Category: technology

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Water pleasures

Maybe some of us associate water pleasures with the splendid fountains in the castle of Versailles (France). Our daily concerns, however, are much more about making cities more resilient and able to cope with water scarcity. According to a study by Krueger et al. (2025) the user perspective and behavioral challenges that go along with saving water by end users has been neglected for years. Water management in cities is part of the infrastructure package that has to be managed efficiently. Aging water distribution infrastructure is just as much a problem on the supply side of water as consumption has its (increasing) price on the users side. Rainwater capture, re-use and recycling are promising alternatives to simply providing more water. Pollution is, of course, another hazard that needs our attention. In the meantime we may think of water pleasures for all including the animal world.

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Berlin moves it

Yes, we like to move it. Investment in infrastructure follows a long-term economic rationale. In urban areas space is a scarce and, therefore, an expensive resource. In order to use the current space for mobility more efficiently, the use of a longer tram or train is an effective way to increase capacities. Rather than to increase the frequency, which is no longer possible without safety risks, a longer vehicle allows to bring more, and more diverse, passengers on board (kinderwagen and wheelchairs included).
It is a long-term objective to make urban areas liveable for all ages. Tramways which allow a low or, better, no barrier to entry is a necessary condition in this respect. The new “Urbanliner” in Berlin (image below) offers such essentials of access and urban mobility. A single tram is 50m long with 88 seats and 215 standing persons in larger corridors. 300 tram passengers can be compared to about 12 average length cars with at best 15-20 passengers.
A consensus of “how best to move it” in cities pays off in the long-term. Planning has to start about a decade before delivery and needs to survive political cycles going back and forth.

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Berlin Futures

The city of Berlin is projecting itself into the future. Two long-term goals, Olympic Games 2036 or an Expo organization 2035, are potentially looming and all actors have to project themselves as to what role they want to play in such processes. Trades and industries have an essential role to play to realize any vision of the future, at the same time, local trades and industries ask for amenable conditions to do business in the necessarily restricted city space.
There is competition between housing projects and business parks across each metropolitan area as any form of growth needs space to grow in. The “1. Berlin Future Day of business parks” highlighted this potential source of conflict and business leaders exchanged their experiences and strategies how to arrive at manageable comprises.
There are several Win-Win constellations in which for example an additional stop on a metropolitan “S-Bahn” line benefits the business area and all those (future) employees going to and back from work. Infrastructure like transport, mobility, energy, internet speed and security, all play key roles in such visions of future. If networks of organizations address policy makers with well-defined requirements, politicians can act as facilitators to ease sometimes lengthy bureaucratic impediments. The call for public infrastructure investments by private business initiatives is a reminder of the need for public-private partnerships to create promising Berlin Futures. (Image: 1. Future Day of Business areas in Berlin, Senator Franziska Giffey 2026-7-15)

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In Through Out

The easy logic “In Through Out” has multiple applications from nutrition, data processes and process engineering. An obvious experience for everyone is the cooling of an apartment during a meteorological heatwave. The energy loss known during winter times from a blow out of warm air through gaps in windows or doors reverses during summer to become a “blow in” of hot air from the surroundings of an apartment. The throughput, is the relevant measure to watch out for. This means the amount of air exchange during a minute of maximum or minimum airflow. It has a direct effect on temperatures and humidity levels. For cooling purposes, try to maximize the throughput at times when the temperature difference is the largest. Easy exercise, just a bit early in the morning. Mechanical, chemical or electrical devices may assist the amounts of throughput as well. Process engineering is for all of us and at all seasons.

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Cooling-Heating Renovation

The public and scientific debate about the added value of investments in renovation of buildings has been ignited by the recent heat wave in Europe. Some renovations that were primarily concerned to safe energy in winter through better isolation of walls, doors and windows found themselves less well prepared with isolation against heat and sunlight. Hence, it makes sense to consider both topics, cooling and heating of buildings, jointly.
Reversible heat pumps can do this trick, if isolation has been installed or applied during renovation already. Additionally, materials used for isolation of buildings should show 2 measures for isolation: thermal conductivity and thermal resistance (R-value). Comparing both gives a fair idea about isolation quality in periods of heating and cooling needs. Albedo values are interesting as well as heat input during a sunny day is welcome in winter, but not during summer heat waves. The commonly used Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for a building needs to be checked whether it is sensitive to excessive heat as well. (Image: BNF in Paris 2026)

