Dear friends,

A new year, new stories

The moment I start writing a summary of the past year, I realize that I also have a lot to tell myself and that only the events have to be lured back into my consciousness. I hope that the upcoming stories are not only interesting and entertaining for me.

The fascination and challenge of AI

There is the topic of AI, which has particularly occupied, appealed, surprised and, of course, worried me and certainly you in the last year. When talking to friends, we repeatedly discuss the recognizable inability of AI to make factually well-founded and resilient free decisions. But when I now think about what I have actually done in the last half hour, then I have selected a few things from a huge pool of experiences that my consciousness can only scratch superficially to note here. But I also notice that I myself do not make the decision of what I write to you freely. The criteria according to which content is carried out here have been formed at some point through similar experiences and tasks and will be changed again in the next letter through feedback from your side. This will then again take place largely unconsciously. Consciousness plays a secondary role.

ChatGPT and Perplexity

The tools available to all of us, such as ChatGPT or Perplexity, are now not only used intensively, but also increasingly by my friends and acquaintances, who would never have wanted to use them recently. They still lack freedom of choice, creativity, compassion, sustainability in the systems – in other words, the longed-for virtues of our time. But who of most users actually misses these skills in ChatGPT in view of the amazingly good summaries of protocols, convincing application letters, beautiful children's fairy tales, great musical compositions, imaginative images and convincing scripts from perhaps even boring stories? Yes – after about two years of rapidly increasing use, the error rate and the appearance of hallucinations are still annoying. However, the system is already able to apologize if a slightly different additional request triggers a new, corrected response. I assume that such automated control questions will filter out such problems as hallucinations at an early stage and will no longer play a role in the future.

The personal side of AI use

Those who would not be able to send a cover letter without ChatGPT and who would otherwise not have a heartbreaking or reassuring story read aloud experience AI as incredibly smart, helpful, infinitely patient and gradually extremely personal when ChatGPT gets the opportunity to learn a lot about us and our problems and hopes.

In five years, no one will take as much time for single people to have compassionate, comforting or encouraging conversations as the AI programs that can then be addressed. If you don't believe that, ChatGPT should ask for a few nice lines on the birthday of a good friend and add personal facts such as studying together, information about hobbies, etc. to the request. Even these minor additions with names, places and holiday information make us more than baffled. If ChatGPT gets the opportunity to gradually learn much more about us because we let it flow into the conversation, it will know more about us than our children or spouses, who don't listen for as long as they want.

Changed communication and self-presentation

I'm already noticing that I'm more likely to click on ChatGPT in technical or factual areas than wait for the slow and incomplete information from my expert colleagues and friends. I have to expect that in the future even fewer contemporaries will ask me for views, information, etc. Perhaps this is the last letter that I will write myself and hope that it will meet your standards. If no more, then this is not a loss of communication level, but exactly the opposite. I would then no longer be able to put interesting or important things into words as interestingly as we are used to from AI sources.

Personal projects and competition from AI

I have filed five patent applications this year and have already received a positive approval of one PCT application. I was also deliberately so busy this year because I assume that the various topics I have been working on for years will soon be better overviewed, analyzed and combined by AI than I can. So I still have the chance to be the first to come up with solutions to at least some questions.

For me, the clarification of novelty is the essential motive and the worldwide publication associated with it. A short-term economic use would be welcome, but requires too much effort for me. If the thoughts were good, they will be implemented at some point.

Educational elites in need of explanation

People who are supported by ChatGPT in areas that they do not have an overview of and where they do not know how to solve certain issues no longer doubt the wealth of ideas and creativity of the system.

So, who still doubts? Only those who are "better" in their interests or areas of expertise – the educated elites, who of course do not like to see their irreplaceability questioned.

Such doubts are a selective elite problem. For some time to come, correlations will certainly be regarded as incorrect or incomplete. A historically interested and well-read person can leave the impression of the highest education and intelligence with contributions and detailed information about the French Revolution and the involvement of Greek and European philosophers in those who in turn can explain the current table of the Bundesliga to him in detail. What both deliver seems to be due to independent, free thinking. In truth, however, it is a combination of information and conclusions that have already been experienced and internally discarded several times with slightly different building blocks.

