L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers,  Labor Day reminded me that while our manual labors have often been extolled our mental labors, achievements and inventions not so much. Tired of the meatballs, mandolin and mafia image our media prefers to perpetuate, a Neapoli- tan Lawyer, Arturo Barone, who lives in London, decided to write a book to enlighten the subjects of Queen Elizabeth and their English speaking brethren across the Atlantic.  The book, Italians First (an A to Z of everything achieved first by Italians) documents at least 500 inventions or discoveries in all spheres of life that are due to the genius or practical spirit of the Italians. From the telephone to radio, propeller to submarine, postal service to bank cheque, from electricity to the telescope and to the discovery of America with its newly beatified indige- nous people. Italy's sum total of creativity is fantastic and happily continues to be so via Italy's young people working in various fields throughout the world. *** The Labor Day holiday also reminded me that back in the days when chips were made of wood and not silicon, the labor that enriched the Santa Clara Valley was predominantly Ital- ian. The fertile land and mild cli- mate attracted Italians from all regions of Italy, including Abruzzi, Basilicata, Calabria, Tuscany and Piemonte. The immigrants labored as farmers, ranchers, vegetable growers and wine makers. Italian men and women worked in canneries and packing houses, supplying the rest of California and the nation with fresh produce. *** Today, it is not the fertile land to attract because most of the fer- tile land of the Santa Clara Val- ley, once known as "The Valley of the Heart's Delight," has been paved over and is now home to the Tech Industry, aka "The Sili- con Valley". The technology labor force requires more brain power and less brawn power.  Today, Italians and young Italian Americans with "roots" in all regions of Italy continue enriching the labor pool in the Valley. *** First let me explain that even getting your foot in the door of the Carnegie Mellon University Artificial Intelligence Program is cause for jubilation, because that means you were selected from applicants all over the world. Carnegie Mellon, in Pittsburgh, PA, has been acknowledged as a leader in AI since Simon and Newell invented the field in the mid 1950s. From Wikipedia I quote a bit about AI: Artificial Intelligence (AI), sometimes called machine intelli- gence, is intelligence demonstrat- ed by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. The term "artificial intelligence" is applied when a machine mimics "cognitive" functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as "learning" and "problem solving." In the early years of AI demonstrations, human poker players often competed with AI machine players who usually won. Since the 1950's abundant advances, computer powered AI machines, have become increas- ingly capable and include optical character recognition, human speech recognition, competing at the highest level in strategic game systems like chess, autonomous cars, intelligent rout- ing in content delivery network, military simulations and much more. *** Francesco Ciannella, not only got his foot in the door of the Carnegie Mellon University Arti- ficial Intelligence Program by being accepted among a world- wide avalanche of applicants, he also studied and graduated on May 19 2018. His parents, Maria and Mario Ciannella, flew in from Montescaglioso, province of Matera, to proudly watch their son receive his diploma. They were doubly proud to learn that, of the worldwide-selected 19 stu- dents graduating, their son was the only Italian. Bravo Francesco. Buona For- tuna and buona salute a cent'anni. Francesco Ciannella on his graduation day at the Carnegie Mellon University

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