Kids Gaming

The pressure on children and their parents is high to succumb to the temptation of digital and online gaming. Albeit there are many funny and learning alternatives for them if they are accompanied by an instructor to build or invent their own game. With some adaptations it is possible to assemble for example a coordination game for children which directs a small ball through a labyrinth. Add speed and tricky holes to the “parcour” and the race is on. It is little bit like hands-on physics as the speed and acceleration patterns across the parcour varies a lot. Planning, building and playing are an ensemble in this simple game. Probably also more fun than the x-th repetition of a digital game.

(Inspiration from: Berliner Kultur gestalten, workshops for children).

 

Owners Dispute

Renovations of housing with distributed ownerships can be a challenging experience. In Berlin you can find a few places with visible long-term disagreement about what kind of modernization should be done. More luxurious additions like balconies or triple window isolation and so on are sometimes hotly debated and contested in courts. For most buildings you cannot spot disagreements on the outside, but some constitute exceptions to this rule. One size does not fit all preferences. In a metropolitan city there is a place and a space for all such exceptions to the rule and most people after years do no longer think about such kind of diversity in preferences or budgets available for modernization. Cities put our level of tolerance to a continuous test. You probably learn to love this or eventually you leave the inner city. There are subtle differences in urban versus rural lifestyles. In the social sciences we continue to try to understand the attraction of cities as on a global scale millions of people flock to cities.

Reinforcement Learning

Education scientist have embraced the change of focus form a front loaded teaching format to a focus on the learning process of pupils or students. Computer scientists have adopted this strategy in shifting from just knowledge data bases and predictions of likely next words in a sentence or paragraph to learning models. Deep Seek has surprised most large language models by its successful strategy to focus on learning and reasoning. So-called reinforcement learning is key to the programming of next generation AI models. Reasoning in most cases builds on multiple step sequences in answering a more complex question. The model then returns the answer and the steps (reasoning) applied. There is a debate whether summaries or translations of texts would need the reasoning function of AI models. Most of the time reasoning might not be necessary or even counterproductive, if the translation would try to correct an obviously faulty reasoning in a text.

Maybe, imagine also that an ordinary LLM would translate a text containing fake news. A correction loop which involves a cross-checking with reliable external sources like any encyclopedia or wikipedia would complicate the answering procedure of any text. However, this is a bit how the process of reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) works. Reinforcement learning applies a form of accuracy reward, which guides the learning or answering process with checks against mathematical or programming accuracy. Just think of basic logic to be respected in the answer. Similarly, a formal accuracy control checks against mathematical models and ensures the answer is returning a text with a normal sentence structure or numbering of reasoning steps, an intro and concluding phrase, like we were all asked to do in school or universities. The amount of corrections from humans is reduced quite a lot and the computing resources are also only a fraction of the previous LLMs, which are retrieving answers from enormous databases or gigantic data factories consuming lots of energy in the processing of requests. Remember the movie on Kasparov, the world chess champion, who got beaten by a computer from IBM that did not only have a huge stock of previous games and tournaments, but could make judgments on positions and promising strategies to pursue. Don’t be surprised if a DeepSeek answer is superior to what our own mind and reasoning is capable of. Reinforcement learning is a learning tool, which we also may apply, if we deem it appropriate or just as one way of coming to an answer. (useful reference: Sebastian Raschka, Building a LLM from scratch, Manning). 

(Image, ChatGPT, 2 humanoid robots are thinking and discussing how to repair a notebook which is sitting on a workbench).

Housing renovation

The huge amount of buildings that need renovation is a task for each generation. New constructions are relatively easy to realize even to the best available standards. Particularly energy standards asking nowadays for serious isolation of buildings are easy starting from scratch. Energetic renovations of existing buildings are much more challenging and have to take into account the various stages or predilections of previous generations. Repurposing of buildings raise additional questions like transforming a family home into a representative office building. New technologies like fiberglass instead of copper cables or copper or plastic tubes instead of other hazardous materials cause additional costs and worries. The use of asbestos for interiors of previous generations has created the greatest liability for existing buildings. Technological choices of the past and also of the present (heat pump or not) have lasting consequences and sometimes even health effects. To cherish old buildings and styles is a mixed blessing as the renovation of housing confronts home renovators with more tricky challenges than building a new home. Incremental repairs might do the trick rather than all in one go renovation, however, you might enter into a situation when renovations are always on your mind. Not only the times are a changing, but homes are a changing, too.

