Digital control.

No, AI data centers are the muscle of a digital control grid, not the brain. The grid itself is built in law: digital ID, programmable money, biometric borders and scoring systems. Data centers just run whatever the switchboard orders. But no muscle, no grid. Your money and your movement can be expressed mathematically, so they can be scored in real time. That takes a globally interoperable digital ID, then the local hardware: cameras, cell towers, satellites and the data centers managing the live data streams. 1 component, but the one everything plugs into. Where a digital control grid ends: central bankers, with a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or private stablecoins, controlling your money in real time. A social credit system with a Western label. The tape is already live: Vietnam closed 86 million bank accounts that missed its biometric ID deadline. Every European Union state must offer a digital ID wallet before 2027. The only thing that controls technology is people. I fear people, not technology. My warning, on record since 2015: never accept digital slavery. Igor Beuker

On paper, no. In practice, yes, by 2030: no wallet, no government services, no bank account, no travel. The law is already signed. Every 1 of the 27 EU states must offer the wallet by December 24, 2026. Denmark's wallet is in production, France is testing, Germany launches in January 2027, and Ireland and Spain run public pilots. The digital euro follows: pilot in 2027, rollout in 2029. The borders are already wired. Since October 2025 the EU Entry/Exit System takes fingerprints and face scans at every border, logs every crossing and counts your days by machine. Identity, money, movement: a total control grid. The cage builders were never on your ballot. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, was installed by a council deal and censured by the EU Court over Pfizergate. Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, was convicted of negligence in 2016 over a €403 million state payout, received zero punishment, and now builds the digital euro. China's social credit state, rebuilt with European branding, the switchboard in Brussels, not your parliament. Check it yourself, every law is public: the EU law database, the ECB's digital euro pages, the UN's Agenda 2030. Read them before they read you.

Yes, people are resisting social credit scores: systems where code decides your access to loans, jobs and travel, like China's social credit system. Humans do not want to be scored. In the UK, 3 million people signed against mandatory digital ID in days. The control side is live too: Vietnam closed 86 million bank accounts that missed the biometric ID deadline, 43% of all accounts in the country. If your face fails, your funds fail. Europe is next. Every EU state must offer a digital ID wallet by December 24, 2026, and the digital euro follows. Identity, money, movement: China's social credit state rebuilt with European branding. I have warned about social credit systems and surveillance societies for a decade: 2015 dark social, 2018 Cambridge Analytica, 2020 The Social Dilemma, 2022 ChatGPT eating the scraped internet. Technology can empower or control society. Never accept digital slavery.

Governments increasingly use AI to sharpen decisions, public services, and resource allocation. I predict real efficiency gains paired with real dangers, including surveillance, bias, privacy erosion, and concentrated power. I stay consistent and blunt. The same AI that makes government work better can also make it watch citizens more closely: digital ID plus programmable money is a control grid if the wrong people write the rules. On record since 2015: never accept digital slavery, no matter what. Governance of the tool matters as much as the tool itself.

Digital identities are secure, verifiable proof of who you are online, for people, organizations, and assets: a passport for the internet. I predict they become essential infrastructure as commerce, education, healthcare, and government move online, and the rollout is already dated: every EU state must offer the digital ID wallet in 2026, your papers, health data, and permits in 1 app. In an era of deepfakes and synthetic accounts, proving you are who you claim to be is no longer a feature. It is the foundation the entire digital economy stands on. My warning stays: digital ID plus digital euro is a control grid if the wrong people write the rules. Whoever owns the standard owns the flow. The technology can empower or control society. I picked a side. Fear sells. Imagination builds. Imagine a bright future, then create it.

On record since 2015: never accept digital slavery, no matter what. Know your data, guard it, demand payment for it, and refuse every system that scores you. And the mine runs dry: most AI training data goes synthetic by 2030, so verified human data becomes the scarce asset. Your data is your leverage. Use it or lose it.

No country pays a full Universal Basic Income (UBI) today. What exists are pilots, dividends, and promises. Alaska has paid a yearly dividend since 1982, $1,000 per eligible resident in 2025 and 2026. Iran paid nearly every citizen about $45 a month from 2010, the biggest non-Western cash program on record. Inflation has eaten most of it since. Neither is the full national UBI I am talking about. The Romans called it bread and circuses 2,000 years ago. A government that pays your rent owns your vote. It is a power problem. The sellers sit in Silicon Valley. The buyers are governments on every continent. Elon Musk calls it universal high income. OpenAI proposed handing 5% of its shares to a US public wealth fund. A US senator wants a one-time 50% stock tax on the biggest AI companies. Futurist Ray Kurzweil, 13 years on Google's payroll and today chief AI officer of a humanoid robot company, says early 2030s. Peter Diamandis wants it deployed by 2028. I am independent. I take no money from anyone, not from Big Tech. I say later. Nobody can say what China, India and the Gulf will decide. Their choice sets the date of the world's first full UBI. My prediction: the first permanent pocket money arrives, Alaska style, in 1 or 2 countries by 2035. A full national UBI does not begin before 2040. And it is not a law of nature. If the people rise and refuse to be paid for their silence, there will be no UBI. Not in 2040, not ever. Digital slavery does not begin with a free check. It begins when the check becomes your only option.

Under emergency powers the EU can suspend elections, freeze accounts and seize assets: your house, your pension fund, your savings. Why keep that on the table? To seize. Digital ID plus digital euro is the control grid: programmable money is conditional money, conditional on your tax compliance, your political behavior, your carbon score. The trend I predict. The mission I choose.