2011 Programme
Evento n.4
Edoardo Boncinelli
What is life? Can artificial life exist?
U.S. scientist Craig Venter recently announced that he has built artificial life. What he has done is inserting DNA that was artificially produced from scratch based on a sequence stored in a computer, into a very simple bacteria. He then observed how this bacteria changed into a being that had never existed before. So this life form is new and unprecedented—but is it artificial life? Before we answer the question we need to ask what life is in its essence. Prof. Boncinelli proposes a definition of life and its fundamental components—matter, energy and information. What dominates in living beings is information, that is, the ordering and controlling what happens in them. In this perspective, what Venter created can truly be called artificial life.
https://www.festivaldellamente.it/it/live-streaming-alessandro-barbero/trained as a physicist and head of prestigious research institutes, he is committed to studying and teaching genetics and molecular biology. He contributes to Corriere della Sera and to Le Scienze. His writings include: Prima lezione di biologia (Editori Laterza, 2007); I nostri geni (Einaudi, 2008); L’etica della vita (2008), Perché non possiamo non dirci darwinisti (2009), Lo scimmione intelligente (con G. Giorello, 2009), Lettera a un bambino che vivrà 100 anni (2010), La scienza non ha bisogno di Dio (2012), Quel che resta dell’anima (2012) all for Rizzoli; Mi ritorno in mente (Longanesi, 2010); Come nascono le idee (2008) and La vita della nostra mente (2011), for the series «i Libri del Festival della Mente» published by Editori Laterza; Vita (Bollati Boringhieri, 2013).
Evento n.6
Zygmunt Bauman
Reflections on the notions of community and network, on social networks and Facebook
Evento n.14
Gian Carlo Calza
Different, eccentric, extraordinary: aesthetics and creativity between Asia and the West
Evento n.26
Franco Borgogno
In other people’s hearts and minds. A psychoanalyst between tradition and creativity
Evento n.37
Sonia Bergamasco, Fabrizio Gifuni
A quiet sunny day. Attilio Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini, a friendship in verse
