The Italian treasure is in the culture that integrates art and technology

"Consider your seed: you were not made to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge": the words that Dante puts into the mouth of Ulysses on his journey to Hell still have something to say to us today, at a time when technology is questioning us about our human being, about leveraging the human qualities of will and reason to explore the new frontiers of the technological unknown. In the face of the prospects opened up by artificial intelligence, "innovation and creativity become a differentiating element that allows the human being not to be subjected to, but to become the architect of the future: of course, 'knowledge' is fundamental, but technical skills alone are not enough, they must be accompanied by 'virtue', by values and principles that are reflected in an ethical scale that guides the choices that inspire transformation".

Paolo Dario is one of the noble fathers of Italian and European robotics, a lecturer at Sant'Anna in Pisa, where he founded and directed the Institute of Biorobotics for years, and today scientific head of Artes 4.0, the competence centre in Pontedera specialising in the technologies underpinning Industry 4.0, with a view to 5.0, where he deals with the efficient connection of academic research with industry: a privileged observation point to check the health of the Italian innovation ecosystem, from which he looks optimistically at the future of our country. Provided that it manages to maintain an original approach to technology. "We cannot chase after the American and Chinese world, which is centred on technology and business at all costs. Even if Europe, and Italy with it, is the expression of an old and conservative world, which tends to be reluctant to innovate, we must focus on our real asset: an interdisciplinary culture capable of being able to discern between the prospects that open up before us, which has as its strong point the ability to integrate technology and science with art and culture'. On the other hand, some 20 years ago the Harvard Business Review already recognised that Renaissance Florence was a far better model for innovation than Silicon Valley. Precisely because of its ability to bring together technical skills and art, science and humanism.

Dario has no doubts about what is the real strength that Italy must focus on: the quality of education. "In our education system, there is always a focus on the value and care of the person, which leaves room for a gentle competitiveness, open to collaboration, not ruthless as in the American system or in those of the East: a path of growth together with others, made of quality, to which is added the immersion in Italian culture," Dario continues, referring to the Renaissance workshops, where apprentices learned together with the master on the basis of a deep culture of 'savoir faire'. But be careful not to talk about training: 'Training, the more technical part, we leave to companies, we need to re-evaluate education, the one based on transdisciplinarity, which educates on competence, methodology and critical sense, drawing on all disciplines in a transversal manner and relating all aspects of reality'. There is a lot of talk about Stem subjects - science, technology, engineering, mathematics - but 'as Italians we must focus on Steam, adding the A of art, which also includes the human and social sciences'.

On the other hand, 'it is Industry 5.0 itself that is forcing us to take a different approach: until now, industrial transitions have been induced by the advent of new technologies, today it is a matter of integrating and linking the different technologies, with an approach that must not be limited to artificial intelligence alone, but which is truly 'human centric' and 'planet centric', implying a profound rethinking of the priorities of the economy, with a technical preparation that also extends to the interpretation and transformation of the context'.

Resuming Mao on revolutionaries, Dario sums up: 'To make innovation you need innovators, who are organised rebels'. It is hard to think of engineers in this role, but it is they who hold the key to the future. Paolo Dario may have some regrets for having chosen the scientific high school and not the classical, but he certainly does not deny his degree in mechanical engineering: 'The figure of the engineer has changed radically. In the 20th century he was a designer who used his knowledge to solve a problem, did it to the best of his ability and then usually continued as a manager. Today, on the other hand, he has to adopt a new role with the emphasis shifted to the creative side, to the need to go beyond mere resolution to aim at transforming the world and creating new products: he has to be an inventor and then an entrepreneur'. In this sense, the Milan Polytechnic represents a model, having united engineering with architecture and then design in a project that integrates different skills. "Virtute and knowledge" are objectives to be pursued in the manner of Ulysses in order to overcome the Herculean columns of today by pursuing an original Italian approach, also based on the local high school, without merely pursuing models based on the indiscriminate use of technology.