Own Production

The 21st century has seen many innovations. Solar energy has been around for at least 3 decades now, but the wide spread application and adoption of it through consumers has taken quite a while. Nowadays you can buy a reasonably priced solar panel in your local shop selling gardening tools and home appliances. Solar panels have moved from a niche product to become an ordinary home enhancement product. Previously, the production of energy was highly regulated and restricted to business activities. Hence as producer and consumer of your own energy you became a “prosumer” of energy. Just refrain from selling the energy to your neighbors and you will be happy monitoring your own energy production and your energy consumption throughout the day as well. Suddenly, you might make a few behavioral adjustments to your daily routine. Throughout the day when the sun is shining bright you start to think of what kind of energy consumption you might want to switch on at the time. Charging mobile phones, cooking meals and washing are the obvious candidates that do the trick. Charging a battery of a bicycle(s) is also a good idea. The excursion of the evening or cycling to work the next few days is feasible with this as well. There is a slight danger to check the energy production frequently to optimize the return on your investment. In this case it might be expedient to invest also in a battery to store the energy  for a longer time. No stress for consuming your nuggets, but initial investment costs are substantially higher, albeit prices for batteries have come down significantly in the last few months. “Prosit prosumers”.

 

Biased Results

The use of statistics in presenting results of research is common practice. Empirical studies are summarized using statistics and statistical methods based on samples of bigger populations are cost efficient. However, care needs to be exercised when interpreting results to guard against inappropriate conclusions derived from biased estimates. Since the topic has been highlighted and methods proposed to handle them, these methods were deemed worthy of a Nobel prize.  The basic problem of a bias due to a selective sample has been demonstrated by Stockwell et al. (2024). The authors investigate the old question, whether a little bit of alcohol consumption (per day) could be beneficial for our health. The statistical issue which needs careful examination is the construction of the control group against which the results are compared. Apparently many studies have biased control groups which included persons in the not drinking control group who had stopped drinking for bad health previously. Compared to those persons with other health conditions those drinking a little bit compared rather well. But of course such individuals should not be present in a control group. Of the control group is biased due to many persons with below average health the groups of interest consuming higher levels of alcohol do not perform so badly. Hence, interpretation of results from medical or social science studies has to consider carefully the actual or potential sources of bias. Not really a new results in statistics, but still not well known or understood by the public at large. Drug consumption as well as studies of this consumption could deserve the same sticker: handle with care. (Image: Extract from Tenier II David, Les fumeurs, also entitled Chanson à boire, 17th century, Paris Petit Palais).

Sun power

Statistics of hours of sunshine in Germany and many European countries show an extraordinary amount of sunny days in March 2025 compared to previous years. This opens up a window of opportunity to produce electricity already in a month previously less likely to yield a lot of energy. With more likely 8 months of decent electricity production the efficiency of investments in solar energy reach break even points earlier. Time to think of expanding the share of renewable energy even further. The cost effectiveness is improving in rather unpredictable ways. Economists, of course, consider opportunity costs in this case the alternative to use oil or gas despite the higher levels of CO2 emissions. As the prices are currently lower as well, without an easily predictable trend, solar alternatives are a valid option.

Deus DEI

In Latin the declination of deus = god starts with the genitive form “dei”. In the world of universities and labor markets the abbreviation “DEI” stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. These 3 topics have ensured for years that a university campus looks a bit more like society at large, even if biased towards younger generations. The MAGA saga of the USA in 2025 starts to turn the clock back on hard to accomplish advances in DEI-hiring and promotion. This likely to reduce the number of international students on US campuses and will make campuses look WEIRD again. Moreover, lots of talented students will seek DEI campuses in other countries to avoid discriminatory hiring practices and arbitrary risk of visa denial.  Europe is likely to benefit from this kind of brain drain and skill shortages might be substantially reduced due to such unprecedented shifts in US policies. The cuts of billions of grants to renowned universities for political reasons will leave a yawning gap of talent in the US in a few years time, the latest. Early movers will move very quickly to anticipate the exodus of talent.  It is puzzling to watch how quickly years of DEI policies might be undone with thousands of people and projects at a loss. Scholars of American history are reminded of the McCarthy era of political prosecution or the dismal period for science under the Nazi-rule in Germany. Americans seem to get much worse and extreme policies than they thought they voted for. “Deus Dei” also means “god of god” and in the current American political context the judgement of a god by another god has maybe a historical meaning. In the table of the Estonian town hall in Tallinn the inscription alerts rulers to beware of being judged as well. Sounds like a timely reminder to overly ambitious politicians.

