World Solve

If machines and software generate large economic value with fewer workers, existing payroll and income tax structures may weaken. Governments need alternatives that fund public goods without punishing productive investment. The solution must produce useful coordination and accountability while minimizing collection of sensitive personal and behavioral data. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Future crops, microbes, and fermentation systems may depend on patented seeds, strains, software, or inputs. The open problem is preserving farmer and national autonomy while rewarding useful innovation. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Cities will contain wider differences in age, culture, disability, work schedules, and climate exposure. The challenge is making public spaces safe and useful without imposing one dominant pattern of behavior. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Urban planning models often omit informal homes, businesses, infrastructure, and social networks. The unresolved problem is creating useful digital representations without enabling eviction, surveillance, or land speculation. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Decision-makers lack integrated, high-resolution models of ocean chemistry, biology, currents, and human activity. The open problem is building trustworthy systems that support decisions without creating false confidence from incomplete data. The solution must produce useful coordination and accountability while minimizing collection of sensitive personal and behavioral data. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Growing desalination could produce concentrated brine and chemical waste at scales that threaten coastal ecosystems. The challenge is improving recovery and discharge methods while accounting for cumulative regional impacts. The solution must produce useful coordination and accountability while minimizing collection of sensitive personal and behavioral data. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

If people live substantially longer, societies will need new models for work, learning, housing, dependency, and end-of-life care. Existing systems are not designed for decades of post-retirement life or multiple phases of dependency. The solution must produce useful coordination and accountability while minimizing collection of sensitive personal and behavioral data. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Official documents that continuously revise expected lifespan can shape education, insurance, relationships, and self-perception from birth. The challenge is providing useful health information without embedding deterministic forecasts into legal identity.

Smart textiles that adapt to and then lock in a wearer’s patterns can limit self-expression and create unwanted permanence. The challenge is designing garments that learn usefully without removing the wearer’s ability to change appearance or discard unwanted adaptations.

Objects may gain short-lived conversational personalities that interact with and sometimes argue with their owners. The problem is preventing psychological dependence, harassment by objects, or commercial manipulation while still allowing useful interactive features. Solutions should include clear off-switches, personality boundaries, and accountability for manufacturers.

Large-scale fermentation may compete with food, land, and water if it depends on agricultural inputs. Future systems need safe, affordable, low-carbon feedstocks that do not shift environmental burdens to poorer regions. The solution must produce useful coordination and accountability while minimizing collection of sensitive personal and behavioral data. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Future outbreaks may involve pathogens for which no profitable commercial market exists. A useful solution requires distributed manufacturing, adaptable platforms, pre-negotiated procurement, and equitable access before an outbreak occurs. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Biological design tools are becoming more accessible while oversight remains fragmented across countries and institutions. The challenge is detecting dangerous activity without suppressing legitimate research or creating an intrusive global surveillance system. The solution must produce useful coordination and accountability while minimizing collection of sensitive personal and behavioral data. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Future societies may need shared datasets for health, mobility, climate, education, and infrastructure. The challenge is creating commons rules that enable useful access while preventing extraction, surveillance, and inequitable control. The challenge is especially acute for low-resource administrations, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Future societies may need shared datasets for health, mobility, climate, education, and infrastructure. The challenge is creating commons rules that enable useful access while preventing extraction, surveillance, and inequitable control. The challenge is especially acute without mass surveillance, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Future societies may need shared datasets for health, mobility, climate, education, and infrastructure. The challenge is creating commons rules that enable useful access while preventing extraction, surveillance, and inequitable control. The challenge is especially acute in post-conflict institutions, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Future societies may need shared datasets for health, mobility, climate, education, and infrastructure. The challenge is creating commons rules that enable useful access while preventing extraction, surveillance, and inequitable control. The challenge is especially acute across fragmented municipalities, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Building codes often use historical temperature, rainfall, and wind data. Future standards must remain useful across uncertain climate trajectories without making housing unaffordable. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Many agricultural and infrastructure systems are designed around historical seasons that may no longer exist. A useful solution must help governments revise calendars, reservoirs, insurance, crops, and public budgets under deep uncertainty. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Quantum capabilities could transform optimization, chemistry, intelligence, and cryptanalysis while becoming concentrated in a few states. The challenge is preventing destabilizing secrecy and unequal access without blocking peaceful scientific collaboration. The solution must produce useful coordination and accountability while minimizing collection of sensitive personal and behavioral data. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.