Creativity and Empathy: Human or Just Simulation?

The extent to which this creativity consists of "soberly elaborated contexts" can be seen, for example, in ChatGPT's request to tell a love story between an ice cube and a lemon in a freezer. What repeatedly comes out of this almost moves to tears. The stories told by ChatGPT about it are always new, and it is difficult to find a role model for this absurd constellation and locality anywhere. Obviously, things are connected with each other that are not obvious, but also not coincidental, together to form this sweet story. For me, ChatGPT is very creative and even manages to credibly simulate empathy. From this experience, I tend to conclude that our self-perception of creativity and empathy etc. is a bit too benevolent.

Perhaps creativity always begins when we can no longer understand the path to it and do not recognize that the ingenious considerations or formulations we have found have very concrete roots that could be recreated in their logic with sufficient effort. I would go so far as to say that creativity does not exist if you mean more than a rearrangement of complex issues. For many people, facts are already complex before they are unmanageable for others. What is amazing is that ChatGPT is quite capable of triggering exactly the sensations in us that are expected from a love story. Sadness can also be triggered in all its facets by the use of appropriate terms and connections.

What does real empathy mean?

Does AI have empathy with this, or does it just simulate it? If the latter, then she would be in the best company, because except with people or living beings with whom we feel real closeness, the empathy we usually show is the learned fulfillment of an expectation. Emotional concern, whether positive or negative (love and hate), can be triggered in many ways without great intellectual achievement. This is particularly successful in people who do not yet or no longer precede their reactions with mental processing. Empathy is therefore certainly not an intellectual feat, but a biological complement to our behavior with roots that were already found in vertebrates millions of years ago. The anger of a bee when we steal its honey also overlays the sober calculation of what would actually be most reasonable now. The emotional sense of responsibility of a feeding blue is also directly linked to the age of the young.

Empathy is not an element with which we can discredit AI. Rather, it is something that repeatedly raises justified doubts about human intelligence.

Faith in Education and Culture: A Crumbling Foundation?

Unfortunately, using ChatGPT makes it unsparingly clear to me how much belief in ourselves and our education and culture depends on the environment in which we move. Anyone who can bear it could already find out today that there are hardly any points to be scored with acquired expertise. The knowledge we have carried with us may have been updated and queried in a structured way from the Internet before our arrival.

The educated elites should also be aware that a lawyer only has an insight into astronomy, semiconductor technology or Greek history in exceptional cases. We are therefore only elites in areas that we ourselves experience as relevant and where we have an information advantage over the ignorant. In order to be able to believe in this pleasant feeling of being eager to learn, we must not look up too attentively, because there is certainly someone there who will make us look old in our field. It is now gradually and embarrassingly becoming clear that we are therefore also excluding huge areas of knowledge so as not to be predominantly seen as medium to poorly oriented. That's why we prefer to exchange ideas with our friends with contemporaries who have the same areas of interest and education.

This is particularly noticeable in the private sphere. Art lovers, opera enthusiasts, sailing yacht owners and lovers of stamps, old cars and exotic snakes maintain close relationships almost exclusively with like-minded people. Rarely can a connoisseur of classical music arouse interest in an enthusiast of motorsport that goes beyond politeness.

It is now increasingly embarrassing to experience how others, and unfortunately I myself, keep throwing half-knowledge into the ring and making statements that have so far remained indulgent in the room, although it is increasingly happening that someone has asked on the iPhone and what is said turns out to be nonsense. The grasp for the "truth" will increase, and the contributions from the gray area of half-knowledge and what is "heard" will seem less and less convincing and will also be used less and less for statements.

If we succeed in reducing the differences in knowledge through the new tools and making statements that are much more truthful, the question arises: Is this a disadvantage or a great advantage?

But in addition to AI, there were also many other experiences this year.