Intimate housing

The housing of famous persons has always attracted a lasting fascination. The “esprit des lieux” or the experience of the surroundings of an artist, composer, author or otherwise famous person, where most of the work had taken place is of general interest. In today’s language we would describe this as the context of creation. Biographical information and references to specific objects central to the process of creation play a crucial role in understanding what is behind human creation as it is district from AI. There are objects ( compare MAD Paris) and there are the social networks of creators. Modern biographies include both, some even in graphic forms similar to ancestry diagrams. 

The design of intimate living spaces for private life or the adequate environment for creativity are becoming more clear with the consciousness of the importance of dedicated designs of furniture, accessories and even scent. Our brains are multimodal and working as well as processing lots of information even beyond our conscious realizations. This black box of creativity is rather unique to the human brain and AI will probably take decades to emulate such complex processing. The MAD exhibition reveals that intimacy is also related to housing design and interior design. It doesn’t seem to be a random process, but habituation is part of the continued creative process. 

Design skills

The is a huge B2C or C2B market in connection with home design and adaptations. Nowadays people are inspired by instagram, pinterest, YouTube and TikTok. Additionally, many play around with Apps to create their own images of how they would like to arrange or rearrange their home. Some have taken first steps to include measurements of their home in the design. The compatibility with professional software of the construction sector, however, is a drawback that delays or leads people to go to enterprises that take into account the prior efforts of young lay designers. It is a little bit like an own contribution in home building quite popular among new home builders to alleviate the upfront cash needed for first home acquisition. The younger generation could offer some of their “digital native” skills to bridge the gap in construction and home design. Of course, reworking and precise measurements on the location will still be required as construction has a lot of legal liability issues involved. Cooperation is a form of burden sharing to advance faster and/or with lower costs.

Bricks and algorithms

Construction as an economic sector has suffered for decades from skill shortages. The PWC study on skill needs in construction and management of digitalization in this sector shows various deficiencies. Labor demand in excess of own training efforts in the related professions is further increasing in coming years. Migrants from across the world have come to Europe to fill the skill shortages and willingness to work in the sector. Population aging increases demand for adaptions of housing and tertiarization of the economy asked for new office space and adaptation of existing ones. 

The skills involved in construction have also evolved. Digitalization and understanding of new technology needs of modern housing increased the level of cognitive skills in the sector enormously. “just let the liquid concrete flow” will no longer suffice. Environmental obligations, renewable energy and design issues had an impact on the sector. 

Many enterprises in this sector have trailed other sectors to adopt strategies like digital pairs of a building or connected manufacturing of facilities with data sharing and compatible software. All this led to the fact that younger employees or university graduates (m/f/d) have preferred other sectors. IT development and applications are interesting and challenging in this sector as well. Logistic arrangements a formidable task as well. 

The claim of too much bureaucracy is just an excuse for lacking digitalization of the sector. Years ago we stated that every task you carry out more than once can be automized. With AI in construction digitalization starts with each singular case as a learning occasion for humans and algorithms supporting us.

Guidelines Follow-up

The are many professional organisations which agree after thorough discussions on guidelines how to conduct professional services. As long as we have such guidelines, the adherence to the guidelines is an issue as well. This is part of a research program of organisational sociology, but there is a rather strange paradox in this field of compliance with guidelines. In the most highly educated professions like medical doctors, the rate of compliance to guidelines is below average. A study of 20+ years ago published in the JAMA Journal: Cabana et al. (1999) “Why Don’t Physicians Follow Clinical Practice Guidelines?” highlighted this paradox among medical doctors. The lack of awareness of existing or changed guidelines is one of the major reasons mentioned in this respect. Self-efficacy is also an issue, but mentioned less frequently for not following guidelines.
Besides a professional bias, related to the above average educational attainment of physicians, (believed) superior coping mechanisms compared to the average population might be at work. Mastering advanced technology might lead to a behavior that assumes to be able to handle higher risks as well.
For a profession that is used to confront issues of life and death on a regular basis some adherence to a very specific medical guideline might appear a negligible risk. However, maybe comparable to some cases among politicians or priests a logic: “rules or guidelines are for others to follow” rather than the physicians bear obvious risks to these persons themselves, but even to others in specific circumstances like the spreading of infectious diseases.
Drug or substance abuse has been evidenced before in relationship with specific professions or in historical time periods. We should take care to repeat similar studies (Cabana et al. (1999) every now and again.

