There was an article in the weekly English-language magazine that described a company near Brussels that had constructed some buildings to show us what the future will look like. There's a house that is clad in a skin of metal slats that helps control the internal light and temperature. Sounds like a good idea! They haven't really focused on how life will improve for the average denizen of Belgium, though. My crystal ball predicts that life will be radically different for Belgians in the future. Changes may include:

+ Window screens. This major technological advance keeps flying insects from entering the house, and in particular mosquitoes can't get in and bite your face while you sleep.

+ Extended store hours. While this revolutionary idea isn't exactly "state-of-the-art", it would allow working people to shop for groceries at their leisure rather than cramming the aisles between 7-8 in the evening, pushing through the crowds with a half-crazed gleam in their eyes. It might cause a drop in revenue for the restaurant trade (and, in fact, they might be the shadowy cabal behind this conspiracy), but if restaurants themselves offered better food and/or service (newsflash: it is not a good business plan to open a middling Italian restaurant 2 doors down from a middling Italian restaurant), perhaps even takeout or (gasp!) delivery, they'd probably be fine. [This is not to say that there aren't good restaurants here; there are plenty, but there's also a lot of really terrible ones that are probably a front for the criminal underworld. How else would they stay open and yet remain always ominously empty?]

+ Street signs. This safety innovation specifies exactly who has the right of way at intersections. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking the law, but ignorance also causes accidents. UPDATE: Belgium recently passed a law that cars driving the wrong way down a one-way street do NOT have the right of way when entering traffic from the right. This is a step in the right direction!

+ Clean sidewalks free of multiple tripping hazards. I don't get the old-world charm of small paving stones and dog poop. I'd rather have clean, hazard-free concrete. Press in some patterns if you like to stare at squares. They make some really nice sidewalks out of recycled tires, for those who are ecologically conscious. For those who like to stare at turds, I got nothing.

+ Hoverbikes, Star-Trekky outfits, talking computers, gelatinous super-foods in tiny packets, all the normal Epcot-y stuff.

I know this is a radical vision, and it will take time and money and perseverance to achieve, but if Belgium wishes to enter the 21st century at long last, then they're going to have to make some changes around here.