2026: Science loses its magic, enters grim feudal reality

Gray masses vs. immortality Gods: AI, space wars, and biotech divide predicted by Siarhei Besarab

The emergence of a “gray mass” living short lives and “gods” gaining access to life-extension technologies, the end of the romantic phase of artificial intelligence development, the transformation of space from a realm of discovery into a field of industrial and military rivalry, the subordination of science to geopolitical logic, and the further integration of the Belarusian academic environment into Russian industrial and military supply chains as a technological back-office — these are the forecasts for 2026 that scientist and futurologist **Siarhei Besarab** outlined to Belsat.

[embed]"Багатым - біялогія паводле падпіскі, бедным - чат-бот-нутрыцыёлаг". Прагнозы на 2026 год ад… З'яўленне "шэрай масы", якая жыве кароткае жыццё, і "багоў", якія атрымалі доступ да тэхналогій падаўжэння жыцця…belsat.eu

Science without the WOW-effect

Siarhei Besarab believes that 2026 will not be a time of flashy technological sensations, and that is precisely its key feature. According to him, science and technology are entering a phase where the novelty effect fades, and their applied, infrastructural, and political roles take center stage.

“2025 passed relatively calmly, without being rich in bright technological breakthroughs, but it still highlighted certain trends. In this sense, 2026 should not deviate from the overall pattern, and the tendencies of 2025 will become more obvious. In the coming year, science will resemble less a march of progress and more an attempt to hold together a crumbling world. Many fields will lose their ‘wow effect’ of the future and become boring but rigid infrastructure for power and markets,” Besarab says.

He emphasizes that the very logic of research funding is changing.

“At the fundamental level, we will see an upward trend toward the instrumentalization of science, where facilities, supercomputers, and language models become more important than individual human personalities, even genius ones. Budgets are increasingly spent less on seeking answers to questions like ‘How is the world structured and why is it that way?’ Money goes to tasks like ‘How to turn new knowledge into a product or weapon as quickly as possible?’ Science is increasingly working as a service for markets and security structures. In this sense, the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40k stops being a scary fairy tale and gradually begins to sprout in our world,” the expert notes.

Digital Feudalism

Speaking about neural networks and AI, Besarab believes that the initial stage of the technology’s development has ended, and ahead lies a period of gray but potentially dangerous maturation: “The candy-and-flowers period for AI is over; the technology is becoming a gray, habitual tool. The focus of attention shifts from generative AI, chatbots, and ‘kitties’ to agentic AI, so-called automata that aggregate all your data and work with it. Neural networks will book tickets, transfer money, and manage supply chains. We will see software that writes software, and managers controlled by algorithms. The internet in 2026 is a strange place where bots talk to bots, generating traffic for advertiser reports.”

Time Magazine 2025 cover featuring pioneers of AI

According to him, a new social structure is taking shape against this background.

Digital feudalism is clearly emerging, where the elite controls the ‘hardware’ and models, and the rest are digital serfs paying rent for access to basic intelligence. Parallel to this, a grim line is developing: the autonomization of cyberattacks, the fusion of AI with physical infrastructure and military systems. The first serious conflicts over regulating frontier models arise between the US, EU, and major companies, the expert notes.

Besarab draws attention to another alarming trend that, in his assessment, begins to manifest clearly by the end of 2025. He formulates it bluntly: “They’re not promising us AGI, but they might well slip us AdGI.” According to the expert, this refers to a shift in the focus of artificial intelligence development from universal intelligence (AGI — Artificial General Intelligence, capable of solving a wide range of tasks) to systems oriented primarily toward commercial efficiency and sales (AdGI — Advertising General Intelligence, ‘advertising general intelligence’ designed for personalized persuasion and promotion of goods and services).

He explains that such models will analyze user behavior and communication, form detailed psychological profiles, and use them not for surveillance or control, but for targeted influence on consumer decisions. In this scenario, advertising ceases to be a separate element and is seamlessly embedded in advice, recommendations, and neural network responses, creating the illusion of independent choice. In Besarab’s assessment, the minimal ‘focus group’ becomes one person, and the cost of such influence approaches zero.

The expert emphasizes that the result of this approach is the formation of individual reality bubbles in which brands and products mimic the expectations of a specific user. He believes that such a model may be more dangerous than classic forms of surveillance, since it involves not just recording behavior, but its gradual and almost imperceptible programming, where a person does not realize that their decisions are becoming the result of algorithmic optimization.

Medicine shifts from ‘treating the sick’ to ‘upgrading the affluent’

In biotechnologies and medicine, in Besarab’s view, humanity is moving not toward universal progress, but toward radical social stratification.

