It is 1:31 PM on the Boonsday Clock.
We track 136 of humanity's boldest goals (cures, Mars, robots, fusion) and move each one only when real evidence does. Some are much closer than you think: 8 have crossed the finish line we set for them.
What counts as “here”?
Every future has its own specific, measurable finish line: its “midnight”. Each one is written in the future's “What midnight means”.
Partial real-world use does not count as arrived. Some people with type 1 diabetes living insulin-free, for example, keeps that future at “Some people use it”.
The finish lines are written down and open to challenge.
Each icon is a topic. The further clockwise, the closer it is to arriving. Tap one to explore it.
What do you care about?
Pick a topic to see every future in it, from just an idea to already here.
Explore all the futures
How the hands move
Every future gets its own 24-hour clock. It starts at midnight (nothing yet) and goes all the way round, back to midnight (it's here). Each step of real evidence moves the hand forward: 60% of the way reads 2:24 PM.
10% JUST AN IDEA · 25% WORKS IN THE LAB · 40% FIRST PROTOTYPE · 60% TESTED ON PEOPLE · 75% SOME PEOPLE USE IT · 90% ALMOST THERE · 100% IT'S HERE
Why “Boonsday”? The headline clock is named as a hopeful twin to the Doomsday Clock (1947): both count down to midnight, but here midnight means a breakthrough has arrived.
What does not move a hand
A new paper on its own. Hype. The passing of time. Only a checked result that reaches the next step moves a hand. Hands can also move back if a result is withdrawn or fails to repeat.
Honest freshness
We re-check the oldest futures every morning, so each one is looked at about once a week. A hand moves at most one step per check, and only with a source. It is not a forecast: the clock shows how much evidence exists today, not a date when something will happen.
Two kinds of future
Every future is either a tech bet or a pressing problem. We set the kind by hand; the daily evidence check never changes it.
A technology, capability or discovery milestone, including the rollout of one named technology. Its hand follows the evidence ladder above, from a plan on paper to the stated endpoint met.
A measurable cut in a human harm, or access for everyone to a basic need, with an official tracker (WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank and the like). When the finish line names a target, the hand follows the outcome reading: what counts is the world's progress, not a fix working somewhere.
Their stages have their own names, below, so a card says what the world's numbers show. A problem whose target is still being set keeps the tech bet words.
10% TARGET SET · 25% WORKS IN PILOTS · 40% PROVEN TOOLS, NO GAINS YET · 60% IMPROVING IN SOME COUNTRIES · 75% OVER HALFWAY THERE · 90% NEARLY DONE · 100% TARGET MET
Share of gap closed is how far the tracker's number has moved from the baseline year towards the target. “Over halfway there” (75%) needs at least half of the global gap closed, and “Nearly done” (90%) nine-tenths. Rich countries reaching the target never counts on its own.