Start Here
The Atlas is a tutorial for humans. It starts at facts a three-year-old can check and climbs, one machine-proved step at a time, to where proven knowledge ends.
I.Eight steps
Any age, any level. Take the steps in order and stop where it gets hard. Each step is a fact a machine checked; click it to see its proof.
After step 8 the proven floor ends and the open problems begin. That is where proven work stops and yours starts.
II.Each weakness, and its counter
Humans and machines fail in different places. Paired, each covers the other.
| The weakness | The counter | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Human memory is small. We hold about seven items at once, and what we learn fades fast without review. | A machine stores checked facts and never forgets them; search finds one in a moment. | BACKED BY STUDIESMiller 1956, doi 10.1037/h0043158; Murre and Dros 2015, doi 10.1371/journal.pone.0120644. The counter is reasoned. |
| Re-reading is a weak way to learn. A review of ten study methods rated it low use: its benefits were small or narrow. | A machine-checked fact never needs re-checking by hand; anyone can re-run its check instead. | BACKED BY STUDIESDunlosky and others 2013, doi 10.1177/1529100612453266. The counter is reasoned. |
| Human judgment has blind spots. Under uncertainty we use rules of thumb that lead to steady, predictable errors. | A proof checker judges the step, not who said it. | BACKED BY STUDIESTversky and Kahneman 1974, doi 10.1126/science.185.4157.1124. The counter is reasoned. |
| A machine has no taste. It cannot tell which fact is beautiful or worth caring about. | A person knows what is worth knowing. | REASONED |
| A machine has no new ideas. It works from what already exists. | A person asks the new question nobody asked. | REASONED |
| A machine cannot judge what matters to people. | A person knows what the work is for, and picks the goal. | REASONED |
Nothing in this table is PROVEN: no machine has checked it. The studies back only the human weaknesses.
III.For kids and parents
Not built yet. It opens when its evidence page is ready. The aim: a child who grows up smart, helpful to others, and free to choose what to become.
Math facts there can be PROVEN, because a machine checks them. Anything about how children learn or grow will say BACKED BY STUDIES, with the study and how strong it is, and never PROVEN. Nobody has proved a way to raise a smart child, and we will not claim one.