Giuseppe Longo

Interview

• "Classic artificial intelligence and neural networks" (Trieste, 23/11/95)

Biography

Born Forlė 2 March 1941, Giuseppe Longo graduated in electronic engineering in 1964, in mathematics in 1968 and qualified as a lecturer in cybernetics and information theory in 1969.

Since 1975 he has taught information theory at the faculty of Engineering at the University of Trieste and is director of research at the International Centre of Mechanical Sciences in Udine. For some years he has been director of the scientific and literary languages laboratories of the International School for Advanced Studies (S.I.S.S.A.) in Trieste.

He is author of numerous articles, specialised books, and the manual Teoria dell'informazione (Boringhieri, Torino, 1980). He works extensively as a scientific translator and popularizer, and has contributed to the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia italiana, "Corriere della sera", "Le scienze", "Kos" and the Italian public service broadcaster RAI.

He also contributes short stories and poems to literary reviews such as "Linea d'ombra", "Nuovi argomenti" and "Il racconto".
His story Il fuoco completo (Studio Tesi, 1986), won the Comisso prize in 1987. His current interests are epistemology, problems of communication, and artificial intelligence.

An expert on new information technologies and interested in how these are changing human behaviour throughout the world, he believes in the importance of an ethical and philosophical preparation for dealing with new technologies.

Bibliography

Among his publications:

• I giorni del vento, 1995, Ricciardello, Torino.
• L'acrobata, 1994, Torino, Einaudi, Torino.
• Alcune orme sopra la neve, 1990, Camponotto, Torino.
• Acquisition, processing and archiving of astronomical images (con Siedmak G.), Liguori, 1990, Napoli.
• Il fuoco completo, 1986, Studio Tesi, Pordenone.
• Teoria dell'informazione, 1980, Boringhieri, Torino.