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Beware Albedo

At times of high radiation from the sun, we suffer from high “albedo” values surrounding us. Albedo is scaled between 0 (black) and 100 (white) and is a measure of the reflection of light. Dark surfaces have a low Albedo, which means they absorb a lot of light and store this energy in form of heating. On the contrary, white surfaces or reflector materials like mirrors absorb very little of light as they reflect the light and, therefore store very little of it as heat.
In housing or urban planning this is an important indicator to take into consideration when planning for summer heat reduction, for example. Inner cities with dense construction, lots of windows, which in most cases absorb rather than reflect sun light, Light absorption and storage during the day will contribute to heat urban environments and inner cities during summer nights. This might be comfortable during winter, but in hot summer days the high reflection value creates additional discomfort.
Greening of cities is a powerful answer as vegetation absorbs the sunlight, but does not store it in form of heat. The glaciers and huge snow fields have shielded us from the earth heating up too fast in the past. Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge about “albedo” has lead us to undervalue these shielding effects. Light absorption by the earth is an additional driver of climate change in form of global warming. (Image: Brussels, Forest, Park Duden Community Gardening 2026-5)

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Climateflation

Central banks have started to deal with the impact of climate change or inflation, short “climateflation”. New and additional inflationary pressures originate in climate change and global warming and they necessitate a closer scrutiny. Heat waves, like 2026-6 in Europe, or earlier ones have created an upward pressure on prices. Loss of agricultural production can be severe due to weather extremes which occur more often and with greater intensity. Such extended hot and dry climates reduce the production of crops and spikes in prices that only reluctantly return to average levels shall cause price inflation (climateflation). These are the short term impacts.
The medium run impacts alter price relations and valuations of in sectors like housing and infrastructure. Badly isolated stocks of housing, schools or hospitals depreciate valuations and the heavy investments needed for isolation of roofs, walls and widows as well as heat pumps to produce cooling shall be in very high demand, which makes price increases more likely across the construction sector. As we expect new devices to be “AI-intelligent”, “mem-flation” will be pushed up as well. These factors can give a push to some economies which are producers of the products in high demand and able to expand production rapidly as well. Just importing higher numbers of air-conditioning systems from other countries shall worsen trade balances.
The major challenge, however, remains our inaction to stop global warming to avoid additional economic and human losses related to climateflation.

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Internet pain or gain

Billions of people are forced to lose time when clicking through webpages. Instead of the default  to deny cookies, we are forced to “opt out” in most instances to a collection of random data-hungry, largely in-transparent and more or less risky cookies. It could be simple. It just needs a consensus to make the no-cookies rule the default. By such a simple measure the open information part of the internet is strengthened again. All for pay or “pay-with-your-data” offers on the internet would have to make you to confirm your “opt in”, thereby alleviating the burden for search of information. Huge corporate interests that rely on advertising profiles are, of course, an obstacle to such changes, but search engines of the internet would gain importance again before generative AI and AI-agents shall make own search and clicking on cookies denial a different routine again. For the time being we keep wasting our precious time to deny cookies. Just changing the default shall bring back a better internet and the focus on ease of access, diversity of information and better privacy. Make the internet fun again! Choose your browser consciously as well. 

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Autonomous Agents

We all have seen more or less autonomous robots somewhere, maybe in a garden silently doing its job or doing more demanding tasks like in playing table tennis against a human. Even the evolution of polluting fireworks to swarms of little light-emitting drones designing figures on the sky have become quite popular. The AI-world is similarly advancing rapidly and proposes more and more “autonomous agents” to assist us. It seems crucial to distinguish the 2 Ds of autonomous agents: Degrees and Dimensions. As with job quality or job satisfaction, there are several sub-dimensions, which need to be considered when dealing, in a summarizing form, with such encompassing terms.
You might allow an agent to order missing food for a meal and pay for this autonomously. You might even be assisted in financial choices to a large degree, but you might not want an autonomous agent to make far reaching decisions concerning your health or partnership(s). Besides such dimensions, the degree of autonomous decision-making needs to be calibrated according to your (perhaps changing) preferences. Booking a table in a restaurant, with a single other person, might not just be a friendly, nice assistance, but it might get you into severe trouble. However, managing conference bookings, a family event or a birthday party might allow you to concentrate on other issues or specific details. Additionally, there are underlying and cross-cutting topics like trust, risks and security that enter the “2 Ds of autonomous agents”. A 2-dimensional matrix plotting levels across dimensions might work as a behavioral guideline in the development of autonomous agents. More dimensions may be added during the implementation.

