SOCIOECONOMIC HISTORY OF INNOVATION

The main objective of the S6 course is the introduction of the "humanistic" aspects that throughout history, from the most ancient to the modern digital society we have today, have determined the success or downfall and the dissemination of scientific discoveries and of technical / technological innovations. The aim is to demonstrate that “Historia magistra innovationae” (History can teach innovation) can be used as an empirical law. The processes of digitalization and economic disruption are fueling a widespread feeling of disorientation. The course offers historical tools that can complete and enrich the pure mechanistic and computerized understanding of the transformation processes. S6 is envisioned as a multidisciplinary course that also aims to integrate a new evolutionary key - such as the generic horizontal transfer, new frontier of biology, and hyper-historic processes - to interpret historical change from an analogical society to a purely digital society. In other words, S6 was created as a multidisciplinary by design course experiment.

The course requires a general knowledge of the fundamentals of economics, a natural sense of historical facts and processes and a general habit of reading national / international magazines and Op-eds.

How to understand digital transformations throughout the history

In particular, the course is organized to lead students to achieve the following preparatory objectives for any path they wish to undertake: a) a general overview of the main cases in the history of discontinuity and disruption over the centuries. The main interactions with other disciplinary areas that may have caused the acceleration of the process of innovation; b) an introduction to the main contributors such as Democritus, Evangelista Torricelli, Francesco Bacone, Samuel Butler, Sigmund Freud, Marc Bloch, Carlo Maria Cipolla, Carl Woese, Luciano Floridi; c) a review of the main contemporary debates: the relationship between the technological enterprise and their role in society; relationships between citizen-user-follower and politics; the role of innovation in changing the social pact; d) teamwork: the development of critical thinking that will be utilized in new historical cases of disruption.

Sideri M., La sindrome di Eustachio. Storia italiana delle scoperte dimenticate. Bompiani. 2017 Ambrosoli U., Sideri M., Diritto all’Oblio, Dovere della Memoria. Bompiani 2018 Sideri M. Darwinismo tecnologico. Storia dell’innovazione in dieci oggetti. In corso di pubblicazione Prencipe A., Sideri M. L’innovatore rampante. L’ultima lezione di Italo Calvino Luiss University Press 2022 Prencipe A., Sideri M. Il visconte cibernetico. Italo Calvino e il sogno dell’intelligenza artificiale. Luiss University Press 2023 Prencipe A., Sideri M. The Grammar of innovation Palgrave Macmillan, in corso di pubblicazione Bucchi M., Sideri M. La sfida dei vaccini tra privacy e tecnologia in “Corriere della Sera” 24.01.2021 Caio F., Sideri M., Banda Stretta, Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 2010 Floridi L., Sideri M., La Piramide onlife di Maslow. Riflessioni sulla impermeabilità della tecnologia nella società digitale. “Corriere della Sera” 28.04.2021 Floridi L. La quarta rivoluzione. Come l’Infosfera sta trasformando il mondo. Raffaello Cortina. 2017 Pievani. T. Imperfezione, una storia naturale, Raffaello Cortina. 2019 Bucchi, M., Scientisti e antiscientisti. Perché scienza e società non si capiscono, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2010 Melville H., Moby Dick. Edizione integrale R.u.r. Rossum’s Universal Robots, Capek K. Marsilio, 2015 Freud S. Il perturbante. Il disagio della civiltà e altri saggi. Bollati Boringhieri 2012 Butler S. Darwin among the machines

Frontal lessons; discussions of readings on classic themes and authors in the fields of philosophy, history of science and weekly and monthly magazines; selection and analysis of case studies conducted by students under the supervision of the teacher. Testimonies in the classroom from recognized protagonists of innovation.

Final oral exam + intermediate group work. 1. The final exam to verify learning will take place in oral form on the texts indicated in the bibliography. The evaluation will focus on the knowledge of the key concepts of the course, on the ability to apply them clearly to the dynamics of science and innovation in contemporary societies. 2. As an intermediate test, the formation of working groups on new cases to be processed will be required. The evaluation will also take place on the basis of the ability to organize a "team" for a public exhibition.

Originality in the presentation of a case not studied in the history of innovation that can lend itself to interpreting an ongoing phenomenon in the field of digital transformation.