Ask HN: How to code for humanity?

The type of coding that can actually help 'humanity' usually happens in universities. For instance, I have a friend whos been 'coding' for a decade algorithms to help find a cure for dengue fever. He got 2 PhD degrees and may die before there is a cure for dengue.

My suggestion is: find a local college or high school and help with their programming projects (or start one).

Education amplifies. Software is just one thing.

There are a couple of non profit organisation looking for good coders. One of them is Campus Party Europe: http://www.campus-party.eu/2012/index.html. As far as I know the next Campus Party Europe event will be in the Bay Area / California. And they always looking for volunteers.

You could always get involved with any open source software project.

You might check out the High Priority Free Software projects at: http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/ to see if any of those are up your alley.