Kick-starting discussions at this ASL seminar was the observation that the consumer of today is an increasingly fluid figure that resists interpretation pursuant to paradigms superseded through the radical changes brought about by new technologies, as well as through an economic crisis that has altered individuals’ priorities and given rise to new patterns of consumption.
The opening premise of this National Interest roundtable was that although Italy boasts a cultural heritage without equal, it is unfortunately not exploited to best advantage through a uniform and identifiable strategy actually capable of generating economic benefits comparable to those produced in other countries despite having a much poorer cultural offering.
The opening premise of discussions at this International Conference was that scientific research is crucial to innovation, understood as both the discovery of new facts, data, or laws of nature, as well as knowledge with a direct technological application. Indeed, technology provides an essential bridge between science and society. As a demonstration of this, the participants pointed to the limitless practical applications of the World Wide Web (which had its origins at CERN, based on the development of the internet), citing it as a case where the industrial spinoff has been enormous.
This session in the latest round of Aspen Seminars for Leaders opened with the observation that the digital revolution is still underway, and that whilst the transformations so far have been radical, there are many changes – if not actual reversals – of direction yet to come. Even American authorities were aware of this when, not more than twenty years ago, they chose to expand the internet: today, there are 2 billion 500 thousand internet users worldwide.