Daniela's birthday in Venice

The year began with Daniela's great birthday party in Venice. This was associated with many experiences that would go beyond the scope of this article. At least I was able to present myself as an artist at this event, which was also a wonderful self-experience. I didn't try to ask AI for a gray-and-white image of Emperor Augustus in four gradations on a picture of Girke with a pure broom structure in three horizontal layers on top of each other, because I wanted to create something seemingly my own for her 60th birthday. I am sure that AI will soon deliver such ideas within seconds.

Impressive insights into Uzbekistan

After that, I went alone with a tour group and a small orchestra from Frankfurt to Uzbekistan. The country amazed me very much. The city of Tashkent surprised with its skyscrapers, grand city palaces, sparkling modern streets and uniformly white modern cars, with luxury shops and relaxed friendly citizens. A city that no longer has or does not yet have all the problems that the world otherwise has to deal with.

The ride on the fastest high-tech train in the world to the two great cities of Bukhara and Samarkand was also a great experience. Everything we saw and experienced on our trip had nothing to do with a developing country and an impoverished population. I have not been able to understand how this ultra-modern capital and the two magnificent other cities are financed and how there were no deficiencies in clothing or health among the population. It seemed to us that generous foreign investors had built a country that could not be more beautiful for their families and their personal lives. Maybe that's the case, and the children in the schools and young people in the great universities have parents who leave other traces in other countries.

Aashita: The Continuing Education

Later, I flew to India again with Daniela to visit Aashita. There have been further changes at Aashita. For example, the previous boss and patriarch Colonel Garcha has been replaced by a young Indian woman with her husband for reasons of age. This is now proving to be extremely beneficial, and many things enliven Aashita and show completely new possibilities. During our second visit in autumn, a further programme was launched in which the children are supported in further educational steps after completing their school education and, for example, can start studying. The whole thing is organized like a study foundation, and the girls have to register and meet certain requirements. The latter, of course, makes it easier to motivate them to work in schools. We are all very curious to see how the "Senior Girls" will develop now and how this will affect the younger girls again.

Rome trip with friends and Orient Express

With Daniela and some friends we experienced a one-week trip under the guidance of Christoph in Rome. I felt transported back to the time of our school trips, when we already had to show sufficient respect for the exhibits in the art-historical focus and listened reverently and silently to our teachers as we followed our brilliant and sympathetic Christoph here.

Daniela has received a wonderful birthday present from her colleagues: a ride on the Orient Express from Paris to Rome. The journey takes only one and a half days. Longer trips to Istanbul would also not be affordable. The associated task was to dress appropriately according to one's own dreams or visions, which we succeeded in doing quite well. The trip to Paris and the one-day stay were determined by the unmistakable preparations for the Olympic Games. The ride itself was a delightful mix of cramped bunks in the smallest compartments with minimalist sinks, but authentic design, if you can believe the famous films about the Orient Express, and a luxurious dining car with extremely feudal service and a charming salon and bar with a very harmonious pianist on a grand piano. The days that followed in Rome were as beautiful as they have often been before.

Gaga Movement Art at Schloss Elmau

We spent a few days at Schloss Elmau at the beginning of summer, and in addition to the many familiar experiences, this time we experienced something very unusual with weird and funny elements. In addition to yoga and tango, a new art of movement will be introduced at Schloss Elmau. The appropriate name for this dance-like craziness is "Gaga". A small, wiry New Yorker Israeli managed to persuade 30 beginners (including Dietmar Müller-Elmau and his wife) to do one-hour stochastic sequences of movements, in which you were not even allowed to close your eyes so as not to have to look at the extremely silly bends and grimaces of the surrounding participants. A standstill was forbidden, so that after 20 minutes you finally began to resign yourself to lifting your left leg, at the same time putting one hand on your buttocks and pulling yourself by the ears with the other hand, and then taking your hand off your buttocks with uninterrupted movement in order to immediately lift it into your hips and start galloping,  but not without sticking a finger of the hand from the ear to the mouth. You don't come up with such absurd constellations yourself and can hardly remember them, but the small, robust dance teacher demonstrated it so convincingly that every now and then you brought two out of four limbs into the simulated combination. It was really difficult with all these movements to let the lower body circle continuously, as is a prerequisite for hula hop dancing. Perhaps even the psychological effect of the mutual visual upheaval was the most valuable. After the 20 minutes, all appropriate feelings of shame or embarrassment gradually began to evaporate, and for all those involved in the suffering, it has since become irrelevant how ridiculous one is to face each other in the future. After all, it was a lot of fun for everyone together. In spring, Daniela and I even wanted to take part in a Gaga course in Elmau for a week. However, after we found out that Gaga also specifies certain movement steps and sequences that need to be trained, we realized that we didn't want to know exactly and would not train for several hours a day. I think we're more likely to make something come true that we've always wanted to learn better together since we've been together: tango.