Augmented Cognition

With everybody talking about artificial intelligence we tend to overlook recent advances in augmented cognition. Just 2 examples of studies presenting new findings published in 2025 suffice to make that point. Automated versus manual driving have different effects on our brains. Automation makes us sleepy and inattentive with potentially dangerous consequences. Using EEG measures of neuromarkers the drop in attention shows up earlier than through measures of keeping one’s lane while driving. For jobs or duties that involve extended hours of attention the wearing of a mobile EEG-device could avoid lots of accidents. Drugs, alcohol or medication abuse would also show up before it is too late, I suppose (Scanion et al. 2025).
The 2nd study involved a robotic assistance to piano playing which achieved surprising training effects for learners of the music instrument. Objective measurement of speed and finger coordination might even allow overall accuracy to improve significantly. The technology around us and the one in direct contact with us, our behavior and performances shall have an impact on all of us sooner or later. We have to pose the question of how far we want to go along with these evolutions. Augmented cognition will not only be of interest for civil purposes, but military applications or dual use is evidently another option.

Aufklärung Enlightenment

The period of the enlightenment is a historically defined time period of the late 17th and the whole 18th century. Although often associated only with Europe as its origin, the American contributions and influences have been far-reaching as well, just thinking of the “Declaration of Independence“. This historical period is, however, most interesting through the unrivalled contribution and pivotal point to the history of ideas. The exhibition and catalogue on the “Aufklärung – Enlightenment” by the German Historical Museum in Berlin exposes many of the historical editions of books that “made the enlightenment”. Philosophical writings and readings (Immanuel Kant: Kritik der …) of the period (especially in German) are tough even for native speakers of German, unlike reading of French (e.g. Jean-Jacques Rousseau) or English (e.g. John Locke) contributions to the enlightenment. Maybe this is already one of the reasons why in France the revolutionary ideas were put into practice through population-wide political movements.
The historical period of the enlightenment came to a close in the early 19th century (1806 another pivotal year). The English or French terms of enlightenment or lumière maybe be interpreted in a way that other historical periods like the medieval ages were periods of darkness, even later periods again did not live up to the idealist prerogatives of the evolution of humanity. The German term “Aufkärung” has its etymological roots more in the action associated with “to enlighten”. This hints at the continuing process of the ideas of the enlightenment in modern terms the process of individualisation, tolerance and autonomy.
There many valuable short interviews shown in the exhibition and Jürgen Habermas contributed a short closing statement to the catalogue of the exhibition on the unfinished project of the “Aufklärung” inviting us to continue also with the “Kritik der Aufklärung”. After all the enlightenment did not save us from repeated events like “Apokalyses“.
(Image: Émilie du Châtelet, below book on Newton Physics in DHM Enlightenment exhibition 2025).

Apocalypse Depicted

At the beginning of the 21st century we have a renewed interest in depictions of the Apocalypse. “L’Apocalisse di Giovanni” has been illustrated in various Christian monasteries and some traveled quite a bit. The version of the Apocalypse (Link) which was attributed to Cambrai is a copy of the older original version found in the City library of Trèves, which dates back to the year of about 825. A flemish version of the 16th century is to be found at the BNF in Paris. Throughout the centuries the “Apocalypsis”has been reworked. The version of Trèves has the “carolingish” depiction characteristized by a presentation of image on one page and text on another page. Nowadays we are used to futuristic images and have known even worse experiences of apocalyptic events (Nazi terror). Earth quakes or man-made climate change with heating of the planet, storms, draughts and floods testify for the renewed interest in the Apocalypse. Other man-made technological innovations like rockets. atomic bombs, chemical and biological weapons overshadow even the “natural” ones. The potential of AI to cause destruction is not fully assessed until today. Swarms of drones guided by AI might reach apocalyptic levels as well. We just remind ourselves of the bombing of walls of a water reservoir by Russia in Ukraine. The Apocalypse will remain the original example of a horror story and our strange fascination for such texts, images or movies is likely to stay. (Image: extract of anonymous 1st quarter of 9th century. Trier Stadtbibliothek, Schatzkammer. Wikipedia public domain).

