Custodes Futuri: for the advancement of humanity
Humanity is suspended on the edge, always one move away from disaster. Whether from the nuclear fears of yesteryear, the pandemic that swept the world more recently, the fascist takeover of world governments now, or the environmental collapse of the immediate future. Every step of humanity's survival is a thing of struggle and uncertainty. In order to mitigate the coming destruction that will undoubtedly catch up to us in our shortsighted and selfish greed, the fundamental fabric of society must be changed. These are the factors that impede our next evolution as a species. They directly impact the advancement of humanity and stifle the potential of innovation that will carry us into the future. Each person that is affected by these is one such potential that may be lost. So, to ensure the greatest chances of securing the innovations of the future, we must address all of these factors and save as many as we can. This website seeks to catalogue the barriers that affect humanity as a whole, the impact they have on us, and the prime examples of the pioneers that overcame such barriers and advanced humanity.
Nine factors that impede progress
These are the factors that impede human progress and the development of future pioneers. Each factor below lists the barriers within it, and its page adds cited figures, matching conditions for future pioneers, and the pioneer cases it touches.
- 09TechnologicalDigital divide, electricity, slow diffusion, devices without support, misinformation, automation
Pioneer cases
The following people are examples of pioneers who helped advance humanity, along with the factors that helped them succeed. The Semmelweis case shows what happens when that support is missing.
Showing the 10 best-known of 21 cases. The Pioneers page has all of them, with a side-by-side comparison.
| Pioneer | Contribution | Factors present in the record | Barrier not overcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albert Einstein | Special relativity (the 1905 paper), the light quanta paper, and general relativity, which took about eight years, from 1907 to November 1915. | Biological Psychological Economic Societal Cultural Social Environmental Educational Technological | Later persecution |
| Michael Faraday 1791-1867 | Discovered electromagnetic induction, the basis of generators and motors. | Psychological Economic Social Environmental Educational | No advanced math |
| Marie Curie 1867-1934 | Pioneered radioactivity research, discovered polonium and radium, and won Nobel Prizes in Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911). | Biological Economic Societal Cultural Social Environmental Educational | Radiation exposure |
| Jonas Salk 1914-1995 | Developed the first widely used polio vaccine. | Economic Societal Social Educational Technological | Credit disputes |
| Norman Borlaug 1914-2009 | Developed high-yield, disease-resistant wheat that helped prevent famine in Mexico, India, and Pakistan. Nobel Peace Prize, 1970. | Economic Societal Social Educational Technological | None major |
| Ignaz Semmelweis 1818-1865 | In 1847, at the Vienna General Hospital, he showed that childbed fever was spread on the hands of doctors and students coming from autopsies, and that washing with chlorinated lime prevented it. This was about two decades before germ theory became established. | Biological Psychological Economic Societal Cultural Social | Rejection, dismissal, early death |
| Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827 | One of the most influential composers in Western music, who continued to write major works after losing his hearing. | Biological Economic Social Environmental | Deafness |
| Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790 | Showed that lightning is electrical and invented the lightning rod, the first practical application of electricity. He also founded lasting institutions that gave others access to books and education, and helped draft the Declaration of Independence. | Economic Societal Cultural Social Educational | None major |
| Gregor Mendel 1822-1884 | His crossing experiments with garden peas from 1856 to 1863, published in 1866 as Experiments on Plant Hybrids, laid the mathematical foundation of genetics, on which modern plant and animal breeding builds. | Economic Societal Social Educational | No recognition in his lifetime |
| George Washington Carver c. 1864-1943 | As head of agriculture at Tuskegee Institute from 1896, he taught poor Southern farmers, many of them Black sharecroppers, to restore soil exhausted by cotton through crop rotation with peanuts and other legumes, composting, and diverse food crops. He spread this work through 44 farm bulletins and a mobile school, the Jesup wagon. | Economic Societal Social Educational | His farmers' poverty and tenancy |
Conditions by life stage
The goal is to raise the number of people who get both the capability and the access to become pioneers, turning the lucky encounters that saved Faraday, Ramanujan, and Einstein into systematic ones. Full synthesis.
| Life stage | Key conditions |
|---|---|
| Before birth and early childhood | Nutrition, healthcare, safe childbirth, newborn screening, no toxins, clean air and water, protection from malaria and other childhood diseases, stable housing without chronic noise or crowding, economic security |
| Childhood | Quality early education, climate-controlled learning spaces, green space and safe places to explore, libraries, books and tools, exposure to innovators, freedom to explore, early help for persistent behavior problems, sustained support so high achievers from low-income families do not fall behind |
| Adolescence | Advanced learning, mentors, flexible exams, second chances |
| Young adulthood | Affordable higher education, access to the most innovative colleges regardless of family income, faster ways to reach the frontier of knowledge, research communities, first jobs that leave room to think |
| Career | Long-term failure-tolerant funding, collaborators, teams that combine specialists, tools that shorten mastery time, freedom of inquiry, open channels for outsiders, support without conditions that limit thought |
| Throughout life | Peace, stability, inclusion, rule of law, freedom of belief and expression, openness to talent from anywhere, leaders chosen for their record, public investment in education, health, and basic research, norms that treat failure as learning, mental health support, good health, safety |