War or peace: open science, research institutions, and intellectual freedom
Program
In the face of these perils, any action increasing the division of mankind, any preaching of the incompatibility of world ideologies and nations is madness and a crime. Only universal cooperation under conditions of intellectual freedom and the lofty moral ideals of socialism and labor, accompanied by the elimination of dogmatism and pressures of the concealed interests of ruling classes, will preserve civilization.
November 6-7, 2025, at the University of Trento (Faculty of Law, conference hall)
November 6
10.00 – 12.00 a.m. Preliminary Meeting: Monitoring Open Science in Italy
12.00 a.m. Meeting of Associates
Brunch
2.00 a.m. Institutional greetings
2.15 p.m. Keynote Speech – Roberto Caso Open Science: paths of glory (or peace)?
Law and justice against brute and foolish force. Anthropological traits found in science.There are two types of open science. The first, true open science, is based on the intellectual freedom of the public use of reason and forms the foundation of democracy both within and outside States. The second, pseudo-open science, is based on intellectual property and is subservient to the concentration of public and private power. Since the Second World War, true open science has only been able to establish itself episodically and in a subversive manner, trying to tread the difficult paths of peace. Meanwhile the societies we have built in recent decades have deliberately favoured the concentration of public and private power, the very concentration that fuels the capitalism of intellectual monopolies, surveillance and war. In this context, pseudo-open science can well present itself as institutional and proudly walk the paths of glory, even if, before reaching the grave, lacerating contradictions are quick to surface. Far from being mere theoretical speculation, the presentation traces some of the problems of the dialectic between subversive and institutional open science that the Italian Association for the Promotion of Open Science [Associazione Italiana per la promozione della Scienza Aperta or AISA] has tried to address in its first ten years of existence.
2.45 p.m. War and Peace: a Scientific Issue?
Chair: Stefano Bianco
Flavio Del Santo Against Militarization: Scientists Unite in Opposition to EU Rearmament
Federico Oliveri, The curse of dual technologies: will academia surrender to the digital industrial-military complex?
International investigations and reports have revealed the key role of major technology companies in the economy of apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and, subsequently, in the economy of genocide. It is plausible that these same corporations will be equally instrumental in the second phase of Gaza’s destruction, presented to the public as a “peace plan”. These and other manifestations of the “military-digital complex” raise crucial questions: What kinds of relationships do universities maintain with technology companies engaged in military applications? Are such relationships compatible with the constitutional mission of universities and their commitment to peace? I intend to explore these questions by reflecting with you on the “curse of dual-use technologies”, that is, the real or perceived difficulties the academic world faces in controlling the applications of its research and in preventing it from being used for military purposes or in any way contrary to fundamental rights. The systemic nature of the problem will require equally systemic solutions: overcoming dependence on public and private funding tied to collaborations with these companies; shifting from the privatisation and monetisation of knowledge to its sharing for the public good; and creating licenses that explicitly preclude “military use” for the products of research. Let’s discuss this and get organised.
4.00 p.m. Coffee break
4.30 p.m. Breaking Free from Techno-feudalism?
Chair: Alberto Baccini
Daniela Tafani, AI and the destruction of knowledge
Davide Borrelli, The University of War
What role can and should a universalist institution like the university play in a world divided into armed blocs and engaged in general warfare? In a context where everything is militarized and polarized, the university risks becoming just another propaganda tool or, worse, an institution of hypocrisy.
5.30 p.m. Machine Learning and Law
Chair: Federica Cappelluti
Richard Stallman (FSF) Can ML Systems Be Free?
Marco Giraudo, Rigged Races: LLM, Intellectual Monopolies and Legal Innovation Betting
This paper discusses the key legal innovations introduced by major economic players in the field of LLMs to gain free access to other people’s legally protected resources for calibrating artificial intelligence systems, while also claiming freedom to economically exploit and disseminate the resulting texts or images. The economic sustainability of such ventures depends significantly on the success of these legal gambles, which could be rejected by courts and tribunals, particularly in the US and Europe. The tension between these new technologies and the emerging legal unsustainability of the business models they enable may cause a ‘legal bubble’ to burst, or lead to a constitutional change comparable to a neo-feudal order, in which the nature and protection of legal positions depend on the status of those who claim them.
6.30 p.m. Conclusions
November 7
Chair: Emanuele Conte
9.00 a.m. The Conflict in the Universities
Maria Chiara Pievatolo, All Quiet on the Western Front: Free Science and EU Evasions
When the European Union and other public and private funding bodies declared their commitment to the principles of open science, some believed that political or corporate control of research was an excellent solution in a system where researchers were too proletarianised or conflicted to emancipate themselves from bibliometrics. However, accepting this, even when convinced that Marcus Aurelius is in government, is dangerous for intellectual freedom. At any moment, Marcus Aurelius could turn into Commodus and order the transition from ‘open’ science to ‘safe’ science — whatever that term may mean — or even worse, to science that is explicitly subservient to oligarchic and commercial interests. The aggravating factor is that today’s Commodus could be an elusive and heteronomous bureaucrat, incapable or unwilling to do more than make declarations of principle and establish tasks that are only ostensible, rather than a despot who can be eliminated by regicide, as was the case in the Roman Empire.
Silvia Bello, Open Science Education: the Work of the AISA Study Group
The AISA Education Study Group presents the questionnaire developed and sent to Italian universities on the teaching of open science: conception and choice of topic and survey tool.
10.15 a.m. Coffee break
10.30 a.m. Round Table
Chair: Paolo Guarda
Marco Amato (Etica Digitale Blog), Giorgia Bincoletto, Federica Cappelluti, Paola Galimberti, Giovanna Massari.
13.00 Conclusions
Materials and video recordings of the conference will be uploaded to Zenodo.org
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