H Heuristics · Research report series

Optimizing Humanity's Outlook This Century

Which choices would most improve humanity's outlook over the rest of the twenty-first century? This series works through that question one report at a time, with public data, stated assumptions and scenarios that are labelled as scenarios.

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  • The decisive decade to 2035, while the working-age wave in Africa and South Asia is still gathering scale.

  • The demographic window to 2050, as more than one billion working-age people are added in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Two periods drawn from Report No. 01. A way of thinking about sequencing, not a forecast.

01Latest report

No. 01HH-2026-3230 pages

The Economics of Global Convergence

Accelerating Productivity, Income Growth and Development Across Emerging Economies (2026–2100)

A synthesis of theory, data and scenarios arguing that global economic convergence can be treated as an achievable development objective, advanced through technology diffusion, human capital, modern infrastructure, economic complexity and institutional reform.

Open PDF in browser Abstract & details

02What the series asks

The century can become more dangerous while lives still improve, if development reduces exposure and vulnerability faster than hazards grow.

The series asks which choices do the most to make that happen. Each report takes one part of the question and works it through with public data: where the gains are largest, which interventions pay several dividends at once, what should come first, and how progress can be counted in lives and in years of deprivation avoided. The concepts used are proposed frameworks, open to testing and revision.

About the series

  1. 1

    Sustainable convergence

    Closing the gap between richer and developing economies without repeating the environmental damage of past growth.

  2. 2

    Diffusion of innovations

    Getting proven technologies and practices, from clean cooking to digital public infrastructure, to the people who do not yet have them.

  3. 3

    Emerging economies

    Where most future population growth, development opportunity and climate vulnerability meet, and where the century will largely be decided.

  4. 4

    Vulnerability and resilience

    Reducing exposure to interconnected crises before they strike, and counting the lives and person-years of deprivation avoided.

03The scenarios

Income per person in the Global South, as a share of the advanced-economy frontier

2026Starting point
25.2%
2100Fragmented stagnation
34.5%
2100Gradual baseline catch-up
65.4%
2100Accelerated coordinated convergence
88.9%

04The series

One report so far, more to come

No. 01 opens the series. Further reports are published one at a time, and each gets its own page here with its abstract, metadata and full PDF. New reports are announced on the RSS feed.