E Canessa

The ancient Ouroboros symbolism (one who eats oneself) is here integrated into a simple birth-death clustering process that needed nothing but itself for a transition from indistinguishable phases to a sort of higher level ”conscious” phases. Birth and death coefficients are formulated in terms of odd and even exponentials used to represent a suitable form for conscious states via the internal transfer of information. This toy model may ideally quantify conscious states having inner causes via an Ouroboros index 0 < Υα,Ω < 1. The value Υα,Ω = 0 lends to infinite loops and the limiting values Υα,Ω → 1 disclose transformation into awareness. Relationships with physics theories of consciousness and the use of the Oroborous index to discern about conscious-like states in Artificial Intelligence systems are discussed. Consciousness and freedom of will may go side-by-side in the model when Υα,Ω is extended to be a complex number modulus.

A set of notes on consciousness and creativity by Federico Faggin are here collected. Federico Faggin, Italian-American physicist and 2009 U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, is best known for designing and creating the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004. Faggin's curiosity about consciousness started in the late eighties when he asked himself if it was possible to develop a conscious computer. Faggin reveals here the main aspects and beliefs of his model about consciousness, fruit of his creative experiences and reflections. These notes (in Italian) at times integrated, partially rewritten or kept unaltered by Federico Faggin himself, are meant to be an invitation to new generations of scholars and researchers to deepen on the topic of human creativity and consciousness. A final section with reflections of the author in times of SARS-CoV-2 is also presented. ----- Si presenta un compendio degli appunti su consapevolezza e creativita' del fisico italo-americano Federico Faggin. Faggin, vincitore nel 2009 della U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, e' conosciuto globalmente per avere progettato e realizzato la prima CPU-on-a-chip al mondo: il microprocessore Intel 4004. La curiosita' di Faggin per la consapevolezza inizia alla fine degli anni Ottanta, quando si chiese se fosse possibile realizzare un computer cosciente. Faggin ci svela qui gli aspetti principali del suo modello, raccontando e mettendo in evidenza le sue principali convinzioni, frutto delle sue esperienze creative e delle sue riflessioni. Questi appunti talvolta integrati, parzialmente riscritti o lasciati inalterati da Federico Faggin in prima persona, vogliono essere un invito alle nuove generazioni di studiosi e ricercatori ad approfondire la ricerca su consapevolezza e creativita'. Il redattore ha aggiunto qualche spunto di riflessione sull'argomento al tempo di SARS-CoV-2.