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Autonomy in swarm

Swarm behavior is a fascinating research area. Almost all scientific disciplines feature some interest and publication in this area. The biological origins have been associated a lot with the marvelous behavior and patterns formed by fish moving about in swarms. Some species of birds show similar patterns of collective and somehow coordinated swarm movement. It appears to be tricky to safeguard some form of autonomy in the overriding mass behavior and mass movement.
Recent advances in this field by Li, Li & Zhao (2023) model such behavior within a predator-prey framework to explain the evolution of overall swarm behavior. Whereas “prey” strategies consist in “flocking” and “swirling” to irritate predator(s), the predators make use of “dispersion”, “confusion” as well as “marginal predation tactics”. Additionally, several assumptions go into the modeling of swarm behavioral evolution: agent observation, agent dynamics, and the environment. The mixed cooperative-competitive multi-agent setting applies reinforcement learning, additionally. The framework of evolution has 5 driving forces: (1) homogeneity of a swarm (parameter sharing); (2) actor with decentralized critic network; (3) replay buffer to enhance learning; (4) rewards for predator and loss for prey; (5) learning algorithm.
The modeling approach reveals the impact of an agent-critic network (potential of autonomous behavior) for protection of a swarm in a predator-prey scenario. (Image: fish in fish bowl 2024)

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Autonomy in Peripherals

The knowledge associated with the term autonomy has entered for a long time already the IT-world. In order to safe energy and computing power, peripherals can do some number crunching before entering the main CPU. So-called autonomous peripheral operations (“APO”) can run in external devices. The degree of autonomy from the main computing system becomes a matter of design.
We have imagined networks in sociological research mostly in terms of strong and weak ties. Theoretical models of networks have largely neglected the features of autonomous peripheries as we learn from IT hardware design. The autonomous peripheries have entered social science research more in form of “sleeping cells” or individuals who understand themselves as part of a larger network, but act in an autonomous fashion, which makes it difficult to detect them. Core and, or versus peripheries opens a whole additional research agenda. 

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VOC for VCs

The research into VOCs (short for “volatile organic compounds”) is a busy research field in biology and environmental sciences. It might be of interest to VCs (short for “venture capitalists”) as well in the near future. VOCs are those organic compounds that orginate in animal manure as well as those emanating from plants have an impact on people working there or who are living nearby. Allergic reactions cause millions of days lost in working every spring or summer season. Long-term effects are yet another critical issue in this respect. Whereas the measurement techniques of VOCs have evolved a lot, the interaction effects of different VOCs are slowly producing interesting results that might eventually become of interest to VCs.
Abonde et al. (2026) show that there is a kind of communication between different plants via VOCs, which has an impact on growth and defence mechanisms of some plants. Amateur botanists have always wondered about the anecdotal evidence that some plants or flowers grow well next to each other, whereas other ones seem to deter each other. For crops, this mechanism has been documented and more experimental research of this kind will corroborate the potential of, for example, “natural fertilizers” in future. Remember to think of VOCs the next time you experience scents from animals, plants or flowers as a wonderful research topic with VC potential.

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Considerations about Space

As is true for most architects, for example Le Corbusier, they are mostly remembered for their actual realizations (Scharoun, Mies van der Rohe), rather than the grand designs prepared for an architecture competition. Henri Gaudin has not only left concrete implementations of his ideas, but also several books on his perception and ideas about “concepts of space” (“Considérations  sur l’espace”), which comprises architectural ideas about “empty spaces“. Additional sources of inspiration were a relentless pursuit of drawing and designing what he saw, for example while travelling.  The BNF has received the extraordinary donation of the journals of Henri Gaudin, which allow to trace his continuous search for innovative representations of what creates a space, the impression of space and the relationship between spaces.
His travels with the TGV in France filled a complete “carnet” (booklet). Architecture is surely not about concrete. In the best cases there is a lot of research happening “backstage”, sometimes in small spontaneous sketches that can have a very lasting impact on many people’s perception of space later on. His own landscape drawings were an interesting inspiration for his architectural work as well. “Image: Landscape drawings by Henri Gaudin, BNF Paris 2026-6, Galérie des Donateurs).

