paradigm for the world on the way. But, then, to everyone’s—including our
competitors’—surprise, another flagship candidate was chosen.
9 With the 1 billion
Euro Human Brain Project,
10 Europe wanted to build a realistic brain in silico, and
Barack Obama announced a multi-billion dollar Brain Initiative.
11 With this, the
transhumanist era was launched.
12 In the course of this book, we will understand
the worrying implications of this.
In principle, it is a normal thing that one project wins and another one loses, and
people move on. However, here, things were pretty different for various reasons.
Whatever part of the project I wanted to follow up on—Nervousnet,
13 for example
—was seriously obstructed. This applied also to our work on “Digital
Democracy”,
14 which was repeatedly not even accessible on the Internet.
Furthermore, I was permanently put under pressure for years, and so I wondered
what was going on…
My discoveries were highly concerning.
15 In the meantime, a digital mirror
world
16 has become reality
17
—but without privacy, ethics, participation and
democracy, it seems. Instead of a visionary, almost utopian project, it appears that
dystopia is on its way, as I will show in the course of this book (besides the great
potentials of the digital revolution, too).
9
Neelie Kroes & Prof. Henry Markram: Human Brain Project (January 29, 2013) https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=DsZ_LBdthC0.
10
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Brain_Project and https://www.humanbrainproject.eu.
11
Obama launches multi-billion dollar brain-map project, Nature NewsBlog (April 2, 2013) http://
blogs.nature.com/news/2013/04/obama-launches-ambitious-brain-map-project-with-100-million.
html.
12
The Age of Transhuman Politics Has Begun, Telepolis (April 12, 2015) https://www.heise.de/tp/
features/The-Age-of-Transhumanist-Politics-Has-Begun-3371228.html?seite=all.
13
See https://web.archive.org/web/*/nervousnet.info; Creating a Planetary Nervous System
Together, TEDx Groningen (February 5, 2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
BKcWPdSUJVA; A digital Nervousnet for everyone and the golden age of complexity science
(talk given at the ICCSS2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN2hAcr6ujk.
14
D. Helbing and E. Pournaras, Build Digital Democracy, Nature 527, 33-34 (2015) https://www.
nature.com/news/society-build-digital-democracy-1.18690.
15
Some of them have found their way into the Science Fiction „iGod” by Willemijn Dicke and
myself, published at CreateSpace (2017).
16
Virtual ‘mirror’ of world to help predict future, The Sunday Times (January 6, 2013) https://
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/virtual-mirror-of-world-to-help-predict-future-rcflmwx0dss.
17
Sentient world: war games on the grandest scale, The Register (June 23, 2007) https://www.
theregister.com/2007/06/23/sentient_worlds/; The era of digital twins and the mirror world,
Medium (May 5, 2020) https://medium.com/@nomoko/the-era-of-digital-twins-and-the-mirrorworld-82b33e3e3d46.
x
Prologue
competitors’—surprise, another flagship candidate was chosen.
9 With the 1 billion
Euro Human Brain Project,
10 Europe wanted to build a realistic brain in silico, and
Barack Obama announced a multi-billion dollar Brain Initiative.
11 With this, the
transhumanist era was launched.
12 In the course of this book, we will understand
the worrying implications of this.
In principle, it is a normal thing that one project wins and another one loses, and
people move on. However, here, things were pretty different for various reasons.
Whatever part of the project I wanted to follow up on—Nervousnet,
13 for example
—was seriously obstructed. This applied also to our work on “Digital
Democracy”,
14 which was repeatedly not even accessible on the Internet.
Furthermore, I was permanently put under pressure for years, and so I wondered
what was going on…
My discoveries were highly concerning.
15 In the meantime, a digital mirror
world
16 has become reality
17
—but without privacy, ethics, participation and
democracy, it seems. Instead of a visionary, almost utopian project, it appears that
dystopia is on its way, as I will show in the course of this book (besides the great
potentials of the digital revolution, too).
9
Neelie Kroes & Prof. Henry Markram: Human Brain Project (January 29, 2013) https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=DsZ_LBdthC0.
10
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Brain_Project and https://www.humanbrainproject.eu.
11
Obama launches multi-billion dollar brain-map project, Nature NewsBlog (April 2, 2013) http://
blogs.nature.com/news/2013/04/obama-launches-ambitious-brain-map-project-with-100-million.
html.
12
The Age of Transhuman Politics Has Begun, Telepolis (April 12, 2015) https://www.heise.de/tp/
features/The-Age-of-Transhumanist-Politics-Has-Begun-3371228.html?seite=all.
13
See https://web.archive.org/web/*/nervousnet.info; Creating a Planetary Nervous System
Together, TEDx Groningen (February 5, 2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
BKcWPdSUJVA; A digital Nervousnet for everyone and the golden age of complexity science
(talk given at the ICCSS2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN2hAcr6ujk.
14
D. Helbing and E. Pournaras, Build Digital Democracy, Nature 527, 33-34 (2015) https://www.
nature.com/news/society-build-digital-democracy-1.18690.
15
Some of them have found their way into the Science Fiction „iGod” by Willemijn Dicke and
myself, published at CreateSpace (2017).
16
Virtual ‘mirror’ of world to help predict future, The Sunday Times (January 6, 2013) https://
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/virtual-mirror-of-world-to-help-predict-future-rcflmwx0dss.
17
Sentient world: war games on the grandest scale, The Register (June 23, 2007) https://www.
theregister.com/2007/06/23/sentient_worlds/; The era of digital twins and the mirror world,
Medium (May 5, 2020) https://medium.com/@nomoko/the-era-of-digital-twins-and-the-mirrorworld-82b33e3e3d46.
x
Prologue