#rp26 speaker Gabriel Yoran

The coffee machine needs an app, the TV needs a user account, the washing machine needs an update. What used to be the push of a button is now a menu item – or a subscription. “We are surrounded by junk” concludes Gabriel Yoran in an interview with ZEIT. 

What was once taken for granted is now sold as innovation. Basic product functions are disappearing, requiring payment or being artificially complicated. For consumers, all this means a loss of autonomy, as providers can change, increase the cost of or disable functions at any time. The constant promise of “technological progress” is thus turning into its opposite. 

Gabriel Yoran describes this process as the “cluttering of the world". In his book, he shows that today, many products show lower quality and are more complicated than their predecessors, yet are still marketed as progress. Why do we constantly pay for everyday items without ever gaining sovereignty over them? And what can we do politically, legally, and individually against this world of clutter? Gabriel Yoran will discuss this on stage at re:publica 2026.

The entrepreneur and author founded his first company at the age of eighteen. He then studied social and business communication at the Berlin University of the Arts and earned his doctorate in speculative realism under Graham Harman at the European Graduate School. Gabriel Yoran is the co-founder of Steganos, aka-aki, and Steady, as well as the author of various non-fiction books.