Which high-tech device with an ancient design impresses Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (r.), Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner (l.) and Berlin’s Senator for Economic Affairs Franziska Giffey (front)?
Photo: dpa/Bernd von Jutrczenka
Your houseplants love you! They just can’t show it very well. To know how important you are to them, it takes a bit of technology. Hello Tomorrow Incorporated from the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, has developed plant pots that ensure that you hear a purr when you approach your little flowers; they make bubbling noises when water is needed again so that they don’t die crying without tears; Last but not least: stroke a leaf and a sensor makes the plant shake with happiness.
The pots are creepy even at second glance, but they are certainly among the most harmless products at this year’s International Radio Exhibition (IFA) in Berlin. The trade fair is celebrating its 100th birthday, but the splendor of the old Federal Republic of high-tech times has diminished. Television no longer broadcasts live from the west of the capital, and here and there there are even empty spaces at the edges of the halls. “Still much, much better than last year,” says an old exhibitor from Swabia. Since 2023, IFA has been managed by IFA Management GmbH, which in turn is a global joint venture between the rights holder gfu and the event organizer Clarion. It seems that the handover from the previous organizer to IFA Management GmbH was not particularly thorough – practical knowledge from experience was not passed on, chaos reigned and exhibitors were often unable to reach anyone.
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By the way, the opening concert by the old electric guitar star Bryan Adams (64 years old) was “bombastic,” according to the Swabian … or Franke? Initially he spoke business English. The friendly gentleman works for a British start-up platform that, among other things, supports a company that wants to take up the trend towards voluntary self-monitoring through smartwatches and combine it with the omnipotence fantasies of Lord of the Rings fans: the “revolutionary smart ring.” « OURA is reminiscent of Gollum’s object of desire. Its shape and soul are not a good omen for the post-smart people of the future.
The humanoid robots that are being presented around the corner will probably be used: They are supposed to help us get things from A to B in everyday life. Then relatives and friends can be in peace. Isolation is important anyway. The company Quoob rents out “private spaces” in the form of spaceship capsules in which you can work, study, make phone calls or, as it says on the entrance door, “recharge”.
The television manufacturer Telefunken was swallowed up by a Chinese company many years ago and only has a small stand to offer, which probably costs barely 20,000 euros in rent. His slogan: »Serious. German. “Fun.” The faces of the three employees in suits with name tags do not convey any enthusiasm, although every loud yawn and eye roll from the hostesses, sales managers and experts is a pleasant sign of life. The body defends itself against the antisocial man-machine installation technology fair.
The giant companies will not ensure that there is enough food for everyone.
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Tesla has built his little empire a few meters away. In this case, Tesla has nothing to do with Elon Musk’s electric cars, but is a Serbian all-round company that offers computer game screens, kitchen appliances, household items with electricity, and has all of this manufactured in China, Bulgaria and Turkey. However, Musk’s space company SpaceX is also represented: It is presenting a technology – something in silver plates – that is good for having internet reception even in the middle of nowhere, far away from any civilization, in the desert and tundra, thank God.
A little horror trip in between: The Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport had a telephone booth set up at its stand in which Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) appears as an avatar. The AI bot that he is is supposed to answer questions for the electorate. Reminiscent of Star Wars holograms, but more of the bad guys.
The SpaceX stand is located not far from an area that houses all sorts of Chinese suppliers of pleasantly mundane things, such as cell phones for older students with extra-large icons or ultra-modern toothbrushes that move so complexly that there is no longer any excuse for tooth decay.
Most of the providers come from the Chinese mega-metropolis of Shenzhen. She should also be a role model for German business boys and girls. At least that’s what one speaker thinks on the stage provided by the electronics retail chain Mediamarkt-Saturn for lectures about the future of the technological world full of profit-oriented people. There is so much competition in Shenzhen that “progress” is happening so quickly and new, excuse me, awesome shit is always being thrown onto the market.
The expert states that shopping in the West is too boring because people have only been looking for efficiency for ages. Quickly find what you want, have it delivered to you, done. Instead, online shopping should be about experience. This means that products have to be presented in a more lively way. That means, instead of a photo of a dress, there is a video of a normally beautiful model in a dress hopping around happily. This also means that static is the enemy, online catalogs are over, so it’s better, like with Tiktok, to swipe from clip to clip on your cell phone, with each video advertising a product that you can order in no time by touching it. This works in China, we need it too!
The most famous German in China was also dragged to the IFA: Timo Boll, table tennis legend. In a few words, he was responsible for advertising Honor’s smartphones, which are less well-known in this country due to Apple’s and Samsung’s market power. They can be opened up for an extra-large screen, they also have a screen on the front when closed and are also virtually indestructible.
You feel extremely safe, but also extremely powerless in the world of artificial intelligence that Samsung, the long-time employer of the new IFA boss Leif-Erik Lindner, is presenting in its hall. Samsung built “Samsung Town” for us. In the home of the future, the washing machine knows when to wash in a particularly efficient and environmentally friendly way, smart appliances remind you of your daily yoga sessions, the refrigerator knows that you have run out of milk and orders new ones, the vacuum cleaner removes every crumb before it goes on floor falls. “AI for All” is the motto. Internationally, IFA also stands for “Innovation For All”. AI is destroying all kinds of jobs, that’s clear. At the Berlin trade fair you shouldn’t feel like an everyday wage earner, but rather like an all-powerful consumer of the future.
Antidote at the end: At the traditional German companies AEG and Miele you can watch semi-prominent chefs prepare the finest dishes with ease and in no time at all thanks to the best equipment from the traditional German brands. However, they are not allowed to serve really large portions, so the crowd in front of the snacks on cardboard becomes too big. Envy for food remains an anthropological constant. The giant companies will not ensure that there is enough for everyone.
The IFA runs until September 10th at the Berlin exhibition center
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