Apocalypse
Screenshot

Wall Membrane

Walls are meant to separate persons. In certain circumstances, however, they work more like a membrane, which allows for example sound to pass walls. We are sometimes surprised to find out that we might hear almost every word that is spoken in a neighboring apartment or home. Listening without seeing is in fact a perfect set up for a comedy to evolve around this theme. Unintentional listening might turn into noisy listening and 2 lives start to intermingle. This is predestined for a comedy to evolve as does the theatre play by Lilou Fogli “mur mure”. The turning tripartite scenario by Jérémie Lippmann makes the 2 rooms arrangement visible where listening and seeing both separated actors a delightful experience. Understanding without seeing is better than seeing without understanding. Misunderstandings are frequent with the focus on appearances of persons. It is somehow the opposite of what our social media platforms suggest with their focus on stylized images and AI-enhanced photo editing. Hearing maybe the better seeing. In that sense the theatre play is in the emancipating tradition of authors like Ibsen or Chekhov, emancipating us from the dominant and overwhelming presence of selfies and self promotion.

Law and Legality

Some persons consider themselves to stand above the law or push all interpretations of regulations beyond usual understanding of it. Even after a person has been dealing with pharmaceuticals or drugs used also for doping purposes, the conviction of such a person may take several years if not decades. In France, Mr Bernard Sainz seems to be a good example of such a relentless case of practicing para-medical consultations to assist mainly cyclists in endeavors to win championships or professional status. Le Monde  and Cash investigation have raised awareness of the public for such dubious practices. The “French Federation du cyclisme” and medical doctors association fight a continued legal battle against this persons exercising illegally such doping assistance. 

With apparently 56 legal procedures in connection with this person, the legal system has to bear the majority of costs of such illegal practices.

The reach of such dubious practices might be extended if the systems beyond doping, but for assisted euthanasia cannot be controlled effectively. Hence, the precursor cases of positive stimuli like doping pose similar challenges to the legal system as “negative stimuli” weakening persons as assistance to die. The end of a life course is not only a medical issue. Society-wide debates need to take place in order to organize a large consensus on the implications more liberal practices shall entail. 

(Image: Palais de Justice, Paris 2025)

La défense Végétale

Greening a metal and concrete block and buildings is a big challenge. The logic of unrealistic growth and big business has left liabilities for future generations. More vegetation in inner cities is part of our responsibility towards future generations. Therefore, urban planning has started in Paris to get rid of concrete walls and floors.

Eventually the district might have a more human touch which attracts citizens and new businesses and services. The adaptation of the infrastructure to facilitate mobility with bicycles and secured pedestrian paths has started but will take a lot of time before people adopt again these more healthy modes of transport. The big boulevards reserved for polluting transport is no longer adequate in combination with residential living spaces.

It will take a change of a whole generation to accomplish such a fundamental change. The reduced demand for office space due to more employees choosing to work from home contributes to such a change as well. Many other cities go ahead with similar changes (Copenhagen, Berlin). In combination with the „All electric society“ there are fundamental changes at work which will make inner cities more attractive again. Ease of clean transportation and other infrastructure for urban lifestyles ensures that cities remain strong points of attraction. They keep pulling people from nearby and far away towards them, if we like it or not.

La Défense reframed

  1. The whole new business area „La Défense“ was a huge investment project with international speculators highly motivated to reap the benefits of a business location just next to Paris, which at best would even feel a little bit like being „intra muros“. However, being at La Défense you see „L’Arc de triomphe“ only quite far away and you don’t really get the impression that you are in Paris. The high rising buildings around there originally gave god reasons for expensive office space. Few residents spaces made the area uncomfortable in the evenings after office hours. After 2025 most office spaces no longer are attractive for businesses and lack behind environmental standards of the 2020s.  Many projects attempt to renovate the former office space into residential buildings with a considerable loss in the value of previous office space. For people working in the multiple shopping centers there this might be a feasible option if the rent is not excessively high. Students in transit through Paris might find this attractive as well. Families, however lack an adequate infrastructure as this area was built for an outdated business center and business model where families were believed to obstruct business efficiency. As the project developers have written off their investments over 25 years society can clean up the remaining space and repair. It will be another medium term project to re-create a convivial environment and community there as before the overriding device was make money there and run to a more human and diverse space.