“I don’t think there will be any significant breakthroughs for all of humanity, like ‘we beat cancer.’ Everything points to personalized gerontology — for the select few who can afford it — becoming the upward trend in 2026. Technologies for epigenetic reversal and cell rejuvenation are actively developing, moving from labs to preclinical, and sometimes clinical, trials. Due to the cost of these procedures, we will begin to see the first signs of irreversible biological stratification of humanity. A gray mass living short lives will emerge, alongside ‘gods’ — those who gain access to life-extension technologies,” the expert says.

Organ transplant operation at the Ohio State University Medical Center in the USA

He believes that science will increasingly venture into ethically unregulated zones.

Science will drift more strongly into gray areas, into geolocations where ethics committees are more compliant or absent altogether. We may start seeing biotourism, where the wealthy fly to Asia or Latin America to optimize their genome or predictively ‘fix organs.’ Medicine is shifting from the paradigm of ‘treating the sick’ to ‘upgrading the affluent.’ For the rich — biology by subscription; for the poor — a chatbot nutritionist, Besarab notes.

Space without romance: orbit as a field of competition and war

Speaking about space, Besarab notes the end of the era of scientific romanticism and a shift to industrial-military logic: “We are seeing stagnation in global scientific space and a transition to industrial space. This is no longer about new discoveries of the Universe, but rivalry for orbital space. Fundamental science in space becomes a hostage to military budgets. If you can’t attach a hypersonic missile-tracking function to a telescope, you won’t get funding. Orbit is turning into a contested territory, like the South China Sea.”

Low Earth Orbit visualization where you can see artificial satellites that fill the earth’s sky has appeared

He emphasizes that satellites are becoming critical infrastructure.

“It’s already clear that satellite constellations for communications, navigation, and observation are assets on the level of gas hubs and data centers. Their vulnerability becomes the subject of a separate arms race. Space is no longer about flags and romance — it’s about surveillance, targeting, and controlling autonomous systems,” Besarab notes.

Energy and climate: stalled ‘green transition’ and ‘nuclear Renaissance’

In energy and climate, according to him, simple solutions should not be expected either.

“Both in 2025 and 2026, it’s obvious that the ‘green’ transition is stalling. This is especially visible against the backdrop of rising populism. Voices calling for geoengineering projects are growing louder. I assume that in 2026 we will see growth in local commercial geoengineering and an avalanche of startups in this field,” the expert says.

Interior view of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator (W7-X), the world’s most advanced nuclear fusion device at Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Germany

He also expects increased interest in nuclear energy: “I spoke about the nuclear renaissance and small modular reactors, and I’m carrying this trend into 2026. AI data centers have hit an energy ceiling; without additional capacity, they won’t survive. In fusion energy, no breakthroughs are expected — horizons remain around 2030.”

Fundamental science on military rails

According to Besarab, fundamental science will increasingly be subject to the logic of global instability.

Geopolitics dictates the scientific agenda. Preferential funding goes to projects that either ‘shoot’ or ‘protect from shots.’ The emphasis shifts to dual-use technologies, the scientist believes.

The expert notes that in the coming years, fields related to materials science will be key, including the development of functional materials, armor ceramics, and battery chemistry.

Ukrainian serviceman operating an FPV drone

“Fundamental science is becoming utilitarian and gradually shifting to military rails, even if it’s not always noticeable to society,” Besarab says.

Belarusian science: from technology reproduction to scientific Exodus

Speaking about Belarus, Besarab fundamentally rejects habitual formulations.

We can’t talk about ‘Belarusian science’; we need to talk about ‘Lukashism science.’ What the world calls science has long mutated in Belarus into theatrical performances for one spectator. It’s intellectual subsistence farming, busy trying to recreate technologies whose access is blocked by sanctions. Not moving forward, but holding up threadbare pants, Besarab says.

He describes the country’s role as service-oriented.

“The academic community and tech sector will integrate even more strongly into Russian industrial and military supply chains. Belarus’s role is a technological back-office: fix, tweak, do simple reverse engineering. The fundamental component is aging and collapsing; the number of publications in predatory journals is growing, reports are becoming more colorful and picturesque,” the expert notes.

Vladimir Gusakov, head of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, shows new skis to Alexander Lukashenko

At the same time, Besarab sees a rare positive trend.

“The scientific community inside the country is in a state of exhaustion — what in biology is called ‘displaced activity.’ But that part of the community with mobility will leave. Against this background, a scientific layer is forming in diasporas. The number of Belarusian scientists abroad is steadily growing. Given this outflow of intellectual potential, 2026 could be key for laying the foundations of a virtual scientific Belarus,” he says.

According to him, it is precisely this environment that can preserve Belarusian science as such.