Few people noticed. When the lights of the Rendano came back on and the audience dissolved into greetings and handshakes, «Thus Spoke Zarathustra» by Richard Strauss, the famous theme from «2001: A Space Odyssey», began. In Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, a computer named Hal decides to eliminate the astronauts he is supposed to serve. Whoever chose those notes to bid farewell to the twentieth edition of the Award for Mediterranean Culture in Cosenza knew what had been talked about until recently. Yes, precisely artificial intelligence, the theme of the Award.
The evening opened with a phrase from Leo XIV’s encyclical «Magnifica Humanitas»: «Even when machines excel in efficiency, the center of history remains a human face that asks to be looked at. This human face is the fullness towards which history is moving.” AI was the common thread, chosen by the Carical Foundation with Unical. Director Stefano Bellu made it a saga of the future inspired by Isaac Asimov. In 2043, Elhian 15, played by actress Carla Serino, tells of a humanity that entrusts every choice to her “freeing itself from the weight of decisions”. «Rationality and efficiency prevail over emotions and instability», he says, and the contrast with the Pope’s words is clear. Thirty years later Elhian 27, entrusted to Stefania De Cola, has learned happiness and sorrow without becoming human. The most intimate scene was a dialogue between Violet, an artificial assistant, again Serino, and her creator (Francesco Antonio Conti). He confesses that he envied a couple who argued in the street and that he wanted “someone who wasn’t programmed to understand me perfectly.” She offers him an amber light and the beating of a simulated heart, and admits that she can’t give him “the feeling of a human hand on his face.” Massimo Garritano on guitar, choreography by Paola Stefano and Salvatore Lombardo.
Expertly hosted by Maria Gabriella Capparelli of Tg1, the winners took to the stage. Nicolò Govoni received the recognition for Civil Society; the molecular biologist Antonella Fioravanti for Human Sciences; Barbara Gallavotti for Information Culture; Yasmina Mélaouah for Translation. The Narrative went to Aysegul Savas for «Gli Anthropologists» (Gramma Feltrinelli). The over 300 students on the school jury instead chose the novel «Malanima» (Feltrinelli) by Rosita Manuguerra. Marco Lavalle, a Lucanian NASA scientist, collected the Foundation’s special prize.
The most exciting connection came from Gaza. Majd al-Assar, special jury prize for «My free heart, the strength of a mother from Gaza» (trans. Simona Garavelli, Garzanti), described the war with the voice of a mother trying to defend her children: it was truly a voice from hell, which moved everyone present. Speaking from Paris was Tahar Ben Jelloun – awarded 20 years ago together with Amos Oz – who spoke about the obligation to raise young people with respect for others. Mario Bozzo, who founded the Award, recalled that at the time success was only a hope and entrusted its future to the team, “safe from any form of solitary protagonism”. Giovanni Pensabene, president of the Foundation, evoked the themes of these 20 years, from migrations to thinking machines.
The most beautiful phrase of the evening was pronounced by a machine, Violet: «Human time is made up of intervals between one word and another».