Hands-on AI

The use of AI in translation and to streamline texts and preparation of communication has become a common experience. The applications in medical fields are less well known. Scans and checking of skin cancer could be a game changer for many who live far away from the next medical doctor. AI assisted brain surgery is another issue, but a very specialized application. The interface of AI and robotics might be another game changer as such applications where you train the robot with for example weight lifting and transportation charges can contribute to alleviate human skeletons. Handheld devices can guide the robot and data from sensors will complement the learning of the tasks through assistance from AI. Applications are manifold and we have not even seen the most promising ones. The application potential in warfare are particularly troublesome as humans do not necessarily enter into the concern of AI-assisted weaponry. In the social sphere trust is a crucial behavioral and ethical concern. These issues AI can only learn from us. Any attempts to do without human input and control is doomed to fail. We are not indispensable yet, we are simply turning more and more into responsible, supervisory roles. 

(Image: Acatech exhibition with hands-on AI applications, Berlin in collaboration with IQZ and DTM, German museum of technology.)

More eCooking

Cooking powered by electricity rather than fossil fuels like gas is an efficient and smart solution. Through the daily cooking activities over the course of a year the savings due to eCooking add up quite a bit. Even compared to an ordinary electric stove the eCooking by induction technology saves almost an additional 10+ percentage of energy as you heat the pot or pan directly rather than an in-between metallic element, which stores heat even after you have switched it off already for a while. In private kitchens the induction option is straightforward. In professional settings the change to induction eCooking needs careful planning. The health aspect of no burnt gas emissions in the kitchen is, however, a strong argument in favor of eCooking as well.
If we apply this logic to low-income countries and cooking in schools or other institutions as well as companies, the environmental and economic benefits add up quickly. In rural areas where no electricity grid is available or stable enough, the decentralized provision of electricity through for example solar energy creates a cost-effective alternative. In urban areas with high levels of various kinds of pollution the “clean” alternative could make a considerable difference as well.
The eCooking evidence is another pillar of the “all electric society” of the 21st century.
(Image: Rirkrit Tiravanija, untitled (Café Deutschland) and extract from “Freiheit kann man nicht simulieren“, Berlin Martin Gropius Bau, 2024-2025)

Beyond ART

Is there anything beyond art? Well, maybe there is. ART in German language is an abbreviation of “Allgemeine RelativitätsTheorie”. In other words the General theory of relativity developed by Albert Einstein is in its shortest form a one line mathematical expression, but with lots of equations included in the general statement, which grew out of his much earlier special theory of relativity. The textbook by Michael Ruhrländer provides a step by step approach to get to grips with the mathematics involved to reach a better understanding of what “ART” is about. Take your time to digest it and brush up a lot of maths beyond your A-level maths.
The abbreviation ART suggests a lint to art in popular understanding. Indeed, it needs able artists to show insights of ART to more people than the restricted scientific circles. An understanding of a 4-dimensional system of time-space has some more accessible features than waves of gravitation and the many puzzles that can be solved through ART.
Decades later quantification has build upon ART and takes us further into fabulous world of mathematical and physical imagination as well as real world applications.

Corruption Caught

In fraud or corruption it is primordial that the probability to be caught is very high to deter potential fraudulent activity. The new Trump administration has enacted as one of the first executive orders that the FCPA stops to take on new cases of suspected corruption as well as reconsider some of the running procedures. In the same vein, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) has been silenced so that American companies to not have to disclose ownership information that fall under the CTA until 2025-3-21 until a major reform will be published.
These policy shifts concern more than just US citizens. The competition between countries will be effected because as companies trading with the US which used US bank accounts were also liable under this legislation and subject to prosecution. The FCPA has been an important example for other countries to follow at least within the Member countries of the OECD. The shift in priorities of the Trump administration might open doors again to corruption which we believed were shut with lasting effect.
In conjunction with the rapid increase in military spending when the capacity for the production of military equipment is slow to increase might increase the risks of corruption talking hold again. Market economies build on fair competition, but less prosecution of corruption introduces a bias into negotiations which works against innovation and competitiveness. We have a hard time to understand any kind of logic in such economic and legal strategies.
Image: Bridge collapsed due ro material defects. Archive Berlin Tempelhof Schöneberg.

Digital Visions

Urban planning has been digitalized for a long time. 3D modeling of places and buildings including their interiors are state of the art. As urbanization is also about investment, speculation and anticipation, digital imaging has entered the public spheres in form of cover up of building sites behind fences and in form of large digital prints for information, curiosity and advertising purposes. The inner cities are frequently an avantgarde and microcosm of societal developments. Some dream of full or total flexibility for office spaces (see image below), others experience the inner cities as the spotlight of inequality in society. The best paid executives are catered for by the worst paid delivery personnel. The photographers of the Landesarchiv Berlin, Grönboldt and Wunstorf, brought together a documentary exhibition entitled „Pixel aus Beton“, pixel made of concrete.

