Deutsch

My Path and My Plans

What I hope for from the future, from stem cells to artificial intelligence to humanoid robots.

Updated: October 2026

From the start, my strategy was to gain time, in the hope that there will soon be therapies that do not just ease Parkinson's but stop it. What follows are my personal expectations. They are not certainties, but they give me hope. I describe the current state of research under Research 2026.

My hope for Parkinson's

I hope that in about five years there will be methods that can stop Parkinson's, and that Parkinson's will become curable in ten to fifteen years. This is not a scientific prediction, and many researchers are much more cautious. But this hope gives me the strength to stay as fit as possible every day.

The fastest route would be if a drug that has existed for a long time turned out to work against Parkinson's, as might be the case with Tanganil, fexofenadine, doxycycline, lithium or ambroxol. A known drug has already been tested in humans and is already in the pharmacy. But it does not work entirely without studies: in 2025 the diabetes drug exenatide failed in the large study after promising small studies.

And sometimes I allow myself a big dream: maybe one day I will be one of the first people who never had to take L-dopa permanently after their diagnosis and who are cured in the end.

Stem cells

I expect two developments. Treatment with stem cells from your own body will keep improving. And lab-grown dopamine nerve cells, which are transplanted directly into the brain and have been approved in Japan since 2026, will become established. I expect about 1,000 patients to be treated this way by 2030. Only once there is enough experience, and only if my condition gets much worse, would I consider such a treatment for myself.

I also find the research of Prof. Dr. Hartmut Geiger from Ulm University exciting. He is working on rejuvenating aging stem cells.

Artificial intelligence and quantum computers

I am convinced that artificial intelligence will revolutionize the natural sciences in the coming years. It already predicts the shape of proteins today, and that won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024. I expect AI to design new drugs in a fraction of the time it used to take. Quantum computers will speed this up further from about 2028. My third book and this website were also created with the help of AI.

Chips in the brain and robots in everyday life

Neuralink, Elon Musk's company, implants tiny chips in people's brains that let them control a computer with their thoughts. In early 2026, about 20 people had such an implant, mainly patients with paralysis. I expect that interfaces like this will one day help with Parkinson's too.

Around 2030 I expect affordable humanoid robots for the home. In January 2026 in Davos, Musk announced that Tesla would probably sell its Optimus robot to private customers by the end of 2027, and he specifically mentioned caring for older people. For people with physical limitations, a robot that helps them get dressed, goes shopping, cooks and calls for help in an emergency would be a huge gain in independence.

Longevity

Much of what I do for my Parkinson's I also do for a long, healthy life. The futurist Sven Gábor Jánszky says, in essence: whoever gets through the next ten years in good health will probably live to 100. No one can say whether that will come true. But the message is important: it is worth getting through the next years as healthy as possible. Every year brings us closer to therapies we can only dream of today. More on this under Longevity and Beauty.

Book recommendations