The division of mankind threatens it with destruction. Civilization is imperiled by: a universal thermonuclear war, catastrophic hunger for most of mankind, stupefaction from the narcotic of “mass culture,” and bureaucratized dogmatism, a spreading of mass myths that put entire peoples and continents under the power of cruel and treacherous demagogues, and destruction or degeneration from the unforeseeable consequences of swift changes in the conditions of life on our planet.
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.

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, 1968

 

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)?

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?

 

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 Betting

6.30 p.m. Conclusions

 

November 7

 

Chair: Emanuele Conte

9.00 a.m. Dissertation Award Ceremony

10.00 a.m. Coffee break

10.30 a.m. The Conflict in the Universities

Maria Chiara Pievatolo, All Quiet on the Western Front: Free Science and EU Evasions

Silvia Bello, Open Science Education: the Work of the AISA Study Group

 

12.30 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