Why climb dangerous mountains? To taste victory after reaching the summit. To break the resistance of the wild nature. To satisfy our collective curiosity about the world out there. But also to enjoy the overcoming of our very personal weaknesses. Yes, I can. The rest is the book of records, followed by the management of an emerging tourist infrastructure. Soon everybody can score a selfie and call it experience. Until reality checks with unexpected consequences. A flood, an earthquake, or a strike of the flight controllers.
Why do people invent anything? Why do they invent, say, an electric toothbrush with a camera? Why would anybody want us to watch our teeth, very closely, as we are brushing them? Does an electric toothbrush with a camera matter? It may. It can become an early warning system and an unobtrusive scanner, healthwise. It may deliver a more sensory involvement in a daily chore, entertainmentwise. It may evolve into a new medium of a more precise allocation of dental, medical, cosmetic and other services, connectionwise. Until reality checks with unknown unknowns.
Inventions and discoveries compete for recognition. The dominant recognizers include the market, the state, and the hybrid compromises between the two. When Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg calls president Trump and warns against the legal regulation, he waves the market flag. When Alibaba’s Jack Ma appears at a symposium next to Xi Jinping, he flies the state colors. The Europeans test the rules for taming technologies, for regulating the markets, for coordinating states within the continental clusters and political alliances. Does it mean that we have to rediscover and reinvent democracy after pandemic threats and uncontrolled AI monsters behind our backs and above, even inside, our heads? How can we have a say, a vote, a meaningful share in the making sense of our artificial futures? Whom should we follow? The best and the brightest? The wisest, the justest, and the best? The most shining celebrities or the most egalitarian influencers? Can we imagine fairly recognized hopes harnassed within the redesigned, rediscovered, reinvented democratic institiutions? Mobile phone users of the world unite?
Haarlem, September 7, 2026