   Along with many, many other places where DOOMers frequent. […] NOTE DMCL Distribution Please feel free to distribute the list to anywhere the DOOMers may be.

   1994, Robert Waring, DOOM: Totally Unauthorized Tips & Secrets, Brady Publishing, →ISBN, page 115

   “Using a combination of our own warped imaginations, thousands of hours of software development, and insightful suggestions from thousands of dedicated DOOMers worldwide, we’ve crafted a sequel that is more exciting, more deadly, and even more realistic than the original DOOM,” says id Software CEO Jay Wilbur.

   1995 February 18, Chris McGowan, “CD-ROM Successes: How They Happen”, in Billboard, page 75

   Also included is DEWANGO, a server that you can sign onto to find opponents to play and teams of DOOMers to join. […] The Fiasco WAD is made with both rookies and serious DOOMers in mind.

   1997, Preston Gralla, editor, ZDNet Software Library 10,000, Ziff-Davis Press, →ISBN, pages 115 and 126