The world in which I am living (2026)

 

I was born in Vienna in 1983. My parents originally wanted me to become a doctor. That's why I attended a high school specializing in modern languages, where I spent six years learning Latin. As a teenager, however, I had little interest in medicine; instead, I was mainly interested in computer science. I wrote my first computer programs when I was just eight years old. The media also reported that the IT industry was the only growing sector in Austria. So, a year before my high school graduation, I told my parents that I wanted to study computer science. However, I was put off by reports claiming that the IT industry was only looking for truly talented people - and I wasn't sure if I was one of them. That's why I let my father talk me into starting medical school instead. During my senior year of high school, I had also read a few books on biotechnology and genetics - at least I had found those interesting.

After three years, during my hospital internships, I realized that I found routine hands-on tasks, such as drawing blood, difficult. Since drawing blood is the most important task for a resident in Austria, I felt my chances of establishing myself as a doctor were slim. That is why I went on to major in Medical Informatics and, after completing my bachelor's degree, pursued a master's degree in Computational Intelligence - the latter because it gave me the opportunity to specialize in the areas of computer science that interested me most: algorithms, formal logic, and theoretical computer science.

I graduated from university at the age of 29. Soon after, I entered the IT industry as a software developer. There was a lot of media coverage about artificial intelligence at the time, with speculation that software developers would no longer be needed in the near future because AI would develop the programs on its own. However, at least my current employers see things differently, so I'm not worried about it for now.

I also follow the latest developments in medicine. One major trend is precision medicine, in which drugs are selected based on statistical correlations with the patient's individual genome. My friend and mentor, Dr. Uwe Rohr, was critical of this development because he believed that drugs should be “blockbusters” and have a universal effect. In addition, the media frequently reports on longevity medicine. However, my impression is that very little has been discovered in this field so far. Essentially, it is still true that a healthy lifestyle is the most effective way to live a long life.

Transhumanism is often cited today as the philosophical foundation for medical research. I first encountered this philosophical movement at the beginning of my medical studies. However, during my time as a student, I found that, at least in Austria, the influence of religious organizations in this regard is still very strong, and that certain aspects of transhumanism - such as interventions in the human genome - are therefore to be considered utopian.

Antibiotic resistance is a major problem in medical practice. In 2018, I developed an idea for how this problem might be solved (Symbiont Conversion) and wrote an essay about it, which I first published online. Seven years later, I finally managed to find a scientific journal that was willing to publish it. In my estimation, my work has hardly been noticed by the academic community yet. It could be that the methods I have proposed are still too costly to be implemented in practice. But that could change.

Claus D. Volko