Science Ltd.

Andrea Borghini is an associate professor at the “Piero Martinetti” Department of Philosophy at the University of Milan and director of Culinary Mind, a research center promoting philosophical thinking on food. A leading scholar in food and philosophy, he also researched consolidated topics in analytic metaphysics and philosophy of biology. He is the author of nine monographs and over eighty publications in journals, volumes, and encyclopedias.Simone Severini is a Distinguished Engineer at Google and a Professor of Physics of Information at University College London (UCL). He helped found some of the world's first quantum computing startups, including Cambridge Quantum (later Quantinuum) and Phasecraft. He built the AWS quantum technologies division, including research partnerships with Caltech and Harvard. He's helped guide funding decisions for agencies in fifteen countries, and he's also been an advisor to major VCs.

• Prologue Chapter 1: “Science” (That is: notes on science as a dynamic activity to describe and predict) 1.1 The practical value of science 1.1.1 Explore and predict 1.1.2 Phenomena 1.1.3 Between practice and theory 1.2 Scientific languages 1.2.1 Preliminary considerations 1.2.2 The value of formalization 1.3 Language and epistemic value 1.3.1 Communicability and verifiability 1.3.2 Compactness 1.3.3 Applicability 1.4 Formal and applied truths 1.4.1 Formal language as a regulative ideal 1.4.2 The limits of formal language (through machines) 1.4.3 Psychological certainty rather than truth 1.5 Limitations 1.5.1 The language of mathematics is fallible 1.5.2 Intractable problems and undecidable problems 1.5.3 Scientific discovery and the dynamism of knowledge Chapter 2: “Technology” (That is: notes on technology as an activity that builds machines and procedures to operate them) 2.1 In the sea of technologies 2.1.1 First intuitions 2.1.2 Observation and practical reason 2.1.3 Formulation and discovery 2.1.4 Accidental discoveries 2.2 Utility, utopia, dystopia 2.2.1 Primary and secondary technologies 2.2.2 Five parameters 2.2.3 Storytelling and technology 2.3 Science & technology 2.3.1 A complex relationship 2.3.2 Impact on society Chapter 3: Scientific production (That is: notes on how to support research while trying to avoid prejudice and gossip) 3.1 Publish today 3.1.1 The primacy of the scientific article 3.1.2 The literary form of the scientific article 3.1.3 The refereeing process 3.1.4 The value of the publication 3.2 Looking for alternatives 3.2.1 Against refereeing 3.2.2 Open-ended scientific articles 3.2.3 Reputation, gossip and trust 3.2.4 Trust in science as a public value 3.3 Funding for scientific research 3.3.1 Research support, quality and quantity 3.3.2 Access criteria: degrees and types of breakthrough 3.3.3 The importance of context and the streetlight effect 3.3.4 How to rethink the system? Chapter 4: Technologies for scientific production (That is: notes on the scalability and sustainability of the scientific and technological enterprise) 4.1 Scalability of science 4.1.1 Technology in mathematics 4.1.2 Science in a graph? 4.1.3 Technology in a graph? 4.1.4 A science database 4.1.5 Androids muse for humans or humans muse for androids? 4.1.6 A hyperscale science 4.1.7 Android and human creativity 4.2 Sustainability of science 4.2.1 Phronesis 4.2.2 Innovation 4.2.3 Communicability 4.2.4 Risk 4.2.5 The last mile 4.2.6 Ordinariness Chapter 5: Epilogue (That is: notes on how to guide the construction of machines for future science) 5.1 Machines and people 5.1 Science for a House of Solomon 5.2 Outline for an Almanac of Solomon 5.3 A call to action

Back Cover: The application of digital technologies to scientific research suggests new scenarios for the scalability of knowledge. How does this opportunity change our conception of science and how can we use it to make scientific practice more enduring and effective in the long term?