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Dronification

In a long row from californication, gentrification, desertification and electrification, not to mention quantification, juridification or enshittification,  we have arrived at “dronification” in the 2020s. Spurred by the extremely successful use of drones by the Ukrainian army to o bring to a halt the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s Russia,  conventional weapons like tanks and artillery lost out to the widespread use of drones. Few military observers, even experts of military equipment, thought prior to 2020 this would be possible. The lower costs involved, precision targeting and different skill sets needed for the orchestration of a drone based defense and attack, have made a strong case for the dronification of warfare.
As with many innovations, there are dual-use potentials. In this case the civilian use of drones received a considerable push in technology and acceptance. Rescue robots or delivery of provisions to frontline positions are part of the “everything-drone-thinking” during war. The surveillance of frontiers and territory is applicable to agriculture, properties and urban planning. Droughts and other environmental impacts on a large scale can be monitored in a  timely fashion as well. 4D imaging becomes more feasible as well in many domains. The potential in architecture is vast as well. Public infrastructure and distribution of frequency ranges is a crucial precondition to ensure an  orderly coexistence of military, security and civilian use cases.
(Image: Exhibition: atelier le balto, Die Kunst des Gartens VI: FREI(B)AUM at Kulturforum Berlin 2026-1)

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Nature as a concept

We all hold implicit or explicit concepts of nature in our minds. There are few countries that have “battled” over the course of history with changing and often “politicised” concepts of nature. The exhibition in the DHM “Deutsches Historisches Museum” on “Nature and German History, Faith – Biology – Power” is convincing with this cross-disciplinary approach to the subject. The chronological structure of the exhibition starts with Hildegard von Bingen’s vision of nature embedded into the huge diversity of plants with almost spiritual power. Admiration of plants and the animal world, however, became an economic resource just like gold and slavery during colonization, being followed by industrialization as the epitome of man’s power over nature. Counter movements have been on the rise in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Another power struggle over how and who defines the dominant concept of nature in the 21st century. As nuclear energy, bombs and waste redefined the long-term consequences of “treating” nature, the battles about the prevailing concept of nature intensify. The exhibition in Berlin 2026 is a fine example of a historical perspective on the relationship between society, nature and technology, where the concept of nature becomes a malleable concept between the other two players or systems. (Image: Metamorphosis of the silk moth, DHM 2026-5)

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Magnifica humanitas

With the “Encyclical Letter” entitled “Magnifica humanitas”, Pope LeoXIV puts himself expressively into a long historical tradition of the catholic belief to be not only a religious leader, but also an institution that puts humanitarian values on the top of its agenda. As the catholic church is a globally active institution, which covers the whole life-course of individuals based on defined doctrines, the massive changes that are under way in the field of artificial intelligence asked for some guidelines to frame the church’s understanding of this relatively new “Deus ex machina” of the 21st century. In the Encyclical, there are several mentions with respect to comparable socio-economic developments of the past. In choosing the name of “Leo”, the Pope referred, from the earliest days of his Pontificat, to Leo XIII as a particularly important predecessor for himself. The latter has made his reputation in the Christian Church with the Encyclical “Rerum novarum”, which raised awareness to the risks to humanity with an industrialization and capitalism being pursued at all costs. “Res novae” of our time, which is AI and all its fields of applications have a potential to affect the course of humanity for decades to come. Leo XIV doesn’t condemn it as the devil in machine form, but puts emphasis on the potential of AI to assist us to enhance the “Common good”. This is the task of many, not of only a few, as he refers to in his Encyclical of 2026-5-15.
(Image: Extrait: Saint Augustin, Les Confessions, book 13, chapter 28).

