A Primer for Prospective Summer Research Interns

Documents by Peter H. Diamandis, MD (May 2026)

The idea

For over a decade, Peter Diamandis has argued one thing: scarcity is increasingly a solvable engineering and distribution problem, not a permanent fact of life — and the technologies that solve it are advancing exponentially. The trouble with that claim is that it has been told mostly in stories. These two Indices exist to convert it into a number you can audit, restated every week.

They are companion frameworks measuring two different things:

• The Abundance Index asks whether the fruits of technology have reached every person — whether humanity's fundamental needs are reliably and affordably available to effectively everyone on Earth.
• The Singularity Index asks whether technology has removed the bottlenecks on civilizational ambition — intelligence, labor, energy, health, compute, connectivity, and physical resources.

The distinction matters: a technology can cross the Singularity Threshold while a billion people still lack access to it. One measures the ceiling rising; the other measures the floor reaching everyone. They are designed to be read together — and four domains (Energy, Connectivity, Compute, Intelligence) appear in both, scored through different lenses.

The shared architecture

Both Indices work the same way, which is the most important thing to understand about the role.

Each Index is divided into Domains. Every Domain is scored 0–100, where 100 represents that Domain's Threshold — the point at which its scarcity (Abundance) or its bottleneck (Singularity) has been substantively removed. Scores can exceed 100 as the last pockets close. The composite is the weighted sum of all Domain scores.

Each Domain is judged against two tiers of measurable criteria:

• Core Gates — the irreducible conditions, denoted G1(c), G2(c)… All Core Gates must be met. They define the floor: genuine reach, adequacy, and affordability (Abundance), or matured capability (Singularity).
• Validation Gates — evidence that the capability has escaped the lab and is reshaping the world at scale, denoted G1(v), G2(v)… At least one must be met. Because only one is required, individual Validation Gates can be more aspirational.

The Universal Passing Rule is the same across every Domain in both Indices: a Domain reaches 100 when all Core Gates are met AND at least one Validation Gate is met. This is a deliberate guard against scoring a laboratory demo as if it were civilization-scale change.

The Abundance Index — 9 Domains

Organized into two tiers reflecting a real dependency hierarchy (you can't be educated while starving). 2026 baseline composite: 40.02 / 100.

Energy carries the highest single weight (15%) because it is both a survival input and the great enabler of every other Domain. The composite is held back most by the Domains furthest from abundance: Intelligence, Healthcare, Education, and Shelter. Plausible threshold window: 2040–2050.

Example Core Gate (Food, G1c): undernourishment below 2% globally, no region above 5% — from ~9% today. Example Validation Gate (Energy, G1v): population-weighted marginal cost of electricity below $0.03/kWh across regions covering ≥50% of population.