New Zealand: Natural paradise with cracks

To report on the other short and yet longer trips here now would lead to the fact that the writing of the New Year's greetings would drag on even further.

At the moment I'm hanging head down in New Zealand, and Daniela and I travel the country and experience beautiful regions and pictures, but we are shocked how almost completely the land has been cut down and replaced by pastureland. Where reforestation has been carried out, a poor, wildlife-free monoculture has been created, which serves pure wood production and nothing else. The remaining national parks are impressive, but when you fly over the country, you can see how torn and meagre the remaining parts are. It is striking how few different insects, birds and higher vertebrates live here. Of course, this does not apply to tons of cows and sheep and even red deer, which everyone can hunt here all year round. In the case of the "aliens" brought by the immigrants, it is expressly asked to kill them in order to protect and preserve the last biological peculiarities of the country retrospectively. We can assume that the water world around the land is almost untouched and still shows all the original diversity. To the people we can say that they are extremely helpful and friendly and not only in appearance see all things much more relaxed than we know from Europe, although this has also begun to change here in recent times. This society here is increasingly divided, and in addition to the particularly casually dressed New Zealanders adorned with all-over tattoos and an English that is difficult for me to understand, there is another layer that gives rise to an inkling of the past in Queen's English and Great Empire outfits. At the moment, however, the country seems to be divided on the question of its attitude towards the indigenous peoples. As we could read in the National Museum, in the 19th century there was a treaty signed by the Queen between the Māori and the immigrants, which granted them unrestricted ownership of their land and only allowed a transfer of land against purchase. The flaw was that the immigrants could unilaterally determine the sales price and no official decisions were awaited when making use of them. Today, therefore, some European immigrants have a guilty conscience, and in many areas the Māori, who make up 15% of the population, are accommodated. It seems to us that, as expected, the rural population has a much harder time with reparations than the city dwellers. Some New Zealanders complain that the emphasis on and equality of the Māori language and the enormous expansion of naming and probably also requirements for filling positions will lead to a split in New Zealand society. New Zealand also has fundamental problems in realizing a harmonious society, which is not suspected 12,000 km away from Europe.

However, there seems to be one thing that unites the New Zealand population, and that is respect for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Warnings and instructions are posted everywhere on what to do and what not to do when tsunamis, earthquakes and ash rains occur. We visited the city of Napier, which was destroyed by the earthquake in 1931 and killed 260 people. However, in the very detailed description of the tragedy to which the city fell victim, I was reminded of the fate of my parents, some of whom were bombed out several times during the war and in whom, as in Hamburg, 34,000 and in Dresden 100,000 civilians died in one night. All major German cities have fallen victim to humanoid wars with hundreds of thousands of deaths and can thus more than keep up with natural disasters.

It occurs to me from the immediate news that, in addition to the terrible casualties of soldiers in Ukraine, the proportion of casualties among the civilian population is surprisingly only a fraction of that. All the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Gaza, Libya, Lebanon have been more tragic in this regard. If there were to continue wars, this development would at least be reassuring. There are enough civilian casualties in some countries in a completely different way, and the 700,000 deaths in ten years in the USA from the narcotic fentanyl and 25,000 victims every year from civilian shootings point to a terrible bloodletting for even less justifiable reasons. Strangely enough, it seems so shameful to the US that this insane loss of life is hardly discussed.

