The panel discussion accompanying the launch of the latest issue of the Institute’s journal Aspenia was kick-started with the observation that while robots are still not even close to being human, they have certainly become central to the workplace and industry. Although some view automation and robotics as potential threats to employment, it was felt that they actually offer young people and others besides new work opportunities. In fields such as applied electronics for robotics, for instance, engineers are always required, as are programmers, both being necessary to design and operate such sophisticated machines. Robots – it was emphasized – are now able to replace humans for many repetitive tasks, and small and medium-sized enterprises are prime examples of those that can and should benefit from these advances, by instituting flexible and innovative production processes.
Hence, the introduction of robots in manufacturing industry was seen as no cause for alarm, signifying not the destruction of jobs but rather a new way of working for people, who in any case remain indispensable for the management of such processes. Moreover, robotics is not a new phenomenon in industry, though it has certainly been refined in recent times. It was suggested that for Italian industry, which excels in creativity, robots could prove extraordinarily useful in improving production quality.
The question was those posed as to what playing a key role in this new scenario involves for young people. The response was that, first of all, it entails being properly trained in order to fully engage with the technological revolution underway. This was consequently seen as requiring reform of the Italian education system, which, while on one hand is currently producing excellent engineers thanks to the high standard of its polytechnic universities, is characterized on the other by a primary and secondary school system still too heavily based on rote learning and rarely employing tech-based teaching methods. The education system was thus seen as failing to produce professionals adapted to a world that is changing at a dizzying pace. The panelists stressed the urgent and rapid need for a pooling of intelligence and ideas apt to trigger a genuine strategic revolution in the way training and education are understood in Italy.
The panelists pointed to the technology sector itself as having given rise to one of the most interesting current phenomena, namely, start-ups that in their very raison d’être incorporate not only an innovative and winning idea, but are also able to serve as useful incubators for failures that young people can learn from and use as a basis to start afresh. It was felt that Italy could learn much from this model to change a mindset that still views making mistakes as a serious misstep, when what really matters is the ability to start over and make further attempts at pursuing an idea, so as to turn it into a success. Indeed, digitalization was viewed as opening up endless possibilities for new ideas, as attested to by the success of e-commerce.
In short, technology, robotics and automation were considered to hold the key to the future. While Italy is lagging behind, it has the ability to catch up and role models it can follow, including the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, an incubator for scientists and researchers from around the world who have turned robotics into one of the most sophisticated and successful of their activities.
Proceedings at the launch of issue 68 of Aspenia came to a close with a compelling reminder that robotics can be applied to more than just industry. This took the form of a performance of Chopin’s Nocturne op. 9 no. 2 and Scarlatti’s Sonata K427 by the pianist Roberto Prosseda, followed by a challenge mounted on the same pieces by the piano-playing robot Teo Tronico – a demonstration underlining how important the individual and his passions, sensibility and faculty for interpretation are, notwithstanding the extraordinary and captivating technical bravura exhibited by the robot. For while the robot’s performance may have been technically perfect, it will for the foreseeable future and perhaps always remain a soulless rendition.