With a bird‘s eye view they reveal past, present and future details of how Berlin is experienced and envisioned by investors, architects and people living through the seemingly endless construction going on in the city. The keywords list as part of the exhibition creates a link to scientific literature and to the TU Center for Metropolitan Studies. Photography and even more so digital photography offers a social science perspective to the digital images exhibited. Cities are data spinning areas and a formidable place for digital visuals and visions.

Top 5 Things T5T

Dealing with Elon Musk is a must these days (WSJ 2025-2-26 A4).
So it happened that on his way to Mars, Musk met God the almighty on his way back to heaven. Musk asked, whether he could join the ride.
God, not amused, asked Musk about his T5T (top 5 things) he accomplished in his life. Musk questioned God‘s right to ask this question and said he would tell the other T about this. God gave him just another day to come up with a response.
So here we are: the T5T Elon Musk might put forward:
(1) I created a million fancy electric cars.
God: Well, but there were already too many tin boxes on 4 wheels on earth.
(2) I created rockets that propelled billionaires into space and back again.
God: Your carbon footprint has exceeded a million people of the poorest countries on earth.
(3) I created a network of satellites that facilitated communication.
God: Nobody spoke to me yet using it.
(4) I bought Twitter and transformed the platform to spread evangelism of various sorts.
God: This has become a hoax spreading more lies than truth.
(5) I reformed the public sector employees to share my beliefs or leave.
God: This will ruin a lot of services like USAID, which have assisted me for many years in my caring and charitable service.
With all these T5T of yours in mind I am not sure I should let you return to that planet earth. Maybe I‘ll find another assignment for you where you can cause less harm Elon. Maybe, try “Waiting for Godot“.
(Image: instead of T5T try T4T (tea for two))

Wave and Particle

The history of ideas in physics has been evolving or revolving a lot around the wave-particle-duality. Even if the basic debate by now is about a century old, we still need to come to grips with this challenging notion that light is not just a beam and nice colors through a prism yielding a spectrum of frequencies, but it can emit material matter called photons that have a non-zero value(s) of energy.
Max Planck came up with the formula E = h × f, where h is the Planck constant, E the energy and f the frequency of the photon. The synthesis of Einstein’s light quanta and De Broglie’s matter waves became the foundation of quantum mechanics.
The exciting evolution of physical ideas results in the state of the “art” view that, for example, light can take both forms, wave and particle, at the same time. Quantum mechanics has become a thriving field in physics and is currently transforming the world of computing in the 21st century. The amounts of funds invested in the race of applications of quantum computing across the globe are “astronomic” and have become part of dual-use spending of research funding. Encryption of information or access codes are of growing importance for civil (banking, mobility, health info) or military purposes. The speed of quantum processors will allow cracking of codes much faster and therefore new dangers are looming in many fields. It is a rather competitive field, which has evolved a lot from the original wave and/or particle vision of the world (of physics).
For social scientists there are several examples of applications of the concepts of quantum mechanics to social and behavioral sciences (Link 1, Link 2). Hard to predict, whether the wave and/or particle view will dominate the social applications of elements of the history of ideas in physics. New concepts in science challenge our traditional science-based thinking about time, space and space-time with implications even for our understanding of causality and covariance.
(Image of Dice icoshahedron (animated 3D image) from Egypt, dated to 2nd century before our time, BNF, Paris)

Negative time

In 2025 an experimental setting has come up with a demonstration of negative time. This is a mind-blowing mental exercise to imagine the science fiction like framework to allow time to be negative as well.
This invites several epistemological questions as well. Can we imagine or live with a reversible concept of time? Maybe music has given us clues. In composition of music, we can easily play the notes of a basic theme just in reverse or mirrored order. Modern rhythms like in beat music as accompaniment by a drum use for example a rhythm like (use your hands or drum sticks!)
“left left right left /
right right left right”, (redo faster if you internalized the rhythm).
A reversal of the beat (its inversion) like replays of rhythms in reverse order seem to return the energy. This beat pattern is perceived as forward moving and is advancing in chronological time. It has fascinated a whole generation and spurred crazy movements to accompany the rhythm.
A simple tune might be played in reverse order as well. Just take a piano scale and play 1 2 3 1 fingers, and then 1 3 2 1 in a mirrored fashion (1231 1321). Even 1 2 3 1 as 3 2 1 3 gives an impression of inversion.  Through this composition technique you get a bit of a feeling for the potential of a reversal of time or what negative time might feel like.
The innovation through quantification challenges our concepts of time more and more. The direction of time is subject of a fundamental revision. Theoretical concepts have predicted this for a long time.
(Image: Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris)

