A ticket includes admission to both the lecture and the Next Nature Museum. Visitors will also receive a wristband that grants access to participating museums across Eindhoven throughout the entire weekend.

After the lecture, there will be an opportunity to enjoy food and drinks and explore the museum. Afterward, visitors can head over to attend the festive DE OPENING at Stadhuisplein.

Friday Next is organized by Next Nature in collaboration with Brabant C x ASML.

From artificial intelligence and healthcare to energy, mobility, housing, and work: technology is becoming increasingly self-evident, functioning as a new nature. Using surprising examples, Van Mensvoort illustrates how innovations gradually become part of what we consider normal. In doing so, he looks specifically at the future of Eindhoven. What if the city is not merely a regional outpost, but the centerpiece of a new urban network bridging Amsterdam, Brussels, and Düsseldorf—Amsterbrusseldorf? And could technologies often viewed as problems actually form part of the solution? He explores the provocative question of whether Bitcoin, despite its high energy consumption, could play a role in the energy transition.

Artificial intelligence is also approached from a fresh perspective. While AI in Silicon Valley is frequently framed as a future superintelligence that will surpass or replace human beings, Van Mensvoort foresees something different emerging from the Brainport region: a superorganism in which humans, machines, companies, cities, and infrastructures become ever more deeply interconnected. The central question is not when AI will replace us, but how we will coexist with an intelligent system of which we are an integral part.

With humor, philosophy, and imaginative insight, Van Mensvoort demonstrates that the future is not simply something that happens to us. It arises from today’s designs, habits, and choices. Audience members won't leave with a list of predictions, but with a transformed perspective on today's world.

Koert van Mensvoort is a philosopher, artist, and director of Next Nature. As Fellow Next Nature at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), he researches how the human-designed world increasingly takes on characteristics of a new nature. Through books, exhibitions, and lectures, he inspires global audiences to rethink the relationship between humanity, nature, and technology.