Part 1
2026: From The Good Future to The Bad Future
Since 2016, the core idea of my work as a Futurist, Keynote Speaker and Film-Maker has been The Good Future — the belief that amazing science and technology, guided by human values, could improve life, catapult human flourishing and create new opportunities for everyone.
But since early 2025, that belief has come under serious pressure. Not because technology failed...but because political and economic leadership failed - led by with the Donald Trump, the 47th President of The United States.
Democracy Systematically Eroded
Democracy has been reduced to posturing and deal-making
Important Institutions Weakened
Global Institutions such as the UN have been weakened
Cooperation Reframed as Useless
The concept of multi-lateralism and global cooperation has been reframed as weakness
Truth Turned Fungible
Truth has been reduced to a fungible notion
This development didn't "cancel" the Good Future, yet - but it exposed how fragile the idea is.
In 2026, The Bad Future will massively accelerate. What will we do about this?
How We Drifted Into This Mess
We didn't choose disaster. We chose inaction. The world has been in perma-crisis since the pandemic ended and the Ukraine war started, and when The Don was elected again…but Europe kept telling itself: "This will sort itself out".
Here in Switzerland, where I live, we stayed comfortable. We stayed reactive. We stayed polite. We did what we do best: We delayed, deflected, demurred.
In 2025, when warning signs multiplied — autocratic behavior rising (led by King Donald), AI misuse spreading, climate disasters accelerating, technological job displacement surfacing — we labeled them temporary. Or exaggerated. Or someone else's problem. Dystopian stories became background noise, stripped of urgency, even repackaged as entertainment (thanks to Tik-Tok and Youtube, and X) - just watch the latest Hollywood releases.
At each fork in the road, we didn't wilfully choose the dark path. We chose nothing. And nothing turned out to be a decision, as well, because… "Business as usual" won. And now it's eating the good future.
Technology Wins — Humans Demur
Here's another twist that become apparent in 2025: AI didn't turn evil. It turned normal.
Like the internet before it — but without the ethics, culture, or human safeguards we had back then. Now, surveillance is sold as convenience. Behavioral prediction as personalization. Automation as liberation. But what's really happening is quieter — and far more dangerous: We're outsourcing judgment. Delegating responsibility. Abandoning effort. Eliminating friction.
AI is automating Creativity
AI is simulating Empathy
Data is subsuming Morals
Feelings? Neurological actions
We have all the tools …but we don't have the telos !
After the pandemic, we doubled down on a system that was already failing. Growth stayed sacred. GDP stayed king. Short-term profit stayed untouchable. Purpose was dismissed as "soft." Ethics were derided as "unscalable." Wisdom was considered "inefficient." Meanwhile, with the launch of ChatGPT et al, we entered the Intelligence Revolution — but kept measuring success with 20th-century metrics. And when you measure the wrong things, you optimize for the wrong outcomes. The results are obvious: Climate Solutions Ignored Climate solutions exist — but are ignored, delayed, or deliberately slowed Inequality Widens Inequality widens — because efficiency beats dignity Fear Replaces Purpose Fear replaces purpose — especially for younger generations The bottom line: We have the science and we have the tools. What we lack is the courage to change the rules. When profit and growth remain the only goal: People become resources Nature becomes a mere input variable Politics are reduced to showmanship and deal-making Power replaces responsibility That is the operating system of The Bad Future. . .And its most visible promoter of The Bad Future is the so-called leader of the free world.
We're reducing reality to what machines can easily understand, while human complexity is derided as inefficiency.
When humans behave like machines, machines don't just take their jobs. They redefine their values — and then they become the new humans.
The result is not mass unemployment. It's mass diminishment. The rapid destruction of purpose and identity.
AI is becoming the key geopolitical accelerant
In 2025, technology followed geopolitics. Instead of shared governance and collective progress, we got more digital empires — and unaccountable AI billionaires running $4 Trillion tech companies.
The U.S.
Pursued AI dominance.
China
Scaled control.
Europe
Hesitated, then regulated — and now lags woefully behind.
The internet is being absorbed by AI.
- Surveillance is exported as stability
- Disinformation is normalized
- Truth is no longer the core objective
And finally: The Bad Future, Personified
The Bad Future didn't arrive on tanks or missiles. It arrived through the rhetoric of power, might and dominance — perfectly embodied by Donald Trump's second presidency. Under this logic…
The future is owned, not shared
Alliances and partnerships are for the weaklings
Values are bargaining chips
Truth is …flexible
Power is performative but absolute
In 2025,
Treaties were mocked. Institutions weakened. The UN systematically gutted.
Multilateralism reframed as complacency.
The signal to the world became devastatingly simple: If the most powerful democracy in the world can discard norms, laws, and order — why shouldn't everyone else?
Authoritarians didn't copy Trump's style. They copied his permission. Democracy lost its narrative.
Why Europe Must Lead
Here's the turning point. The Good Future doesn't just disappear in hard times. It changes shape.
It's no longer about what happens in the dysfunctional United States.
It's about:
- Humanity over efficiency
- Trust and meaning over speed
- Human dignity over blind automation
In this fractured and AI-fuelled world, human-centered technology is not idealism. It's a competitive advantage:
Societies with trust are more stable.
Systems with solid guardrails and policy transparency are more resilient.
AI that supports people — not replaces them — earns legitimacy.
This future will not be made in the USA. It will be made everywhere else... but its moral center must be Europe, alongside new partners —including the BRICS countries, Canada, Africa, and yes — China, wherever cooperation is possible.
Take Back Tomorrow
The Bad Future isn't inevitable. It is optional. It emerged from small, convenient choices, repeated daily — while telling ourselves there was no alternative, that technology's rise was unstoppable, and that strongmen can just solve it all.
Pessimism didn't protect us. Optimism without action wasn't enough. Neutrality enabled the worst outcomes.
We didn't resist. We clicked "Accept."
The mission to revive The Good Future is right in front of us;
Europe needs to:
Disengage from the path of the Bad Future. Resist it. Reject it, proudly and loudly. Stop supporting, promoting and financing those who promulgate The Bad Future. Reclaim human agency and restore purpose.
5 Concise Ways Europe Can Take Back Tomorrow
01
Make Human-Centered AI a Strategic Advantage
Europe needs to stop apologizing for having values and ethics and instead turn them into infrastructure: AI that augments and empowers humans yet protects agency, and remains accountable by design. Trustable AI will be much more valuable than fast, reckless AI.
02
Build Technological Sovereignty Without Digital Nationalism
Europe must control its own critical infrastructure — data, chips, energy, AI systems — without isolating itself or copying authoritarian models. Sovereignty without cooperation is just fragmentation in disguise.
03
Invest in Uniquely Human Capacities, Not Just Automation
Bolster human-only traits, design future-fit education and lifelong learning, and a renewed focus on human creativity. The future belongs to societies that grow their androrithms, not just their algorithms.
04
Lead a New, Global Alliance of Trust
Europe can anchor a coalition of democracies, pragmatic partners, and emerging economies around shared rules and goals. In a fractured world, trust becomes the new global currency.
05
Finally, Redefine Success Beyond 1P, Towards the 5Ps
Europe must lead by measuring what actually matters: well-being, resilience, trust, ecological stability, and human capability — not just growth at any cost. People, Planet, Purpose, Peace and Prosperity.
This is not idealism. It's survival strategy.
Take back tomorrow.
Because if Europe doesn't do it — no one will.