Outlook for the coming year

Even though I can't suppress these considerations at the beginning of the year, I'm trying to look forward to beautiful and promising developments for the coming year. Especially in the private sphere, it should continue as it seems to be possible with Daniela, my children and me.

Last year, all my children were in both Frankfurt and Schmallenberg and had a wonderful time. It is very good that we have these paradises and I hope that the plans will be similar this year.

Daniela is still looking for an apartment in Rome and wants Italian citizenship again to lay the foundation for a second career as a consigliere in Italy (you only start there at 60).

With my daughters, the happiness they feel is of course linked to the development and fate of the children. It will remain the same as I experience it with myself. Amelie is still involved in many areas at the same time and, in addition to acting, dubbing, selling individually designed articles and writing children's books, she still devotedly takes care of her daughter Lea, who is becoming more and more funny and lively.

Oskar seems to be able to break the sound barrier to the Olympus of screenwriters. However, this would not have been a question given the current appreciation in the past – but in today's uncertain times, projects are suddenly abandoned or postponed. But I'm optimistic about the three that they can deal with all the demands.

It's a similar story with Amelie, Sebastian, Lenia and Björn. Lenia is very athletic, musical and good at school. Björn still has the strategy of trying to force attention and approval through his own acoustic stamina, and thus already gives an idea that an assertive little man is developing. Sebastian exonerates Amrei in an admirable way, who is increasingly traveling the world like a foreign minister for the University of Tübingen. My mother was also very busy professionally in my childhood, and we did not have nearly as good and loving care as they have from Sebastian, who is also continuing to expand the newly acquired house.

Adrian and Pat continue to move forward, and Adrian keeps emphasizing how happy he is with his fiancée and how it has helped him in his studies and jobs. He has just completed his bachelor's thesis in Schmallenberg over the Christmas holidays. This will certainly be rated very well, as I now know his standards. I am also very impressed by how Adrian has worked continuously as a working student in various companies alongside his studies. He will complete his studies after his master's degree with considerable professional experience, which is also documented with excellent certificates. The fact that he has also earned money himself throughout is not a matter of course and is a great achievement.

I myself have decided to finally release all inventions on the Internet this year and to publish all the content I have worked on so much in recent years. This starts with my concept on how we can reduce global warming, which I presented three years ago at a congress of the DGLR. This is followed by my patent applications for firefighting, gas storage (hydrogen), hydrogen refuelling, wave power plant and a new process for energy storage. There are detailed, elaborate animations for all developments. Until now, unlocking on the Internet would have meant stopping other projects, and as an inventor you simply can't do that. The greatest danger for the completion of an invention is that a new one comes in between. I must also refer again to gripper technology, which in my view will make the extensive use of automated "manual" work in industry and households possible in the first place.

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Letter to my friends, who could only write to me for my 70th birthday  due to CORONA.

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for the kind comments on the 70-year-old, who, like so many things in the current virtuality, is difficult to reach in real life. A certain transfiguration seems to be inevitable in such unreal times. The contributions to my person would not have happened eye to eye in this way. I have tried little successfully to find agreement with myself in the description of the Praised One. In addition to an undisputed entertainment value, I can perceive it indulgently, as not only unrealistic.

I suspect that I obviously give off a large number of signals, which, since they are difficult to interpret, initially ended in a benevolent perception. I now know that it will take at least another 20 years to bring some things closer to the truth again. So it is an irrefutable task to get more involved with each other in the future in order to make something of what you lovingly anticipated as a conceivable personality development come true.

But now let me turn the "tables". Who tried to put me into terms and words in order to at least establish social compatibility? A general view of the praisers is certainly not correct and sensible. At least a large part of you well-wishers have a lot in common. I feel closeness and harmony with a whole series of you. With others, I feel delightful passions or observe attitudes to life that I experience as exciting, provocative, sad, stimulating and every now and then really terrible.

