The trend is clearly visible: sensors, and actuators, together with computation, memory and communication capabilities, are making all the objects around us smarter and smarter. Too many times, wether we call them robots, or AIs, the trend is depicted in menacing tones, represented in the dystopian futures preferred by Hollywood movies, and shape the gut reactions […]
Smart machines are our allies against dumb machines Read More »
In the thousands of years that we have built human societies we haven’t become better people. But still, there have been common decisions that we can doubtlessly call morally superior: outlawing slavery, child labor, and many others. The difference is represented by technology, whose development gives rise to new levels of understanding what is possible.
Technology Gives Form to our Moral Ambitions Read More »
A naturalistic outlook offers the thrill of an unending exploration. The tools of science and reason have evolved to explore and understand the world and ourselves. We don’t know everything, but we are learning every day. I believe in this quest. I also believe that it is useful to test audacious hypotheses and that the
I Believe in Heterodoxy Read More »
The conversation around technological unemployment, which assumes that we will see increasing amounts of social tension due to automation replacing human work in all sectors, hides a more fundamental issue. Technology must be designed and deployed in order to support human dignity, the building of sustainably meaningful lives, and the creation of resilient communities. I delivered
Technology And Human Dignity Read More »
At Singularity University (SU) the alumni reunions allow every year to catch up, not only with the projects that each of us is working on, but also through the faculty updates, the breathtaking speed with which the various fields are changing. The event, during the weekend right after the Graduate Studies Program’s (GSP) closing ceremony,
Talking AI into the night Read More »
The build-out of the Internet of Things is going to take decades: the first waves of networks of networks of objects are being connected, starting from those that are more naturally available to this fundamental upgrade: homes, cars, and personal devices. Everything that can be connected is being endowed with computing and communication modules. The
The Race Is On For The First Waves Of Internet Of Things Read More »
Biology is becoming digital at an accelerated pace. The latest techniques are making it possible to as easily manipulate our genes via CAG (Computer Aided Genetics) tools as designing a building with CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems. The more and more sophisticated approaches have recently been upgraded through CRISPR. A new word with which all
Genome Surgery: Extraordinary And Imminent Read More »
The power of ideas in modern agriculture, which can be born within different disciplines, is multiplied by their cross fertilization eliminating the barriers between silos of knowledge, growing healthier crops, regenerating soil health, and improving farm economics. We constantly increase our knowledge about the world, how it works, and how we can apply that knowledge
Interdisciplinary knowledge accelerates innovative solutions Read More »
At the invitation of Marco Trombetti, founder of Translated, I gave a talk in the beautiful amphitheater of Pi Campus in Rome, entitled “The future of machines and humanity“. (Video in Italian.) [youtube]https://youtu.be/CwOKXS8CL0U[/youtube] Starting from the acceleration of technological change, the increase in computing power and the number of devices that make up the Internet of Things,
The future of machines and humanity Read More »
In a fast changing world, technology plays a major role today and will do so in the future, to assure our progress and the development of mankind We adopted one of the first technologies that made humans what they are today about a hundred thousand years ago: we learned how to manage fire, and to
Exponential technologies: from information technology to food Read More »
