Predictions that not long ago sounded like science fiction

The latest conversation between Elon Musk and Peter Diamandis should be watched by everyone who cares about the well-being of our community—the European Union. It should also be played for European parliamentarians, if only for motivation. It is a conversation lasting over 2.5 hours, incredibly dense in content, about the future of the world seen through the prism of technology.

Forecasts are made that until recently sounded like science fiction: that in three years there will be more super-professional robots operating on people than surgeons, and that within a few years, a system of universal high income will be established—a state-guaranteed salary sufficient for a living even for ambitious citizens. A lot of space was also devoted to energy as the currency of the future.

However, around the 27th minute, the conversation veers toward the European Union, and that’s when it gets bitter. When asked who could compete with Starlink, a suggestion is made: Europe. The reaction? An ominous cackle. Laughter that brutally shows where the EU stands today and how much the USA has pulled ahead of us.

Musk says directly that the Union is not able to compete with either the USA or China. In his opinion, Europe is murdering itself: it introduces technological restrictions before it even has time to adapt them, pushes talent outside its borders with regulations, limits work opportunities, kills its own competitiveness, and does not care about energy—which we all see in the context of the Green Deal. As Musk says: „Europe behaves as if its main goal were to limit risk rather than create the future.” Sound familiar? Bureaucratic?

Diamandis: Have you seen the chart showing the number of unicorns in the USA and Europe? And again, a cackle...

Regardless of Musk's personal reasons for disliking the EU—penalties, regulations, and the fight against his technological audacity—it is hard not to admit he is right. The USA has dramatically overtaken us in the last 15 years. They dominate technologically, invest many times more in innovation, and control key technologies: from AI and space to satellite communication, autonomous vehicles, and security. European companies dream of escaping to that market.

While they are racing ahead, we are standing still. Single swallows of change are appearing in France or Poland, but Germany and the entire EU increasingly resemble a mental open-air museum. History has repeatedly shown how rejecting technology and complacency ends: the Ottoman Empire banning printing, China closing itself off to innovation, or Spain, which lost because it was too satiated to develop.

Today we do not have time for years of debates, commissions, and stories. It is time for action. If the next 10 years change the world more than the previous 100, I fear that the next cackle our descendants hear will be the cackle of history—and history always laughs at the losers.