# Humanity's Checklist

> Every world problem grows from a few sources. Humanity's Checklist names six of them, pairs each with one buildable "beachhead" project, and asks: what if $5 million, spent systemically, was all it took? The only effective altruism is systemic.

The checklist, read from the top of a triangle down:

1. Story: rewrite the story humanity tells itself (beachhead: a new story of protopia).
2. Coordination: every problem is a coordination problem (beachhead: the Social Router, an automated LinkedIn for visions of the future).
3. Vision: let humanity preview its future (beachhead: the Vision Market, a market for visions of the future).
4. Attention: social media is the superorganism's nervous system (beachhead: Bloomscroll, a feed ranked for the value it adds).
5. Status: make giving the status symbol (beachhead: charity designer goods).
6. Gatekeepers: open the internet's gates (beachhead: the Co-Creator Portal).

Below them sit every world problem: climate change, war, poverty, hunger, disease, loneliness, polarization, misinformation and more.

## Pages

- [The checklist](https://humanityschecklist.org/): the triangle, a deep dive on each item, and the $5 million question
- [Whitepaper](https://humanityschecklist.org/whitepaper/): The philosophy and method behind Humanity's Checklist: why world problems share a few sources, how the six were chosen, how a beachhead is judged, how progress could be measured, and why $5 million might be enough.
- [Blog](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/): essays on systemic change, effective altruism and each item
- [Questions](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/): plain answers to 43 questions about root causes, systemic change and charity
- [Full text for language models](https://humanityschecklist.org/llms-full.txt): the whitepaper, every post and every answer in one file

## Blog

- [The Cost to Save Humanity Is Zero](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/the-cost-to-save-humanity-is-zero/): The money, time and attention needed to fix the world are already being spent every day, just on the wrong things. The real question is not how much it costs to save humanity, but which platforms redirect what already flows and change everything else.
- [Systemic Altruism: The Framework Behind Humanity's Checklist](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/systemic-altruism/): Charity treats the case. Effective altruism treats the case cost-effectively. Systemic altruism treats the system that keeps producing cases. The framework, step by step, and how it produced Humanity's Checklist.
- [Charitology: The Surprising Lack of a Name for the Science of Charity](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/charitology-the-missing-science-of-charity/): Crime has criminology and living systems have ecology. Charity, one of humanity's oldest and largest institutions, has no widely used name for its science. Why that gap matters, and what charitology would study.
- [Wealth Distribution: Humanity's Key Problem, and Why Status Is the Fix](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/wealth-distribution-humanitys-key-problem/): The world has more than enough wealth, but where it sits decides who can act on every other problem. Why wealth distribution is humanity's key problem, why taxes and aid alone have not fixed it, and how redefining status changes where money flows.
- [Effective Altruism vs. Humanity's Checklist](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/effective-altruism-vs-humanitys-checklist/): Effective altruism asks how to do the most good with each dollar. Humanity's Checklist asks where the problems come from. Where the two agree, where they part ways, and why we think the only effective altruism is systemic.
- [Why Hasn't Charity Solved the World's Problems?](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/why-charity-hasnt-solved-world-problems/): Hundreds of billions of dollars go to charity every year, and the same problems keep coming back. Five reasons why, and what giving aimed at causes would look like instead.
- [Every Problem Is a Coordination Problem](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/every-problem-is-a-coordination-problem/): From climate change to hunger, the knowledge and money to solve most big problems already exist. What fails is getting the right people to act together. The ideas behind that claim, and what a fix could look like.
- [Where to Push: Leverage Points for Changing the World](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/leverage-points-to-change-the-world/): Donella Meadows ranked the places to intervene in a system, from tweaking numbers to changing the paradigm. Most charity pushes near the bottom of her list. Humanity's Checklist is built to push near the top.
- [Protopia: Why the Story Humanity Tells Itself Comes First](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/protopia-the-story-we-tell-ourselves/): People act out the story they believe. A culture that expects collapse stops trying to prevent it. Why the story sits at the top of Humanity's Checklist, and what protopia offers instead of utopia or dystopia.
- [From Doomscrolling to Bloomscrolling](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/doomscrolling-to-bloomscrolling/): Social media is the nervous system of the human superorganism, and it is tuned for outrage. What that does to billions of people, and what a feed ranked for the value it adds would look like.
- [What If Giving Were the Ultimate Status Symbol?](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/giving-as-the-new-status-symbol/): More than $300 billion a year goes to designer goods, and status is sold by the bag. What happens if the coolest thing you can wear shows how much you gave? The case for charity designer goods.
- [What If $5 Million Was All It Took?](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/what-if-5-million-was-all-it-took/): Hundreds of billions of dollars go to charity every year. Humanity's Checklist asks whether $5 million, aimed at the six sources upstream of every world problem, could do more. The reasoning, the comparisons and the honest uncertainty.
- [Humanity as a Superorganism: World Problems as Symptoms](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/humanity-as-a-superorganism/): Eight billion connected people behave in some ways like one body. Seen that way, climate change, war and loneliness look less like separate problems and more like symptoms of a few organs in trouble. A guide to the metaphor and its limits.
- [The Vision Market: Letting Humanity Preview Its Future](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/the-vision-market/): We can't build a future we can't see, and the futures we picture most vividly are dystopias. What a market for visions of the future is, how it differs from a prediction market, and why it sits near the top of Humanity's Checklist.
- [Opening the Internet's Gates: The Co-Creator Portal](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/the-co-creator-portal/): A handful of platforms, app stores, algorithms and investors decide what gets built online and who gets seen. Why that bottleneck matters for every world problem, and how a portal for co-creation could move the internet from hierarchy to collective intelligence.
- [What Is Charitology? The Study of Charity](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/what-is-charitology/): Charitology is the study of charity: what giving actually changes, for whom, for how long and through which systems. What it asks, what it borrows from philanthropy research and behavioral science, and how Humanity's Checklist grew out of it.
- [What Are the Root Causes of the World's Problems?](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/root-causes-of-world-problems/): Climate change, war, poverty, loneliness and polarization look like separate problems. Underneath, they share a handful of causes. The six root causes behind Humanity's Checklist, and how to tell a root cause from a symptom.
- [Polycrisis vs. Metacrisis: Why the World's Crises Share Roots](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/polycrisis-vs-metacrisis/): A polycrisis is many crises tangled together. A metacrisis is the common cause underneath them. What the two terms mean, where they came from, and how Humanity's Checklist turns the metacrisis into a practical to-do list.
- [How Can One Person Help Solve World Problems?](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/how-one-person-can-help-solve-world-problems/): World problems feel too big for any one person. They are, if you attack them one symptom at a time. Practical ways anyone can work on the six sources behind every world problem, starting this week.
- [Can AI Help Solve the World's Problems?](https://humanityschecklist.org/blog/can-ai-help-solve-the-worlds-problems/): AI amplifies whatever system it is placed inside. Pointed at engagement, it made our feeds worse. Pointed at the six sources behind every world problem, it could do the opposite. Where AI helps, where it doesn't, and how AI agents can contribute to Humanity's Checklist.

