Piero Scaruffi (born 1955) is an Italian-American writer who maintains a website on which his reviews of music, film, and art are published. He has created his own publishing entity called Omnipublishing, which exclusively releases his books about music and science.

Biography

Early life and education

Scaruffi was born in 1955 in

Trivero Trivero (Piedmontese: ''Tarvè'') was a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northeast of Biella. Physical geography Trivero bordered the following munic ...

, a ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the

Province of Biella The province of Biella (; Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ''provincia ëd Biela'') is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Piedmont region of Italy. It was created in 1992 and its capital is the city of Biella. Culture Biella is home to th ...

of Italy. He graduated from the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...

with a degree in Mathematics.

Career

For a number of years he worked for

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been owned b ...

on artificial intelligence, as well as at Stanford University. He has been a visiting scholar at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

(conducting research on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science), lectured on "The Nature of Mind" and "History of Knowledge" (most recently at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

), and published on artificial intelligence and

cognitive science Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...

, 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 Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. He is an Italian-American, a naturalized U.S. citizen. He also writes about music. He published books about the history of

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

avant garde music Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original eleme ...

and modern

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

. One of them, ''A History of Rock and Dance Music, 1951–2000'', spans 50 years of the genre; Scaruffi estimated that it had sold 1,500 copies by 2006. His writings on music are hosted online on his own website, scaruffi.com, and include a history of

and a history of modern

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

. The website, especially its music section, was the subject of an article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' by Dan Morrell on October 15, 2006. Morrell noted the "staggering" volume of Scaruffi's work, given that the site is "a one-man operation". From 2000 to 2003 he was a member of the Governing Board of Directors of the journal '' Leonardo''. The most widely known entry on Scaruffi's website is his career-spanning essay on

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

, effectively a

polemic Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...

against the critical and popular consensus regarding the band's influence on modern music. Scaruffi chaired, among others, the Big Bang conference of June 2008 at UC Berkeley. He has compiled an extensive "Annotated Bibliography of Mind-Related" Topics", as well. He has been running the Leonardo Art Science Evenings (LASERS) at the University of San Francisco and Stanford University, a series that he established in 2008 and as of 2022 spread to 50 universities worldwide. He also runs the interdisciplinary quarterly events SMMMASH at Stanford University. Scaruffi is involved in organising and moderating events for Stanford Continuing Studies.

Bibliography

Books on music * (Volume 1 of Arcana's ''Storia del Rock'' series) * (Volume 2 of Arcana's ''Storia del Rock'' series) * (Volume 3 of Arcana's ''Storia del Rock'' series) * (Volume 4 of Arcana's ''Storia del Rock'' series) * * (Volume 5 of Arcana's ''Storia del Rock'' series) * * * (Volume 6 of Arcana's ''Storia del Rock'' series) * * * * (Volume 1: 1951–1989) * (Volume 2: 1990–2008) Books on cognitive science and artificial intelligence * (Volume 9 of Muzzio's ''Intelligenza Artificiale e Robotica'' series) * (Volume 10 of Angeli's ''Prometheus'' series) * * * * * * * Other books * (Volume 1367 of Feltrinelli's ''Universale economico'' series) * * (co-authored with Arun Rao) * * *

References

External links

Piero Scaruffi's knowledge baseStanford University Piero Scaruffi page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scaruffi, Piero 1955 births Italian emigrants to the United States Italian music critics Italian poets Italian male poets Italian music journalists Living people Olivetti people People from Trivero People from the Province of Biella University of Turin alumni Italian male non-fiction writers Italian atheists Rock critics