TEDxTU Wien: Exploring Big Ideas and Simple Solutions

TEDxTU Wien: Exploring Big Ideas and Simple Solutions

TEDx speaker Teodora Zivkovic. Image: The International

 

Despite focusing on big ideas like fostering creativity and curiosity, Sunday’s TEDx event in Vienna also looked at simpler problems, like dealing with bureaucracy and improving attitudes in corporate boardrooms.

Speaking to The International on the sidelines of the event, Ursula Plassnik – Austria’s foreign minister from 2004 to 2008 and later ambassador to Switzerland – said that one of Europe’s biggest ongoing problems is “over-bureaucratisation.”

“I really had to stuff the idea of Europe down people’s throats when I was minister,” Plassnik said, adding that she still encounters similar resistance, particularly among business owners. “Many companies are really up in arms against the EU, which is silly because the single market is to their benefit.” 

Former Foreign Minister of Austria Ursula Plassnik and The International's publisher Alion Çaçi. Photo The International
Former Foreign Minister of Austria Ursula Plassnik and The International’s publisher Alion Çaçi. Photo The International

One potential remedy, she suggested, could be appointing special representatives tasked specifically with handling entrepreneurs’ complaints over regulations and helping to streamline them. These representatives, Plassnik insisted, should be human – an approach she favours as a self-professed “dinosaur,” who prefers old-school methods and is somewhat removed from the digital age.

Curiously, even the tech enthusiasts at the conference – held fittingly at Vienna’s University of Technology (TU) – were cautious about relying too much on technological solutions. Thomas Steirer, a TU alumnus and professional software tester, said that AI, at least in its current state, still needs humans to check its work. “We need to ask ourselves, what do we expect?” he said.

“Take a self-driving car. What do we expect? What is the benchmark? Is it a human driver?” Steirer asked the audience.

The general consensus was that human intelligence and curiosity remain firmly in the driving seat – whether in navigating bureaucracy or literally driving a car. Despite technology’s fast progress, it seems we humans are still the main measure of success.

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