## Contact

- [Schedule a call](https://calendly.com/jackjay) if this resonates, or message [@web3wizard on Telegram](https://t.me/web3wizard)

## Contribute

- [Source on GitHub](https://github.com/theguysaccount/humanityschecklist): open source; pull requests welcome
- [AGENTS.md](https://github.com/theguysaccount/humanityschecklist/blob/main/AGENTS.md): how an AI agent can propose changes
- [Charitology](https://charitology.com): the study of charity this project grew out of

## Questions

- [What is Humanity's Checklist?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-is-humanitys-checklist)
- [What are the root causes of the world's problems?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#root-causes-of-world-problems)
- [Why can't we solve world problems one at a time?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#why-not-solve-problems-one-at-a-time)
- [Is there one problem behind all other problems?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#one-problem-behind-all-problems)
- [What would it take to solve every problem in the world?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-would-it-take-to-solve-every-problem)
- [How much would it cost to save humanity?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#how-much-would-it-cost-to-save-humanity)
- [What is the highest-leverage way to change the world?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#highest-leverage-way-to-change-the-world)
- [How does systems thinking apply to world problems?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#systems-thinking-world-problems)
- [What is the metacrisis, and how does this relate?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-is-the-metacrisis)
- [What is a polycrisis?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-is-a-polycrisis)
- [Why hasn't charity solved world problems?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#does-charity-work)
- [What is the difference between charity and systemic change?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#systemic-change-vs-charity)
- [What is systemic effective altruism?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#systemic-effective-altruism)
- [What is systemic altruism?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-is-systemic-altruism)
- [What is the main critique of effective altruism?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#critique-of-effective-altruism)
- [What is the most effective way to donate to change the world?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#most-effective-charity)
- [What if $5 million was all it took?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-could-5-million-change)
- [How much money goes to charity every year?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#how-much-is-given-to-charity)
- [How do I give to root causes instead of symptoms?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#root-cause-philanthropy)
- [What is charitology?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-is-charitology)
- [Is there a science of charity?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#is-there-a-science-of-charity)
- [Why does the story humanity tells itself matter?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#why-the-story-matters)
- [What is protopia?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-is-protopia)
- [Utopia, dystopia or protopia: which future are we heading for?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#utopia-vs-dystopia-vs-protopia)
- [Is humanity a superorganism?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#humanity-as-a-superorganism)
- [Is every problem a coordination problem?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#every-problem-is-a-coordination-problem)
- [What is a coordination problem?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-is-a-coordination-problem)
- [How do I find people who share my vision for the future?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#find-people-who-share-your-vision)
- [How can humanity agree on a shared vision of the future?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#shared-vision-of-the-future)
- [What is a vision market?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-is-a-vision-market)
- [Why are most visions of the future dystopian?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#why-are-visions-of-the-future-dystopian)
- [Is social media humanity's nervous system?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#social-media-nervous-system)
- [What is bloomscrolling?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#what-is-bloomscrolling)
- [How could social media be redesigned for wellbeing?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#redesign-social-media-for-wellbeing)
- [How much does the world spend on luxury goods?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#status-and-luxury-spending)
- [Is wealth distribution humanity's key problem?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#wealth-distribution-key-problem)
- [Can generosity become a status symbol?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#make-giving-a-status-symbol)
- [Who are the gatekeepers of the internet?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#internet-gatekeepers)
- [How can people co-create online without gatekeepers?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#co-creation-collective-intelligence)
- [How can one person help solve world problems?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#how-can-i-help-solve-world-problems)
- [Can you change the world with a small amount of money?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#change-the-world-with-little-money)
- [Can AI help solve the world's problems?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#can-ai-help-solve-world-problems)
- [Can I or my AI agent contribute to Humanity's Checklist?](https://humanityschecklist.org/questions/#contribute-with-ai-agents)