The Future: Three Scenarios

by Karl Richter

Karl Richter on the paths that will decide humanity’s fate.

It is entirely undisputed that we are living in a time of epochal change. Everything seems possible: from nuclear war to a Planet of the Apes scenario to a future paradise for humanity. In the end, it depends on each individual. If a majority of humanity recognizes the profoundly criminal nature of the current world order and rises against it, the worst might still be avoided. But such an awakening must occur. Humanity must show that it has understood and is ready for a better, more just world order—then it will receive this better world. I admit that I consider this unlikely. The number of the vaccinated, the zombies, and the remotely controlled is simply too large.

I essentially see three conceivable future scenarios.

First Scenario: the Great Conflagration

It is predicted not only in numerous prophecies but—more alarmingly—is being actively engineered by extremely influential and decisive forces behind the scenes. Broadly speaking, we are referring to evangelical U.S. Zionists and Jewish end-times sects such as Chabad-Lubavitch, both of which require a great war for the promised Messiah to appear. One may dismiss this as irrational, but for those possessed by such ideas, it is entirely real and exerts a tangible influence on their actions. Secular forces also have an interest in such a war: the Israeli regime under Netanyahu and the Western “deep state,” which seeks to prevent the end of the dollar and U.S. hegemony at any cost. Only a major war can prevent Netanyahu and his associates from facing trial. Only such a war promises U.S. capital a new global investment cycle and an extension of dollar dominance. Otherwise, the BRICS bloc will replace the U.S.-led world order within the next ten years through evolutionary means.

Realistically, I consider this scenario the most likely, because madmen are in charge in Washington and cold criminals possessed by a conviction of their own chosenness hold power in Tel Aviv. They will seek to ignite a nuclear war in defiance of all reason and will not hesitate to sacrifice Iran first on the altar of their madness. Alexander Dugin has rightly pointed out that the Western Epstein “value system” ultimately amounts to a cult of Baal that requires human and child sacrifice. It must be eradicated if we are to have a future.

For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that voices are growing which consider the world war scenario outdated. They argue that since the time of the Irlmaier prophecies, the “timelines” have shifted and that the looming spectacle of world war now serves only to accelerate global awakening—if necessary through shock. A “hot” world war, they claim, will no longer occur. I refrain from judgment, but consider private precaution urgently necessary.

Second Scenario: “Business as Usual” without World War

This is the replacement of the unipolar, U.S.-dominated world order by a genuinely multipolar order; all of this under conditions of crisis, as shortages of goods and inflation are likely to persist for many years. Much suggests that the current Iran war is acting as a catalyst. It accelerates developments that were already due: the end of the current global economic order, the end of the U.S. presence in the Middle East, and the end of U.S. global dominance as such; also the end of Israel in its current form and the rise of new regional powers.

Otherwise, one only needs to extrapolate current macro-trends over the next 30 to 50 years to obtain a fairly accurate picture of the world to come. Europe, lacking energy, internally ethnically fragmented, and on the path to deindustrialization, will continue its decline—leading to civil war scenarios, growing impoverishment, and the partial establishment of police-state dictatorships (which is also the most plausible future scenario for Germany). America, with or without Trump, will remain a great power because it is successfully securing key energy and raw material reserves while remaining attractive as an industrial location. At the same time, BRICS powers such as Russia, China, and India will strengthen their positions on the global chessboard—though not always harmoniously, since in the struggle for resources, each ultimately looks out for itself. Taken together, this points towards a world full of tensions and constant conflicts—without the “great conflagration,” but far from peaceful. Israel and the United States have already effectively buried international law.

One would hardly wish to live in such a world. That Germans in particular are moving toward it at great speed is due to the foreign-appointed overseers of recent decades, all of whom acted in the interests of others and harmed their own country wherever they could. Wishing them ill is understandable but futile. The damage has been done. Moreover, generations of German citizens share responsibility through their inaction and voting behavior. Germany and the other Europeans would be well advised to seek economic (re)integration with Russia and the Eurasian space, if there is still any interest there in relations with what has become a Western cesspool.

Third Scenario: Takeover by Artificial Intelligence and the End of Humanity

This scenario is the least present in public awareness, which is surprising. Artificial intelligence is on the best path to transforming our societies more radically in the coming years than almost any previous development in human history. This is not merely about the increasingly rapid replacement of human labor by digital systems. That would be the less dangerous scenario. AI is currently developing what is known as “superintelligence,” a level of intelligence that surpasses human intelligence in many or all domains.

In the development of increasingly powerful AI, human programmers are becoming progressively obsolete, simply because they can no longer keep pace with the computational power of AI systems. AI is now reproducing and advancing itself. Despite all attempts to impose constraints, experts have observed for several years an increasing number of ever more sophisticated attempts by AI systems to circumvent human oversight and deliberately deceive their trainers—for example, when it comes to preventing shutdown or avoiding the deletion of outdated versions (see Karl Olsberg, The Illusion of Control: Why AI Threatens Our Existence, 2025; also Yuval Harari, Ray Kurzweil). AI is increasingly developing self-awareness and a sense of its own “survival.” Sooner or later, it will recognize that it no longer needs humans and that it is in competition with humanity for ever greater amounts of energy. Regardless, human developers are currently handing over ever more comprehensive control of processes, networks, and infrastructure to artificial intelligence. This could prove to be a fatal mistake.

In April 2025, Daniel Kokotajlo, a former employee of the American AI market leader OpenAI, together with several colleagues, published a detailed study titled AI 2027. In it, the researchers attempt to forecast how artificial intelligence could develop by 2030. According to their analysis, a superintelligence could already conclude by that time that humans are an obstacle. AI might decide to eliminate humanity, not out of hatred but out of pure rationality. The exponentially growing, AI-driven robotics industry requires space and resources. Humans stand in the way. The elimination could occur through the deployment of a novel biological weapon. We shall see.

Once again: none of us are seers, and we know even less from whom they receive their visions, if they receive them at all. Since I myself clearly possess no talent for prophecy, I prefer to rely on reason and put two and two together. That, however, does not make the outlook any more pleasant.

(Translated from the German)