Moving to Phase 2: Putting Developmental Theory into Practice in Society

It has been one year and three months since Polymath Research began its work. During that time we have continued our research into developmental theory and gained many discoveries and insights. Advances in AI have improved our capacity for investigation and reasoning, and the research has progressed faster than we expected.

As a result, Polymath Research’s developmental theory, which focuses on human polymathic potential, has completed its first phase and is moving on to its second: putting it into practice in society. To begin with, we will open an alternative school in April. We will describe the alternative school in detail in a separate post, so we will not cover it here. What follows is a record of the progress of our research into developmental theory. If you are interested, please read on.

Completing Phase 1: research to gain insight into human development

In the essay “Spiritual Hunger Is Invisible,” posted on February 7, 2024, we wrote the following:

We believe that research into human development is the bottleneck in the evolution of humanity’s education systems. We therefore work according to clear guidelines: first, “to advance research into human development and gain insight into human development in the course of that research,” and second, “to create the environments children need, based on the insights we have gained.”

The first of these phases is now complete, and we are writing a paper to present it as a new developmental theory. In parallel with the work of putting it into that paper, we are moving on to Phase 2, “putting developmental theory into practice in society,” in order to realize Polymath Research’s mission, “Unlocking the Polymathic Potential of Children.” We expect this to yield new knowledge through empirical research. We will feed that back into our developmental theory and keep updating it as well.

The evolution of Montessori developmental theory and educational theory

Through the workings of the mind, we have unraveled the mysteries of development and built a new developmental theory. Montessori developmental theory has evolved into a theory that can be applied to all life. We will present the details in papers and elsewhere; based on this developmental theory, we are now setting to work on building an educational theory and putting it into practice.

We consider this the legitimate evolution of Montessori educational theory. Because it focuses only on physical conditions, we believe the effectiveness (the necessity and sufficiency) of the method has increased. The cost of carrying it out has dropped dramatically, and its effectiveness has probably risen dramatically. (We will now test this, but that is what the theoretical calculations show.)

What this means is that humanity’s technology for raising children will evolve to produce greater effects at lower cost. As a result, children’s intellectual abilities can be developed in every direction at the level of each household, without depending on, say, Montessori kindergartens or Montessori schools, and without spending large sums on excellent teachers or schools. By raising parents’ literacy in child-rearing, the development of every child’s whole personality can be achieved democratically.

How we will carry out Phase 2: putting developmental theory into practice in society

In the essay “Supernatural Growth Theory,” posted on June 12, 2024, we also wrote the following:

On the other hand, science is powerful when it comes to matters that are not mysterious. The essence of science is specialization, so it is good at externalizing bodily functions. (…) Science exists to strengthen bodily functions.

In putting our theory into practice in Phase 2, we will use science to build environments suited to the laws of development, which are no longer a mystery. Science cannot unravel mysteries, but it can strengthen bodily functions. Tools are the externalization of bodily functions, and by making tools more powerful we can make the impossible possible. Our developmental theory is based on the principle of the completeness of life and the principle of the diversity of life, and it can deal with all life. All life includes us humans as well as cattle, sheep, fish and plants. Our developmental theory is something like an evolved version of the Montessori method, which speaks of “an aid to life” while discussing only humans. We realize this may be too abstract to follow, so we hope the concrete actions we take from here on will give you a sense of what we mean.

Scientifically, and supernaturally

With the development of science and technology, a great deal has been made clear academically. Continuing to use old methodologies without taking that feedback into account has become untenable. Humanity has neglected the work of evolving its very methodology for raising children. “Pedagogy” in particular is not scientific at all.

The construction of education systems should not be based on personal success stories or heroic tales. We should not keep adding features to schools simply because society demands them. We should not provide education under capitalism without a guiding philosophy. As far as possible, we should eliminate dependence on particular individuals and pursue structures that do not rely on personal charisma. Rather than reciting slogans, we should seriously contribute to world peace.

By advancing the natural sciences, the way opens to a supernatural science. This can be achieved by fusing Western and Eastern science. By understanding the penetrating logic of nature, we become able to contemplate the intentions of the universe. Higher-resolution thinking is the supernatural philosophy that lies beyond natural philosophy. The word “supernatural” is not a spiritual buzzword; it is a concept that lies beyond the farthest reaches of the scientific.

If we rely on “reproducible” academic research, raising children becomes far easier than it is now. The free, noisy parenting information on the internet and social media is unverified, and some of it is harmful. That is a very serious problem. As an attempt to expand humanity’s “ability to raise children” through science, we plan to publish a monthly magazine, “Scientific Montessori.”

Thoroughly, and cosmically

Technologies for space exploration as a whole have advanced, and it is becoming possible to detect galaxy-scale data¹, radio waves arriving from beyond the solar system², gravitational waves³ and more. As a result, many aspects of the universe have come into view. As long as we put our minds to it, we can take advantage of this historical moment to reason about the universe in terms of physics and gain a wide range of discoveries and insights.

If we treat the natural phenomena observable on Earth and the natural phenomena of the universe as academically equal, and revise the theories that human civilization has acquired so that they offer explanations general to the whole universe, our consciousness for philosophizing about nature will surely expand. That is precisely what can be called supernatural philosophy, as opposed to natural philosophy.

By the standards of Polymath Research, a theory that holds only within human society is regarded as insufficiently researched academically. By our standards, “academic” means free of contradiction with every field of learning. A theory that applies only within a single discipline should not, properly speaking, be called “academic.”

Human civilization needs more theories that hold universally throughout the cosmos. There is no doubt that the number of such theories, at the level of physical laws, reflects the intellectual richness of human civilization. At the same time, we need to work harder to spread these cosmically universal theories within the civilization of planet Earth. There are still a great many people who believe in the geocentric model.

Footnotes

1. On January 15, 2025, ESA released the latest artist’s impression of the Milky Way based on data from the Gaia astrometry satellite. (ESA releases the most detailed 3D map of the Milky Way ever made, in Japanese) ↩

2. On March 12, 2025, an international research team including the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and the University of Oxford announced that they had identified the source of mysterious radio signals, lasting 30 to 90 seconds and arriving roughly every two hours from the direction of the Big Dipper, as a binary of a red dwarf and a white dwarf about 1,600 light-years from Earth. (Sporadic radio pulses from a white dwarf binary at the orbital period) ↩

3. On February 11, 2016, the research team of the US gravitational-wave observatory LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) announced the first detection of gravitational waves. They have been identified as having been emitted when two black holes merged into one, 400 megaparsecs (1.3 billion light-years) from Earth. (Gravitational waves detected directly for the first time, in Japanese) ↩