Ministry for the Future

On January 20, 2025, just hours after Donald Trump’s inauguration, he officially withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, the same international treaty that, in the fictional reality of the novel, leads to the foundation of a UN Agency on the very same year. Reality did not just catch up with science fiction, it has colonialized it. The future we once knew has disappeared. Or has it? With the last episode we return to the present, to a moment right before the potential foundation of a Ministry for the Future. This present is not what the book envisioned. But one doesn’t need a time traveler to know: The second best time to act is now. At the Collegium Helveticum, we bring together the experiences of the three previous episodes, activists, policy makers, entrepreneurs—and you. We will look back, ahead, and into the distance: What does it mean to take Robinson’s vision seriously? Is an international institution even the right tool for the task? How can we take up the spade and break the ground for a Ministry for the Future?


When April 25, 2025, 7 p.m. 
Where Collegium Helveticum / Semper Observatory 
Duration Approx. 2h
Language English

With Janet Hering (Professor Emeritus ETH and EPFL and former Director of EAWAG), Grace Ballor (Assistant Professor of International Economic History at Bocconi University and Senior Fellow at the Collegium Helveticum), Jürg Füssler (Managing partner of the climate consulting company INFRAS), Laurène Descamps (climate action advocate and co-leader of the One Planet Lab Switzerland), Sascha Ö. Soydan and Ensemble

Concept Yael Borofsky, Georgia Drew, Charlotte Müller, Eneas N. Prawdzic, Julia Reichert, Sascha Ö. Soydan, Linus Truninger and Mario Wimmer 
Production Design Birke Beyer, Bettina Bessenyei, Juhee Han, Emily Hugger, Luca Ihns, Josephine Leicht, Ewa Wasilewska, Verena Zenker, and students of the HfG Karlsruhe (lead by Prof. Constanze Fischbeck) 
Dramaturgy Julia Reichert and Eneas N. Prawdzic (Proberaum Zukunft) 
Production Assistance Linus Truninger

A Cooperation between Collegium Helveticum, Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, proberaum zukunft and Theater Neumarkt Zürich