Earlier this month I attended to a conference, again. It's sort of a hobby of mine. I went to Brussels, the heart of the European Union for 5 days.

I was in the working group that was titled "The future of Europe" I was in a little group that has the assignment to think about what Europe should look like in 50 years. Which in my opinion is insane. I can't even start to imagine what the Europe will be like in 25 years, and I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert on future affairs.

Confusing people is not a good way to make your point, so instead of evangelizing transhumanist ideas I just kept my bullshit-detector on stand by.

This wasn't really needed though. I was pleasantly surprised that during the entire conference nobody came up with any really stupid ideas, everybody just seemed to completely ignore technological advancement and their effect on society. I think it's best for now not to worry about issues that might be in 50 years.

After some days of discussions very little progress was made. We were going around in circles and nobody could agree on anything. I was starting to lose hope.

Then, during the final days some breakthroughs were made. Finally we could agree upon a few things, even though they were very broad and very vague. Less bureaucracy, free education, equal opportunities for everybody and more democracy, aren't very original, but at least we can agree on it.

Luckily nobody even mentioned employment of young people and aging of society as future problems. These are serious problems today and in the near future. I don't think these will be problems in 50 years.

Just like everybody else don't know what society will be like in 50 years, but I do believe these problems can, and will be solved by that time.

Some important people gave speeches throughout the week. I remembered the two most important messages: "small steps" and "determination", with these you can accomplish anything. I think that was good advice.

One of the people on the conference was a guy from Germany. He was into sustainable energy and wanted to fill Europe with wind mills. I asked him about nuclear fusion. He was against it. Why? He didn't believe it would ever work. He came up with some outdated arguments that were based upon the difficulties with experimental reactors. He continued to repeat that nuclear fusion would provide too much power, causing the power grid to over load. He seemed obsessed with wind mills, completely ignoring all the difficulties involved with wind energy yet focussing on the problems of other energy sources. I found it to be quite a pity that such a young intelligent man was so obsessed with a single idea that he lost touch with reality. But at least wind mills are pretty harmless. It could have been far worse if it had been some kind of political ideology or religion.

Most of the other people there were more open minded and had a positive outlook on the future.

After 5 days with very little sleep it was time to say goodbye. I believe that during my life I will meet many of them again. Maybe next week, maybe next year, maybe in another decade, or in another century. It's already beginning. At each conference that I visited this year there is at least one person that I have met before.