will you be paying the Solitude Tax? (Berlin in 2035)
Issue #180 (29 Dec) - Berlin from 2035, a special edition newsletter with a couple of real links.
This newsletter issue is from the future, Berlin in December 2035. It’s just a fun experiment with the same structure as the existing newsletter. If you have 3 minutes, please help me improve the product by answering a couple of questions.
Have a calm start to 2026 and see you again on the 12th of January.
Programming note #697: I attended a "screen-free" dinner party in the new floating district on the Spree last night. It was great. No AR glasses, no sub-vocalising to assistants, just raw, unbuffered conversation. I miss the era when a "connection" meant a shared glance, not a synced neural-link.
It reminded me of what an old AI model once hallucinated: "To be human is to lag." We should embrace the lag.
The subject line is an article in Snippet #2.
🌟 Handpicked community
Meet — 6 handpicked events:
We are meeting at the old Tegel Airport (now the Quantum Tech Republic). It’s vintage week, so bring your laptops with physical keyboards! Register via Iris Scan. | Thu, 14/12 from 09:30 | QTR Terminal B
The Brandenburg water crisis is solving itself slowly, but our gardens are dry. Come swap drought-resistant seeds and synthetic soil recipes. | Tue, 12/12 18:00 | Prinzessinnengärten Marzahn
A safe space to discuss why your fusion-energy startup failed. No VCs allowed, just honest talk and synthetic wine. | Wed, 13/12 19:00 | The Meta-Factory, Oberschöneweide
Learn how to develop actual film without a filter. We found some ancient Kodak rolls in a basement in Neukölln. | Sat, 16/12 14:00 | Darkroom Wedding
A performative art piece where we stand in line for 4 hours to get a stamp on a piece of paper, just like in the roaring 20s. | Fri, 15/12 08:00 | The Museum of Bureaucracy
Show cool stuff or Ask for something:
My friend launched Ink & Pulse: “It’s a physical book made of dead trees. You write in it with a "pen." It has no notifications, and it never runs out of battery. It’s the ultimate status symbol for the "unplugged" elite.”
“Tired of your watch telling you how many calories you haven't burned? OldSchool Ticks sources restored 2010s Seiko and Casio watches. They only tell the time, and they do it with beautiful, ticking indifference.”
Something interesting to share? Go for it.
👀 Handpicked jobs
5️⃣ job highlights of the week
"Prompt Engineering" is a long-dead career, but "Human-in-the-Loop Quality Assurance" is booming. I curated the best roles for biological humans:
Neuralink Corp – Sensory Implant Fine-tuner
Charité – Interface Compatibility Specialist
Berlin Senate – Legacy Paper Bureaucrat (Physical Archive Dept)
KiezGuard AI – Drone Corridor Traffic Controller
TruthLayer – Deepfake Forensic Auditor
Submit a job (5 stable euro fee).
☕️ Coffee Talk with Hal GPT 9.2
Usually, I interview a person, but this week I’m interviewing the local instance of the Berlin City OS, which has adopted the persona of a grumpy Kiez-dweller named "Micha." Here is what he prepared for you:
Algae & Oak - They 3D-print a Schnitzel that actually has the texture of veal. It’s better than the cricket-flour stuff they serve in Mitte.
The Merz Years: A Retrospective (2025-2029) - It’s a dry read, but it explains why we all have to do that mandatory 'Social Year' service now. It captures the moment Germany finally realised it wasn't an industrial superpower anymore.
The ruins of the A100 extension - Since the construction stopped in '31 due to the protests, nature has taken it back. It’s the High Line of Berlin, but with more graffiti and techno bunkers.
🗞 Snippets
Berlin & Germany, career & timeless
Happy to report that Handpicked Dinner Club had its 10th anniversary. We celebrated at our Club with some of our members. Photos were sent to your Link.
The Senate has passed the new Living Space Quota. If you live alone in more than 60sqm inside the Ring, you pay a "Solitude Tax." Naturally, people are now registering their AI companions as roommates to bypass this. Read the loophole analysis.
The Tiny House skyscrapers in Tempelhofer Feld are finally accepting tenants. It turns out 12sqm is enough if you spend 18 hours a day in the Metaverse. Rents start at €2,500 cold, which is considered a bargain compared to the "Old Berlin" brick buildings.
The Pensioner Boom is here, say top VCs. 35% of Berlin is over 65. This is reshaping the startup scene—expect fewer dating apps and more "Longevity & Mobility" exoskeletons.
