Almost no sickness at all

Geneva in 2061

In 2061, sickness has become rare in Geneva. Most people live long lives with hardly any illness, and the few who fall ill recover quickly, because the causes of disease are understood and addressed early: in the way people eat, move, work, love and live. Doctors spend most of their time keeping people well, and research supported by AI has turned many of today’s incurable diseases into preventable ones.

“But where do they treat sick people?” “Well, there is a very simple principle that explains most of the differences between what you see here and the Geneva you know of. You might have heard of it: it’s called supply and demand.”Grooters, Book 1, Part 16 "2061"

Geneva today

• Chronic diseases cause about 80% of 'health' costs in Switzerland, and around half of them could be avoided with more exercise, less alcohol and no smoking, according to the director of the Federal Office of Public Health (2025).

Where it is already done

• A Harvard study in the United States followed more than 111,000 people for over 20 years. Those with four or five healthy habits (no smoking, a healthy diet, a healthy weight, at least 30 minutes of exercise a day and moderate alcohol) lived about 10 more years (women) and 7.6 more years (men) free of cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Women of 50 with these habits could expect another 34 years without any of these diseases.
• The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry rewarded AlphaFold, an AI model that solved a 50-year-old problem by predicting the 3D structure of almost all 200 million proteins known to science, a key step in understanding diseases and designing new medicines. It shows how AI is already speeding up medical research.

How far along

Research frontier Nobody knows yet how to do it. With 35 years ahead and the help of AI, this is where research is needed most.

The path to 2061

Milestones proposed for discussion.

1. 2027Geneva launches a research programme on disease-free life, bringing together the university, the hospitals and AI researchers, with healthy life expectancy as its main measure.
2. 2031Every resident can have a free personal health review focused on underlying causes: habits, relationships, work and environment.
3. 2041AI-assisted research has turned several major chronic diseases into preventable ones; years lived in good health rise faster than life expectancy itself.
4. 2051Most residents live free of major chronic disease into their eighties.
5. 2061Sickness has become the exception, and Geneva no longer needs a hospital in its old form.

What moves it

Human needs it serves

Open questions

• Once healthy habits are widespread, what causes the diseases that remain, and how much can genetics, environment and mindset explain?
• How can AI speed up medical research while keeping people’s health data private?
• How should a health system be financed when its goal is to make itself less and less needed?

Sources

1. Federal Statistical Office: Health system costs rose by 4.1% in 2024, press release (24 April 2026, in French)
2. Federal Office of Public Health: interview with director Anne Lévy on prevention (June 2025, in French)
3. World Economic Forum: You can live up to 10 years longer by doing these 5 things, on the Harvard study published in the BMJ (February 2020)
4. Science News: Work on protein structure and design wins the 2024 chemistry Nobel (October 2024)

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