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Gone paddling

Similar to windsurfing, paddling has not only a physiological, but also an ecological impact. Rather than using external power the equipment requires a good sense of balance on the board and propulsion originates in your own muscles. The benefits are great for mind and body and sharing a board is the standard way of getting your regular exercise.
There are more and more stations near the sea or on lakes available in 2026-5, so that it has become a much more accessible form of exercise. Paddling is also an age-inclusive practice, since the “probability to fail“, with the pleasure of spontaneous diving, is spread relatively equal across ages. Learning curves, however, may differ substantially across generations depending on prior balancing experiences. The ecological bottleneck consists in the access to sufficiently clean water resources so that the healthy and fun exercise shall have positive long-term health effects. 

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Litfaß Advertisement Column

Berlin has renovated some of its early say notice boards and advertising columns. The original „Litfaßsäule“ has already the round column shape where you clued a poster on the sirface so that it was visible to several persons interested to look and read. After more than 150 years after its invention, Berlin has digital advertising columns which resemble the original Litfaß design. Rather than the spectator walking around the column, the column now turns around in a steady manner so that nearby you can see the whole advertising content from all points in the neighborhood. Simple change, but a remarkable improvement in the reach of the advertisement. Retro-lighting increases the duration of the effects as well. Mass communication and commercial innovation can sometimes just improve on an existing marketing channel, and still reach a specifically targeted audience.  

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Beeple Deeple People

The “Neue Nationalgalerie” in Berlin hosts in 2026-5 the work by “Beeple” artist Mike Winkelmann together with the “Andy Warhol Robot K-456” by Nam June Paik. The re-interpretations of robots and the imagined effects this new media has or shall have on our lives, this is the subject of a critical projection and the artist’s chosen form for a projection into the future.
In 1994 the “Andy Warhol Robot K-456” prefigures the pervasive decoration of the human body with screens as a futuristic way of communication with others. The communication practices in 2026 have changed with software and applications like DeepL, which allow real time translations of speech to our neighbors or distant cultures.
The installation “Regular Animals” brings to our attention the power of images in our daily communication. Warhol built his art around the topic of pop culture with the visual heroes of, for example, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe as the best known pop images or icons of his time. In Beeple’s work, the dog robots’ conversation is only via instant images. These images are AI-edited and distributed rapidly at random across space, the floor in a well-delimited space. Space does no longer matter as distance as it is passed instantly. Perception and reception are transformed into a power-play via images and distribution channels. We are all transformed into “Beeple Deeple People” without noticing it, aren’t we?. About time that social science or sociology of the visual recons with these not so new facts of communication in the 2020s.

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Diamonds are forever

Due to the highly condensed carbon structure of diamonds, the use of diamonds has gone beyond the decorative stage. The difference between naturally grown or developed diamonds and the lab-produced diamonds has puzzled the market of the precious miniature materials. The paper by Zhang et al. 2026 has demonstrated that at the tiny size of a nano-structure the typically found hard structure of a diamond brakes down. The size-dependent softening of the diamond at the nano-size is a puzzle, but has been resolved with the explanation that on the surface the atoms remain rather stiff, only the inner structure of the cristalline core does “wobble”. Hence, diamonds are still almost forever, unless you crush them with far too much weight or power.

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Light Locomotion

There are many politicians who have an innate tendency to move in the direction of any flash light or camera. Tenagers in the age of the “not-so-social media” have a similar reflex. More seriously, Science Advances, has presented a fully autonomous robot with such a behavior. In fact this form of light locomotion is named the “twirlbot”. It has been developed by Chi Chen et al. (2026) as a new kind of robot that can be directed using light impulses, as only energy source for moving towards the light source. The from of locomotion is inspired by nature (bionics) and more precisely the “tumbleweed” way of moving, better rolling forward, driven by wind energy. The tumbleweed-inspired rolling robot, short “twirlbot”, does not need mechanical devices, just energy in a specific frequency range of light, which provides the heat for the photoactive, otherwise passive, bilayer strips. The polyhedral geometry of the twirlbot allows omni-directional locomotion. It really resembles the light active politician or any posing in the spotlight while doing the “loco-motion” (Video Link performance by “Little Eva” in the early 60s or a late 80s version by Kylie Minogue).