About 20 years ago, I entered your world, which was very different from my cosmos at that time. Perhaps it is no coincidence that this phase of life began in Schloss Elmau of all places – my 2nd home, which has remained the only local constant since my childhood. There I came into contact with you, a group of young people who stood out above all because the content of your conversations was not limited to the already overwhelming special features of the Elmau and the mountains around the Wetterstein. You needed this backdrop to go far beyond that in your planning. It should later turn out to be a fairly uniform pattern for you that you always take on tasks that recognizably exceed your previous intentions. So never see an end, so as not to be at the end too quickly. This was a fascinating observation for me, as I met immodest contemporaries who did not even know that there were limits. I also personally knew excessiveness in the expectations of tomorrow – but this referred to my technical or scientific work and I was thus able to expand in my claim to amusement.

There was often low-conflict conversation content, such as planned or completed trips. However, these were already so captivating in their approaches that there was no danger of taking them unimportant as substitute topics of conversation. In these planning discussions, all locations on this planet were checked to see whether they would be appropriate as a further step in the optimal shaping of one's own destiny. Even altitude limits of 8000 m were not taboo. Many of you, whom I was allowed to meet, repeatedly subjected yourself professionally to a complete external determination, in order to then try out all the more unrestrained all the freedoms that had become financially feasible as a result. In addition, there was a certain skill to allow only one social environment that was not unnecessary? Braked.

At first, I had difficulty understanding why theatre, concerts and especially Bayreuth were of great importance in the choice of conversation in your social environment. As a selectively quarrelsome contemporary, I quickly had to learn that in the very heterogeneous circle around Daniela, intensive debates could only be avoided with great discipline. As I was able to learn, Bayreuth was of particular importance, as almost all of you have been there at some point in the last few years and therefore never had to listen helplessly. As someone who is between the older seniors and most of you due to his age, such a diplomatic, clever attitude was actually unknown to me and took some getting used to. However, the friendships with you, which I met for the first time at that time, still exist today and have obviously not been endangered by unsolicited statements on many things from my side.

In the beginning, I shifted the focus of my Frankfurt self-realization to my manageable skills as a chef. Unfortunately, this led to me taking the wrong message from the jubilation in the highest and lowest tones about my unprecedented, culinary gaffes. It was only after the number of affected participants increased from 6 to 20 within several years that the truth could no longer be hidden: You did not come for the food, but in spite of it.

In addition to my later efforts to contribute my artistic contribution as a singer, this was the first objectively justified rejection of my attempts to find niches in your world in which I could try my hand at it.

When a new world opens up, it can happen that the points of light of the previous, own world have little meaning in the new world. I was asked from time to time what I actually do for a living. I never succeeded, and certainly not here today, in conveying this in a reasonable time in such a way that there is anything left of the interest in an answer at all. It is extremely difficult for me as an inventor to explain which of the 7 parallel ideas and then in different stages of development I am currently working on. In other words, to deliver something spontaneously that is still correct in terms of content, or at least not boring. Sometimes I would have liked content that didn't just leave the legal question of whether I had actually applied for it as a patent. So I often stayed with taking a breath from my side.

It has been a big joint play so far, in which we all participated, but mistakenly believed that we had been significantly involved in the direction. A play in which we still assume that admission costs nothing and in which we often do not notice our role changes and which at best lead to the fact that we do not end up as a tragic figure. The special highlights in this tragic comedy were the episodes in which you played a role for me and I played a role for you. Sometimes the cast was predictable and we even had the anticipation and sometimes the surprise of playing together in this film. These beautiful encounters, in which we as colleagues were often surprised by the script, meant that we hardly asked for new casts. This means that we are and will be together in the transition to a new chapter. The request to the secret director and screenwriter is to allow even less length in the future, to avoid arbitrariness and to concentrate on the things that are really close to our hearts. And that includes you. It is important that we are less restricted by the expectations of our role, views and interests, but that we freely bring all facets (the presentable) of ourselves into play. Maybe we surprise ourselves with skills and interesting idiosyncrasies that we didn't notice before. However, if it causes horror, you may be comforted that you have previously experienced many carefree years together.

I am happy to have been with you and have a good chance of sharing even more time with you.