Piero received a degree in Mathematics from University of Turin, where he did work in General Theory of Relativity. For a number of years he was the head of the Artificial Intelligence Center at Olivetti, based in Cupertino, California. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard Univ. and Stanford Univ. (conducting research on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science), has lectured in three continents on "The Nature of Mind" and "History of Knowledge" (most recently at U.C. Berkeley), and has published a number of books. "The Nature of Consciousness" (2006) ishis most recent books on these subjects. The readers for his university courses were compiled in the eBook "A Brief History of Knowledge" (2011). As a software consultant, he pioneered Internet applications, Artificial Intelligence and Object-Orientated design in Silicon Valley. He also co-wrote the first "History of Silicon Valley" to cover the century from the founding of Stanford University to the boom of social networking. All along he has also continued writing poetry both in Italian (for which he has been awarded several prizes) and in English. "Synthesis" (2009) collects poems and meditations. He pioneered Internet-based journalism on his website scaruffi.com He is probably more famous as a critic and historian of rock, jazz and avantgarde music. His main books on music are: "A History of Rock and Dance Music" (2009), "A History of Jazz Music 1900-2000" (2007), "A History of Popular Music before Rock Music" (2007). He also writes regularly about cinema, literature, science and history. He has organized several interdisciplinary cultural events in the Bay Area. The Leonardo Art Science Evenings (LASERs) started in january 2008. By 2012 LASERs were being held at University of San Francisco, Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley (all three chaired by him in person), UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA and in Washington DC at the National Academy of Science. An avid traveler who spends months on the road, piero had visited more than 150 countries of the world as of 2013. In 2012 he published two ebooks on the Visual Arts: "A Visual History of the Visual Arts - Part 1: From Impressionism to Surrealism" and "A Visual History of the Visual Arts - Part 2: From Abstract Art to Conceptual Art"; which were followed by "A Visual History of the Visual Arts - Part 3: The Age of Globalization (2013). "Demystifying Machine Intelligence" (2013) is a book on Artificial Intelligence, the Singularity and the post-human condition.