5-6 June "The fiendlike skill we display in the invention of all manner of death-dealing engines, the vindictiveness with which we carry on wars, and the misery and desolation that follow in their train, are enough in themselves to distinguish the white civilized man as the most ferocious animal on the face of the earth". A century and a half after Herman Melville wrote these words in Typee, further instruments of doom are being added to the white civilized man’s burden, many of which are commonly related to scientific and technological breakthroughs. Misfortune tellers are having a field day predicting the worst-ever millennium and exploiting the threats posed by the swift change we now experience. There are, however, rational ways of apprehending the future and its dangers, of mapping the patterns elicited from past history and today’s trends, as well as the emergence of new opportunities. Rationality alone is not enough to allay fin de millénaire gloom, but it helps. The ten Nobel Laureates and the international experts invited in Milan are asked to act as "mankind’s civil servants" - as Husserl, who was one of them, said - and to reflect upon what lies ahead.

Past and Future Virtues of Curiosity-Driven Research Friday 5 December 1997 Who could deny that scientific research is often driven by political expediency, social need, or mercenary considerations? Radar, atomic weaponry, and proximity fuses emerged from the necessities of war. Edisonıs light bulb and Marconiıs wireless telegraph were essentially entrepreneurial developments, as is todayıs search for better batteries with which to power pollution-free electric cars. The extinction of smallpox and the virtual elimination of polio are examples of successfully directed scientific efforts to better the human condition, as is todayıs search for a cure for multiple sclerosis, or for an alternative to our dwindling supply of fossil fuels. Nonetheless, I believe that the vast bulk of our scientific edifice did not, will not, and cannot result from research to which the words "directed" or "planned" apply in any sense. Indeed, basic science - and the technology that depends upon it - could not possibly have evolved by intention, and would only be retarded by well-intentioned but misbegotten attempts at rational planning. The scientific mind is one for which the unrestrained (and undirected!) curiosity of the child has not been corrupted by the mores of society. I will prove my point by considering several crucial events in the history of science.