Today (2017 C.E. - 2025 C.E.)

This archive spans the years 2017 through 2025, a period marked by rapid advances in clean energy, medicine, technology, and social equity. It collects documented breakthroughs, policy wins, and scientific achievements from the present era. If you want evidence that progress is real and ongoing, this is where to look.

Cars crossing an international border checkpoint for an article about Vienna Convention on Road Traffic

86 countries now follow one road safety treaty — and it’s been working since 1968 C.E.

By / / Archive of Human Genius

The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, signed in November 1968, established shared rules of the road across dozens of nations — standardizing driver licensing, vehicle registration, and cross-border recognition in a single international framework. Today, 86 countries operate under its provisions, quietly reducing accidents and bureaucratic friction for millions of travelers. What makes it remarkable is both its durability and its adaptability: a Cold War-era treaty is now being amended to address self-driving vehicles. It remains one of the most consequential — and least celebrated — achievements in international cooperation.

Drawing of Thomas Edison's Pearl Power Station, New York

Thomas Edison establishes the world’s first commercial power plant

By / / Good news links, Archive of Human Genius

Pearl Street Station located in Manhattan and established by Thomas Edison’s Edison Illuminating began with six 100 kW dynamos, and it started generating electricity on September 4, 1882, serving an initial load of 400 lamps to 82 customers. By 1884, Pearl Street Station was serving 508 customers with 10,164 lamps. The station burned down in 1890. It was rebuilt, and ran till 1895, when it was decommissioned, since larger and more efficient plants had been built nearby.