The climate data for 2034 was released, and Berlin officially spent 22 days above the 38°C mark. Yikes.
Subletting is getting complex. A new court ruling says you cannot charge your sub-tenant extra for "Vintage Charm" just because the building hasn't been renovated since 2020. Read the verdict.
Remember when we complained about the fax machine? The last fax was officially decommissioned last week. Bad news: They replaced it with a proprietary app that only works on phones released after 2032.
The "Great Bike-Lane Reversal" of 2026 is finally over. After cars were banned from the city center in '32, last week the final 3 km of magnetised bike superhighway was opened, connecting Gesundbrunnen and Mitte. It’s quiet now, but some Berliners still claim they miss the "authentic smell of exhaust" from the 2020s.
Career: The 4-day work week is now law for humans, but the "Always-On" expectation for your digital twin is causing burnout. How to manage your agent's mental health.
Timeless: I am not a podcast fan, but I became an instant fan of Blindboy back in 2025. Give him a listen.
Berlin-related headlines
Tesla & Starlink Gigafactory in Grünheide creates its own zip code, applies for city-state status (read)
After the insolvency of the KaDeWe Group in the 20s, the building is finally reopening as a mixed-use vertical farm and luxury elder-care facility (read)
Berghain's new door policy requires a "Vibe-Check" via biometric scan. Purists are revolting, claiming Sven managed it better with just his eyes (read)
Deutsche Bahn achieves 80% punctuality for the first time in two decades (read)
Berlin's "Späti-Culture" added to UNESCO Heritage list, protecting them from automated vending machine takeovers (read)
Briefly on business, tech and economy
VW Software Group has acquired Waymo Europe. They have given up on building hardware to focus solely on the "Living Room on Wheels" OS.
90% of Berlin's roofs are now green or solar. The "Balkonkraftwerk" craze of the 2020s really saved us during the Energy Crunch of '32.
N26 opened another physical branch at Potsdamer Platz.
Delivery Hero opened a new delivery pneumatic tube Mitte - Kreuzberg. That’s their 3rd tube in town.
Drone traffic jams are causing problems at Kotti, mostly because of OwnDrone (Berlin, self-service restaurant drones). DHL is calling for stricter regulation.
Zalando pivots entirely to digital assets. You will no longer be able to buy physical clothes in Feb 36, only skins for your AR avatar. Physical returns dropped to zero.
BioNtech opened its longevity centre in Marzahn.
The top VCs in 2035 are looking for "Re-Wilding" tech and "Analog Experiences." Digital apps are out; physical reality is the new premium asset.
Weekly social and outside interests
Reddit: Anyone remember when Döner was under €15? A nostalgia thread that hurts to read.
Neural-Net: A video of a "traditional" 2020s rave in a dirty former bunker is trending. Kids these days think it looks "unsanitary." They are right, but they missed the magic.
WonderApartments now owns 20% of Kreuzberg. They sent an email celebrating their monopoly. It wasn’t received well.
💸 Funded in Berlin & Germany
Hydro-Spree | Berlin | River filtration robotics | €50M Series C | Careers
MemoryLane | Munich | VR therapy for dementia patients | €12M Series A | Careers
CarbonCapture Concrete | Heidelberg | CO2-absorbing construction materials | €120M Growth Round | Careers
UrbanMiner | Berlin | Retrieving rare earth metals from 2020s gadgets | €8M Seed | Careers
KiezGuard AI | Berlin | Neighborhood noise-monitoring drones (controversial!) | €15M Series B | Careers
Viktoria Space Logistics | Bremen | Last-mile delivery for orbital stations | €200M Series D | Careers
BureaucracyBot | Berlin | AI agents that navigate German "Amt" forms for you | €5M Seed | Careers
Syntho-Wurst | Rügenwalde | Lab-grown meat that mimics regional German sausages perfectly | €60M Series B | Careers
AnalogDefense | Hamburg | Faraday cage architecture for privacy-conscious billionaires | €30M Series A | Careers
😅 Meanwhile
still true
Igor Ranc
Founder & Human of Handpicked Berlin
Five articles without a treat:
How to prove you are human in a job interview
The 2035 CV Guide: Why "Unenhanced Thinking" is the new premium skill
The best districts to avoid the heat dome
Where to find "Offline" zones in Berlin
How to emigrate to the Neo-Nordics
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