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Mobile Web Search

The smartphone is ruling the internet. This is probably a well-known wisdom in 2026. Just looking at the basic statistics of which browser people use to contact this webpage, it is evident that Chrome is vastly dominating search on the internet. Even the mobile version of Safari outnumbers the desktop browser access. Information gathering, viewing and reading have all moved from the desktop to the handheld smartphone, and maybe our glasses or wristwatches in the near future. For those still programming or designing webpages, the choice of “mobile access and functionality first” is an obvious choice for business, and even more so, for leisure purposes, like it or not.
Some parts of this evolution of search behavior are quite obvious, as we are more erring around cities like Paris, Berlin or Brussels than searching in front of our desktops or notebooks.

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AI data Input

If you ever wondered where the information from AI and AI chatbots comes from, you will not be surprised that this webpage schoemann.org is regularly solicited for such purposes. The number of crawlers, that do so, is quite large. The ability to trace what exactly they are harvesting on your website, is quite a tricky issue. At least a basic awareness of how the internet has been transformed in the last few years becomes evident through the comparison of unique visits, many through search engines like Google search or others, with the amount of contacts by AI-associated crawlers (see slide from own webpage below).
During he last month up to 2026-4-27 there were about 75.000 contacts, compared to 93.000 during the previous month.
At first sight, AI chatbots have largely outnumbered the “personal visits” of my webpage (see evaluate web analytics). On the other hand, I have no information of how many visits are, (at least potentially) re-directed hints from AI chatbots to my content.
In terms of “traffic” for a webpage, the information of how the AI-driven or AI-assisted search operates with other persons’ contributions will be the challenge of the coming years. If AI chatbots had to pay 10 cents per visit, I would have a comfortable pay every month from this content use. The issue of AI paying for access to reliable and high quality content has to be dealt with sooner rather than later. You may prompt a chatbot on this issue.
Meanwhile: My New Book on AI is out Now 2026-4-28:
“AI and Social Science: Potentials versus Limitations” by Dr. Klaus Schoemann, online reading and free download (here) before implementation of Paywall later on.

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Autonomous Robot

We have been used to computers beating the average chess player and even the best players. In 2026-4 the journal “Nature” published the documentation of an autonomous robot (Ace) winning the occasional game against top-level Japanese table tennis players. Peter Dürr et al. (2026) described the robotics challenge as constructing a robot that can match the human capability and reaction time of “fast, precise and adversarial interactions near obstacles”. The high speed perception of movement is coupled with event-based vision and builds on AI-algorithms like reinforcement learning. The step ahead is remarkable.
About 50 years ago, as coach in table tennis we used a machine or robot throwing balls towards us which moved from left to right in timed routine, for example. These simple robots we used to train humans. Now the robot is reactive and even interactive, learning from strategies and tactical moves. Technology can outperform us in most singular tasks in 2026. The combination of several of these skills is still quite unique to humans, but the clock is ticking for human singularity in technical matters. What was considered a “false good idea” in the Paris exhibition “Flops” at the Musée Arts et Metiers (see image below), might be an interesting response to challenge the new generation of autonomous robots.

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Agentic AI Gardening

The use of AI is probably most popular for professional purposes as efficiency and economic productivity are major concerns in these fields of applications. Another whole lot of applications is rapidly developing as well, which is Agentic AI in hobbies like gardening. The use of IT in gardening has previously been reserved to landscape designers and maybe urban to rural planners. Cheap access to AI on a test basis or within your browser has widened access to computer and AI assistance for gardening purposes. Colorful designs and selection of species to enrich biodiversity are widely available now. The next step is, of course, agentic use of AI. If we have a sufficient number of sensors installed (and use weather forecast data as well), the data from the garden can easily be analyzed by AI and the mower or water pump can get going to do the job for us. This is not rocket science but only sensors, data and a couple of “if …, then” commands. The kind of pleasure will have changed accordingly shifting from the watering of plants to the satisfaction of successful programming. No value judgement here. The latter option has, however, a considerable business potential of almost industrial or agro-economic scale. 

