The 2011 edition on the Future of Science International Conferences entitled 'Mind: the essence of humanity' took place in Venice from the 18-20 September.

The future of science is a cycle of annual international conferences jointly organised by the Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, the Fondazione Silvio Tronchetti Provera, and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. The aim of the Conferences is to examine the importance of scientific development as a means of improving the quality of our lives, and to delineate a new role for science in the society of the third millennium.

The idea of these conferences springs from an awareness that the problems and dilemmas generated by unrelenting scientific and technological progress are not being adequately discussed in society as a whole. As science exerts an ever more pervasive influence on our lives, society seems ill-informed about the short and long term implications of scientific advance, and in particular is unaware of the social, economic and cultural consequences of the continuous technological revolution.

This year experts of international renown from various spheres and disciplines will gather together to present and discuss new findings from one of the most and exciting and rapidly-progressing areas of research: the human mind. The mind, which has remained an enigma since Plato is now beginning to yield its secrets to the scientific community thanks to the fact that in the last 20 years it has been studied more than ever before.

The opening session focused on our newly emerging understanding of the role of the emotions in human mental activity, the evolution of mind and of animal cognition (discussing the extent to which animals can be considered to have minds). Following on in the afternoon there were discussions on the evolution of belief systems; the importance of empathy and altruism for the development of the social mind and lastly what research in artificial intelligence is teaching us about biological intelligence.

The physiology of the brain, the mechanisms of memory, the implications of mirror neurons, the origins of language, psychoses and other illnesses of the mind-brain system and the significance of sleep and dreams were also covered in the two day conference. As with all Future of Science Conferences, there was a lecture dedicated to therapy, which was sponsored by the Italian Association of cancer research (AIRC). This year the treatment of neurological illnesses and mental illnesses was presented by William Weiss, Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco.

The conference was attended approximately 800 participants including scientists, philosophers, theologians, industrialists, politicians, economists, journalists, students and others interested in the social, economic and political consequences of constant scientific development.

Source: FUV