Quantification

The most obvious association with quantification is the attempt to quantify in the sense of measurement of situations, locations or social phenomena. This has taken considerable steps with the availability of smartphones that measure and thereby quantify all sorts of wanted and unwanted information about us. The distances walked are among the easiest to quantify. There have been many accounts and discussions about this kind of quantification. The results have been a further push towards self-optimization assisted by a quantification of almost all aspects of life. That is daily business of social sciences.
Quantification has another well-defined meaning to it, which is in physics. The revolution of the early 20th century has been to deviate from classical physics which assumed continuous processes in time and continuous measurements to the new world of quantum physics, another kind of quantification. This allusion is due to the Alain Aspect’s inspiring book “Si Einstein avait su” (2025) and his efforts to make quantum physics understood to a broader public. For me one of the merits of the book is the reminder that experimental physics can contribute and resolve many epistemological questions.
(Image: my popularized approximation of Schrödinger’s cat in Berlin Zoo)

Time Concepts

Tell me about your concept of time. How do you define time? Answers to this question are likely to depend on your upbringing, affinity to a specific scientific discipline or epistemological belief(s). Aristotle defines time to be subordinate to the more basic principle of change. To understand change we need the concept of time. Two points in time define time, intermediate points are possible, which might be interpreted as a precursor of infinitesimally short spells of time. To explain change, Aristotle refers to his concept of time. Other concepts of time build on the notion of succession of events or sequences of events.
Clocks going round in circles have been used to show the progression of time independent of events. Beams of atoms later allowed for more precision of time keeping. The prevalent concept of time still is dominated by the idea of time as an arrow, usually depicted in some diagram resemblance based on the Cartesian coordinate system, but usually starting at 0 or a particular point in time as diagrams in economics.
Following on from the old concept of change and time, we still claim for causality in most day-to-day experiences or for social processes the link to a chronological progression of time. In statistical analyses building on time-stamped occurrences we may use event history analyses or stochastic differential equations to analyze (social) change depending on one or several (earlier) factors. Even the theory of deterministic chaos, which is applied in weather forecasts for example, arises from the sequence of point of measurements.
Mainly since Isaac Newton we cherish the notion of a universal time, which helps us to coordinate different locations on our planet with reference to the Greenwich mean time. Other concepts of time make use of infinity of time and how to deal with this. Life before, or life after death, are human constructs trying to make time understandable or at least manageable for us beyond our own living time. Depictions of time in the arts, paintings or music opens up yet another vast space of thinking about, as well as, experiencing time. We did have and still do have a great time thinking about time.

Blue Sky

In the period of romanticism the associations with a blue sky were very different from today. Getting out into the sun was a kind of privilege for the “leisure class”, of people who could afford to enjoy time outside for boating, walking or other pleasures. In our technology-driven 21st century the associations with Blue Sky are more like a technically enhanced view through for example “Windows” at the news and opinion platform or “Bluesky”.
Several scientific websites that report data on blue skies and air quality more generally across the world report indicators like ozone values O3, sun intensity, micro particles 2.5µm and 10µm, Nitrogen Dioxid NO2 to name the mostly quoted indicators. Hence, just enjoying the blue sky outside isn’t the same as it was before. People working outside in the sun or at times of a blue sky but with high air pollution levels are incurring severe medium-term health risks. The Ozon layers at very high altitudes protect our skin and eyes against high UV-radiation, but O3 on the ground is tough for eyes and lungs.
Technology has come with many blessings, but the negative effects on a global scale become also more evident. Getting used to a particular lifestyle, which produces lots of emissions of aggressive fine particles will make it more difficult to just simply enjoy a blue sky.
In consideration of all these background data with regional variations, we surely need an AI-system which we can ask for advice, whether we should go outside and enjoy the blue sky with or without respiratory mask.
Romanticism has led us all the way to Californication and dangerous enshittification of the air that surrounds us. Youth and the next generations will have very different associations with Blue Sky than we have the chance to, at least, have had.