Piero Scaruffi

Piero Scaruffi
Scaruffi in 2016
Born	Piero Scaruffi (1955-04-26) April 26, 1955 Trivero, Biella, Italy
Residence	Silicon Valley, California
Nationality	Italian American
Alma mater	University of Turin
Years active	1983–present
Known for	Science music arts history informatics
Website	www.scaruffi.com

Piero Scaruffi (born 26 April 1955) is an Italian-American freelance software consultant and university lecturer^[1] who maintains a music website on which his reviews are published.^[1] Scaruffi also reviews many films. He has created his own publishing society called Omnipublishing^[2] that exclusively releases his books about music and science.^[3][4][5]

Since 1983, Scaruffi has resided in Silicon Valley, California.

Scaruffi's website, which covers a wide range of topics, was the subject of a 2006 article by Dan Morrell in The New York Times.^[1]

Biography

Early life and education

Scaruffi was born on 26 April 1955 in Trivero, a comune in the Province of Biella of Italy. He graduated from the University of Turin in 1982 with a degree in Mathematics.^[1]

Career

For a number of years he worked for Olivetti on artificial intelligence. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University and Stanford University (conducting research on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science), lectured on "The Nature of Mind" and "History of Knowledge" (most recently at U.C. Berkeley), and published on artificial intelligence and cognitive science, including Thinking About Thought (2003) and The Nature of Consciousness (2006).

His work aims to bridge artificial intelligence, mathematics, science and art. As a software consultant, he worked on Internet applications, Artificial Intelligence and Object-Oriented design in Silicon Valley. He is an Italian naturalized American. He also writes about music. He has self-published books on Omniware, a publishing company of which he is also the president and founder.^[2] Omniware has so far exclusively released books by Scaruffi.^[3][4][5] He published books about the history of rock music, jazz, avant garde music and modern popular music. One of them, A History of Rock Music, 1951–2000, self-published on iUniverse in 2003, spans 50 years of the genre;^[6] Scaruffi estimated that it had sold 1,500 copies by 2006.^[1] His writings on music are hosted online on his own website, scaruffi.com, and include a history of jazz and a history of modern classical music. The website, especially its music section, was the subject of an article in The New York Times by Dan Morrell on October 15, 2006.^[1] Morrell noted the "staggering" volume of Scaruffi's work, given that the site is "a one-man operation".^[1] In Italy Scaruffi is known for his controversial criticism about important musical acts like The Beatles, Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Prince and U2. Scaruffi seems to be influenced by some Marxist theories about art and society like other Italian critics of his generation (e.g. Riccardo Bertoncelli), who were important in Italy in the 1970s. From 2000 to 2003 he was a member of the Governing Board of Directors of the journal Leonardo.^[7] He chaired, among others, the Big Bang conference of June 2008 at UC-Berkeley.^[8] He has compiled an extensive "Annotated Bibliography of Mind-Related" Topics", as well. In 2006, he lived in Redwood City.^[1]

He has been running the Leonardo Art Science Evenings (LASERS) at the University of San Francisco and Stanford University since 2008. He also runs the interdisciplinary quarterly events SMMMASH at Stanford University. Scaruffi is involved in organising and moderating events for Stanford Continuing Studies.^[9]

Bibliography

Books on music

• Le origini gli anni d'oro: 1954-1966. Milan: Arcana Editrice. 1989. ISBN 978-8-88-585938-8.  (Volume 1 of Arcana's Storia del Rock series)
• Underground & progressive: 1967-1973. Milan: Arcana Editrice. 1989. ISBN 978-8-88-585939-5.  (Volume 2 of Arcana's Storia del Rock series)
• Dal glam al punk: 1974-1980. Milan: Arcana Editrice. 1990. ISBN 978-8-88-585997-5.  (Volume 3 of Arcana's Storia del Rock series)
• Anni '80 e oltre: 1981-1990. Milan: Arcana Editrice. 1990. ISBN 978-8-88-585995-1.  (Volume 4 of Arcana's Storia del Rock series)
• Guida all'avanguardia e alla New Age. Milan: Arcana Editrice. 1991. ISBN 978-8-88-585967-8. 
• Il nuovo rock americano deghli anni '90. Milan: Arcana Editrice. 1994. ISBN 978-8-87-966055-6.  (Volume 5 of Arcana's Storia del Rock series)
• Nuovi poeti rock americano. Padua: Arcana Editrice. 1994. ISBN 978-8-87-966030-3. 
• Enciclopedia della musica New Age: elettronica, ambientale, pan-etnica. Padua: Arcana Editrice. 1996. ISBN 978-8-87-966073-0. 
• Europa, Canada, Oceania e Giappone: gli anni '90. Padua: Arcana Editrice. 1997. ISBN 978-8-87-966076-1.  (Volume 6 of Arcana's Storia del Rock series)
• A History of Rock Music: 1951-2000. New York: iUniverse. 2003. ISBN 0-595-29565-7. 
• A History of Popular Music before Rock Music. Palo Alto: Omniware. 2007. ISBN 978-0-97-655312-0. 
• A History of Jazz Music: 1900-2000. Palo Alto: Omniware. 2007. ISBN 978-0-97-655313-7. 
• A History of Rock and Dance Music. Palo Alto: Omniware. 2009. ISBN 978-0-97-655315-1.  (Volume 1: 1951-1989)
• A History of Rock and Dance Music. Palo Alto: Omniware. 2009. ISBN 978-0-97-655316-8.  (Volume 2: 1990-2008)

Books on cognitive science and artificial intelligence

• L'Intelligenza artificiale: una guida per il programmatore. Padua: Franco Muzzio. 1987. ISBN 978-8-87-021422-2.  (Volume 9 of Muzzio's Intelligenza Artificiale e Robotica series)
• La mente artificiale: realtà e prospettive della "macchina pensante". Milan: Angeli. 1991. ISBN 978-8-82-046805-7.  (Volume 10 of Angeli's Prometheus series)
• La fabbrica del pensiero: nuove frontiere dell'intelligenza artificiale. Turn: La Stampa. 1996. ISBN 978-8-87-783080-7. 
• Thinking about Thought: A Primer on the New Science of Mind. New York: Writers Club Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-59-526420-9. 
• The Nature of Consciousness: The Structure of Life and the Meaning of Matter. Palo Alto: Omniware. 2006. ISBN 978-0-97-655311-3. 
• Intelligence Is Not Artificial. Palo Alto: Omniware. 2013. ISBN 978-0-97-655319-9. 

Other books

• Il terzo secolo: almanacco della società americana alla fine del millenio. Milan: Feltrinelli. 1996. ISBN 978-8-80-781367-2.  (Volume 1367 of Feltrinelli's Universale economico series)
• Synthesis: Essays, Photographs, Poems. Palo Alto: Omniware. 2009. ISBN 978-0-97-655317-5. 
• A History of Silicon Valley: The Largest Creation of Wealth in the History of the Planet. Palo Alto: Omniware. 2011. ISBN 978-0-97-655318-2.  (co-authored with Arun Rao)
• A Brief History of Knowledge: From 3000 BC to the 21st Century. CreateSpace. 2014. ISBN 978-1-50-052665-8. 

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Piero Scaruffi

• Piero Scaruffi's knowledge base
• New York Times article on Piero Scaruffi
• Stanford University Piero Scaruffi page
• LASERs