Sulla nozione di "sistema tecnologico"

1: Introduzione. Nel paragrafo 2 viene affrontata la definizione di «sistema», richiamando anche alcuni aspetti della «teoria generale dei sistemi». Nel paragrafo 3 l’attenzione si focalizza sulla tecnologia, prendendo le mosse da definizioni generali, per poi affrontare alcune delle caratteristiche intrinseche che ne caratterizzano la struttura e il divenire. Il paragrafo 4 mette a fuoco la nozione di «sistema tecnologico» sintetizzando le definizioni e nozioni costruite nei due precedenti paragrafi, con particolare enfasi sugli aspetti di intenzionalità nella costruzione del sistema tecnologico stesso. Nel paragrafo 5 si fa riferimento ad una visione «allargata», che considera altri aspetti che influenzano il modo in cui il sistema tecnologico evolve. Il paragrafo 6 contiene le conclusioni

Artificial intelligence and inequality

In this chapter I consider the way in which ‘artificial intelligence’ emerged and developed as a research field, a turning point being the mid-1950s. In its initial stages, the development of programs for chessplaying machines proved important because playing chess requires intelligent strategy and action. Early efforts led, more slowly than expected, to specialised artificial intelligence, although from only the 2010s one can speak of artificial general intelligence. The key technical dimensions, which have led to intelligent machines – namely algorithms, artificial neural networks and machine learning – are explicitly considered. After covering two fundamental aspects, those being the early development of ICTs and the overall supply chain necessary to keep the whole infrastructure of artificial intelligence going, the inequality issue is considered. Regarding the latter, even though it is too soon to have a reliable measure of the impact of artificial intelligence on the economy and society, a few dimensions are hinted at, such as the divide which is emerging in the labour market, the presence of gender and racial biases and the amplification of political inequality

Charles Babbage, Technological Change and the "National System of Innovation"

I investigate the role played by Charles Babbage in the economic analysis of technological change. His contribution is quite important, for the way in which he carried out his studies anticipated themes that are the centre of economics and policy-making today. He considered the economic forces that shape technology and its change, the importance of scientific knowledge, and the role that institutions may play. Particularly in his Reflections on the Decline of Science in England and Some of its Causes, he anticipated the concept of the national system of innovation.

On technology competition

One of the key features of our economies consists of the coexistence of different technologies supplying similar products and services. Also, we often observe that an “old” technology is improved when a new one, doing basically the same things, appears. Behind this process of improvement of the old technology almost always lies an intentional research activity carried out by the owner of the old technology, whose aim is to delay as much as possible the loss of its market share. We focus our attention on this competition process and we supply a formal model capable of describing the delay of the overtaking of the new technology over the old one