L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 6 Faggin says: "The prize is a large cask of Amarone which is divid- ed into thirds for the three people receiving the prize, so approxi- mately 200 bottles of Amarone each. I received the prize for sci- ence and technology. "The warmth behind the prize was the feeling of being appreci- ated by your people, by your kind from Veneto. The nature of the prize is such that it reflects the wine of your land and your earth and so the prize has so much affection. It is one of the prizes I remember with the most fond- ness, a prize from my land in Italy, from the people of my land." To further explore the man behind the genius, L'Italo-Ameri- cano posed the question: since much has been written about the technological aspects of your career, I would like to learn more about the person behind the genius. Is it possible to be a genius and a regular guy? Laughing, Faggin replied, "The non-technology person is a regular fellow that likes to design, build, and fly model planes. My purpose was the enjoyment of flying - a way to fly without actually flying. It was a way to project myself into the plane and enjoy flight in an indi- rect way. I've loved planes since I was a kid." How has your Italianness affected your life's work? "I like to think the Italian culture affect- ed me positively because there is a dimension of Italian culture that is more human and humanistic. There is more balance between a person's personal life and profes- sional life. They are not so sepa- rate. It gave me more passion and allowed me to place my emotion- al self into my work. It allows me to enjoy what I'm doing but also allows others around me to enjoy more of what they are doing. "This ability is one of the rea- sons I wanted to be an entrepre- neur and not just a technical per- son. I wanted to be a person that could create companies. To do that there has to be a vision and the desire to create a team and a company culture. All those aspects of my personality were possibly richer due to my upbringing in Italy. People here in the US tend to be more rigid, more structured and less sponta- neous and spontaneity is a very important quality. "Also what my Italianness has done for me is to avoid becoming too specialized, allowing me to move from one area to another with the same level of enthusi- asm and passion. These qualities have recently moved me to a dif- ferent field: the study of con- sciousness. Until recently, con- sciousness has been considered a philosophical subject. However, I try to connect the science of the outer physical world with the not-yet-science of the inner world. This is a much deeper, much more important aspect in a world that thinks we humans are machines. "The study of consciousness has occupied me full-time for the last ten years and part-time for the first 20 of the past 30 years. I would say it is perhaps connected to my Italianity, my cultural her- itage. Italians tend to be fairly complete in the sense that they appreciate the inner aspects of reality and also the enjoyment aspects of life. For example, look at the way most people eat as opposed to the way Italians eat. Italians love to eat but they aren't fat! Obesity to me points to something being out of psycho- physical balance. It shows that eating may have more to do with greed than with pleasure. Noth- ing is ever enough." When asked if his current work has taken him away from technology and toward human science, he replied: "There is a side of scientism that tends to see everything as a machine, some- thing that is rational and logical. That kind of "You" denies reality to the inner life. It is alienating. That viewpoint is prevalent today and is disturbing particularly when considering artificial intel- ligence. We will be surpassed by machines, they tell us. That is very disturbing because it means people that feel this way have lost complete contact with their inner world, the world of emo- tions, creativity, and enjoyment. The way some scientists look at reality speaks to a meaningless universe, a universe that is a product of chance. This is such a dystopian view of reality and is a result of people disconnecting themselves from their inner lives. "I'm not moving away neces- sarily from technology into only human nature, I'm simply refram- ing where technology has a place. Technology isn't everything. There is a natural tendency to focus in such a way that you end up not seeing other aspects of reality. You think that everything is whatever you are focusing on at that moment. However, reality is much richer than our focus leads us to believe." Faggin went on to explain the work of the Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation. "The work and focus of the foundation is to fundamentally raise the con- sciousness of the scientific com- munity to the understanding that "consciousness" is most likely not produced by matter, as is commonly thought. "In the materialistic world- view, consciousness is produced by the brain and when the brain ceases to function, consciousness is gone forever. Well, that is one way to look at the problem if one thinks that only matter exists. But no one has proven that. "Science cannot explain the fact that we are conscious. There- fore, we must consider the possi- bility that consciousness may be an irreducible property of nature, in which case consciousness must be present in the elementary par- ticles of which all matter is built. This idea is generally considered crazy. That's why scientists give no reality to the inner world which is made of sensations, feelings, emotions, and thoughts, which are all about consciousness, and give only value to what is exter- nal." When asked how he proves his theory, the reply was enlight- ening. "You don't need to prove it. You know it within yourself. The proof is the fact that we are conscious when we are supposed to be made of unconscious matter and therefore should be uncon- scious. What's false to me is the idea that only inert matter exists. "Because life has been studied as if it were a machine, we jump to the conclusion that machines can have consciousness. We are going down the wrong road as humanity. We are becoming automatons. Look at the kids with their iPhones. They seem con- nected with their tool and are for- getting to relate to other human beings for Christ's sake! Is that the kind of future we want? A future where technological sym- bols replace empathy, compas- sion, and human relations?" Would you create a computer that has consciousness and empa- thy? Would you go in that direc- tion? His response: "No because it is not possible. But 30 years ago, I had bought into this line of thinking, I thought it should have been possible to make a con- scious computer and I started thinking in that direction until I had some extraordinary experi- ences of consciousness that told me reality is much more than what we ordinarily think it is. The moment that you open your mind to more, life will give you those experiences and when you have them you can no longer go back. "It's like the fish that lives in the deep ocean and thinks that all that exists is just the water it experiences. When you take it out of the ocean and give it a peek of the waves, the sun, the clouds, and the islands in the distance, the fish will have a realization that reality is much more than just water. "Can we somehow guide our conclusions into this kind of real- ization? Yes, we can. We can by wanting to know and by looking at the right places, through medi- tation, for example. Through questioning yourself little by lit- tle, you will put yourself in a position to experience beyond what we ordinarily experience. Expanding one's consciousness is essential to being able to under- stand a broader reality." When asked if he would care to add to what we have discussed, he replied: "We've covered what I consider to be the 'color of myself,' the human color, the deeper, more intimate self, so we have gone beyond just the facts. The facts are nice but they are not enough." When asked if he had any plans for an autobiography, Fag- gin replied, "Yes, interesting that you would ask. I do have an auto- biography written in Italian, and at a later time it will be released in English. I am almost certain that it will be available this year, 2019." And so it is with anticipation that we look forward to Federico Faggin's autobiography and to learning more about the man behind the genius. President Barack Obama talks with, from left, Marcian E. Hoff Jr., Federico Faggin, and Stanley Mazor, the creators of the world's first microprocessor at Intel Corpo- ration, during the National Medal of Technology and Innovation awards ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 17, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) November 17, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) LIFE PEOPLE PLACES TRADITIONS Continued from page 4

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