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Gardening Evolution

Researchers continue to study the impact of gardening on biodiversity and survival of insects. The study published by Tscharntke, Batáry and Vidal (2026) points our attention to the importance of areas in our gardens that are allowed to grow without mowing for several years. In many traditional gardening projects even in the 21st century, we observe a cut of grass-shoots in fairly regular time intervals, once a months for example. An English style lawn will be cut very short even more often than this. If we want to allow for an evolution of gardening and regaining biodiversity, we shall have to reserve substantial areas of a garden to allow grass-shoots to grow over several years (!). Such an evolution might be perceived in 2026 a bit like a revolution in gardening. Untidy spots are a response to “the need for unmown long-term refuges, protecting intact grass shoots for persistent insect populations” (Tscharntke et al. , 2026). The tree “Cercis siliquastrum” (Judas-tree) in the “Jardin des Plantes” in Paris dates back to 1785 and shows the impressive strength of nature to outlast changing gardening fashions even in a hotspot of gardening culture, history and evolution. Grass-shoots below might be allowed to last a couple of years as well.

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Digital Sovereignty Practice

The claim to enhance digital sovereignty has to build on basic digital literacy skills. This is not difficult to learn but it does take some time and effort even if there are many learning tools free of charge available on the internet. The learning platform “labex.io” has taken me along on many of my first steps.
No matter which learning tool you prefer (maybe Linux foundation), just get started and practice a bit regularly. Progress will come and you’ll find using LINUX on one of your older computers or laptops rather fast again. Additionally, I find the large parts of black screen so relaxing to my eyes that I tend to write larger junks of text directly into small files again before use on the blog-editor elsewhere.
A nice side-effect is that this feels like years back when coding was an emerging skill. Learning has become so much easier nowadays, only the learners seem to still perceive many psychological barriers to get started.

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Electric ships

The transformation of mobility to an all electric mobility has been discussed mainly with regard to a narrow vision of the automotive sector. Beyond land based vehicles like lorries, buses, cars and bicycles or electrification of trains, shipping has been a niche market of the all electric society. The amateurs of silent shipping, sailing and surfing have explored and adopted the electric alternatives for quite some time. The professional ferry boats and river crossings have also opportunities to join the all electric society with a range of ships available for orders like from “Ampereship”. The increasing share of electric fun on water and electricity-propelled ships gives additional drive to the “All-electric-society”. 

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Switch off

We have many associations with the imperative “switch off”. Depending on your background or state of mind, you might associate “to switch off” with a mental state, i.e. to calm down. Instead of buzzing about, juggling with multiple projects or deadlines at the same time, the reduction on a few major preoccupations can be achieved through a switch-off. In electrical engineering the switch, as switch-off or switch-on, is a key component of electrical circuits. In programming languages a key element is the switch implemented as an “if-condition” in form of “do if X=True”, in its easiest form.
Let us develop a social science corollary of a theoretical concept of “switch-off”. At times of energy shortages the switch-off option becomes an often overlooked or discarded option. Switch-off an engine to lower overall consumption of energy is a very powerful mechanisms. We do this manually by switching off lights, or as programmed or AI-assisted versions in modern homes. States might impose the switch-off of street lights or loud music after certain hours. In an energy crisis the switch-off option needs to be moved to center stage again as any MegaWattHour not consumed does not have to be (1) produced, (2) moved to local provision and (3) distributed. Additionally there is (4) less waste that has to be taken care of. Hence, the switch-off option is a fourfold win-win-win-win-situation. Who cares about this option as all 4 kinds of savings do not increase a standard measure of GDP in an economy? Broader social science perspectives may offer precious indications that “less can be more“.

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AI Motion Sculpture

At the Festival Noûs in Paris, the collaboration of AI with artists was a major event. Based on the huge collections of the BNF in form of data bases it is possible to join the 3 worlds of library conservation, technological innovation like AI and the imagery of artists. In the preparation of the exhibits and the parallel documentation of the genesis of the exhibits of the artists, the creative potential and process becomes more evident and understandable to broader audiences. The exhibit by Tobias Gremmler, Anatomy of Motion (2026 see below), captures the motion of a dancing body in a sculpture based on a 3D printing of a series of images blended into each other. with a fast photography camera, known from sports images previously, the dynamics of a motion become a tangible sculpture. The intriguing new form is in fact a motion that has been captured or has cristalized or materialized in a permanent fashion. New technologies and materials enter into art as they offer new ways of expression as well. The collection of art and documentation centers shall enter into new phases as well. (Image: Tobias Gremmler, Anatomy of Motion (2026) at BNF 2026-4).