The course "Future History of Energy" has - as educational objectives of the course - the knowledge of the essentials on technical issues of major social relevance relating to the Energy challenge. Furthermore, for the "technical" part - the acquisition of knowledge on issues concerning the history of energy (both from conventional and innovative sources) from its origins to the present day, with some insights - both historical and technical - on renewable energies (wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass, geothermal), and on the history of physics and nuclear energy, both in Italy and in industrialized countries. • The course aims, as regards the knowledge that the student must acquire at the end of the learning process, the critical acquisition of historical and technical knowledge on the history of energy, with particular regard to the evolution that leads from the beginning of the twentieth century to the oil crises and the seventies, to continue with climate change and the advent of innovative renewable energies. Among the skills acquired, the student will be able to place in the historical and humanistic field technical knowledge concerning energy, the limits to development, climate change, the revival of renewable energy, controversies concerning the development, advent and decline of the nuclear energy source. • The development of critical thinking and the ability to recognize some of the main cognitive biases and modes of reasoning and decision-making and the ability to integrate technical-engineering and socio-humanistic skills will be the most important outcomes.

Basic knowledge of math and physics, as learned in the first-year programme of Politecnico di Torino

Introduction to the Energy challenge, during which the technical topics of greatest social relevance will be presented. Main part of the course, classroom lessons, organized as follows. Two initial parts, Part A (method) and Part B (basic data), which will be followed by a part C, design and application (Rethinking history). The educational project is therefore divided into these parts: A) Can modern historiography become a "hard" science? The "humanistic part" (1 CFU). B) Energy and history of energy. The "technical part" (2 CFU) C) Rethink the history of energy, rewrite it and update its methods. Write parts of future story scenarios. Group activity thanks to which students will specialize the challenge on a specific sub-theme (3 CFU) Part A. Historiography: minimum requirements for interacting with the "hard sciences" Modern historiographical reflection has matured through dialogue with other sciences, giving epistemological value to the results produced by historical research, analyzing, correcting and improving the "method" (process of retrieval, analysis and synthesis of sources), necessary to give scientific reliability to the work of the historian, to allow him to distinguish the "true" (from which effective knowledge flows) from the "false" (J.G. Droysen). During the twentieth century, the historiographical school pushed the historical sciences to welcome the stimuli coming from numerous other "hard sciences" (e.g. economics and statistics), but the interactions with the energy sciences are partly unexpressed. By retracing the main themes of theory, philosophy and historical methodology, as well as the events, strands and figures of the history of historiography, the historiographical module supports and affirms the ability of history to ensure, with a reasonable degree of certainty, the knowledge of the facts it studies. History as a science, and historian as a professional figure whose physiognomy includes love for knowledge and method, technical skills and intellectual honesty. Part B. Energy and the history of energy. Basic data This part has - as learning objectives of the course - the acquisition of knowledge on issues concerning the history of energy (both from conventional and innovative sources) from its origins to the present day, with some insights - both historical and technical - on renewable energies (wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass, geothermal), and on the history of physics and nuclear energy, both in Italy and in industrialized countries. The course aims, to the critical acquisition of historical and technical knowledge on the history of energy, with particular regard to both the period immediately before and after the industrial revolution, and to the evolution that leads from the beginning of the twentieth century to the oil crises of the seventies, to continue with climate change and the advent of innovative renewable energy. Among the skills acquired, the student will be able to place in the historical and humanistic fields technical knowledge concerning energetics, the limits of development, climate change, the revival of renewable energy, the controversies concerning the development, advent and decline of the nuclear energy source. The degrowth topic will be treated in detail. Part C. Reconstructing the history of energy, rewriting it and updating its methods and usability. Try to write future story scenarios. Group activity thanks to which students will specialize the challenge on a specific sub-theme. In other words: Rethink the historical blunders of the "future of energy" narrative in the past, try to write something less improbable. What is meant by the future history of energy? First of all, the historiographical analysis of the relationship between energy, man and society, to understand and be able to predict its evolution. But the phenomenon of the change over time of forecasts on the future of energy must be explored, a paradigm of randomness, fallacy, mutability, as in few other cases. "Unpredictable" technological innovation is not a reason, but an excuse. The project involves the analysis of the history of energy to dwell not on factual realities, but on their perception, interpretation, narration: how was the past, present and future of energy told "in the past"? Can this explain the unreliability of many forecasts, even in the short term? The historiographical method can allow us – by correctly describing past and present – to describe future trends as well. The future history of energy is all to be written yet. Each annual class of students will be able to make their own contribution to this task, through an interactive laboratory activity. Starting from materials already available, the participants in the project will have to rewrite a part oor add a new part, both as a coherent framework of the past history of energy and as a consequent credible framework on scenarios for the future of energy itself. In this project, the challenge is to turn the story into a tool, a tool to "know how it will end". A good rule in writing science fiction is to create, to invent a past first of all, because there can be no future if there is no past event; if, on the other hand, we want to write about future science, and in this particular case of the future of energy, we must know what energy has actually been in the past, without flattening ourselves on convenient narratives of past and existing realities. Critical reading and learning from the texts on energy of the recent past will be important: this part of the "history of the history" of energy could be called "The way we were", that is, “things we wrote were going to be and never were".

The course includes the participation of professors from other universities, for the historical-methodological part. In particular, there will be the contribution of Prof. Angelo D'Orsi (University of Turin, one of the most eminent Italian historians) and Prof. Francesca Chiarotto (professor of history of political thought at the University of Eastern Piedmont). The acquisition of the historical-methodological skills that they will allow with their lessons is an essential part of the teaching.

The “Global Challenges” catalogue will be launched each year with a lectio magistralis in English dedicated to a highly relevant theme. The course is divided into 30 hours of lectures and 30 hours of exercise activities, carried out in groups. During the exercise activities, the implementation of innovative projects is expected. Reconstructing the history of energy, rewriting it and updating its methods and usability, trying to write new pieces. Practical activity at the end of which students will specialize the challenge on a specific sub-theme. The projects will become part of a work-in-progress ebook that will be collected in a digital platform which, in addition to representing a teaching tool for the review of the work produced by individuals, will allow the sharing of content among students, both from the same year and from future years.

• A. D'Orsi, Manuale di Storiografia, Pearson, 2021. • M. Zucchetti, Storia futura dell'energia, CLUT, 2015. https://www.clut.it/ita/chimica-fisica-matematica-statistica/-/storia-futura-dellenergia/248.html Research and analysis of past texts, activity "The way we were": • Pietro Rousseau, Storia dell'energia, Edizioni Paoline, 1960, second ed., pp. 305. • U. Colombo, Energia, nuova edizione riveduta e aggiornamento, Donzelli Editore, 2000. • M. Zucchetti, Pagine di Storia Critica dell'Energia Nucleare, CLUT, Torino, March 2011. • M. Zucchetti, "Climate Changes due to anthropogenic emissions", in AA.VV. La Scienza. Vol. 13: The Environment and Energy. La Biblioteca di Repubblica, 2005. pp. 555-566. Handouts distributed by teachers through the Teaching Portal. E-book with chapters written by students from previous years, available online and free of charge

Lecture slides; Lecture notes; Text book; Multimedia materials;

Exam: Compulsory oral exam; Group project;

To participate to the oral exam, it is mandatory to have completed and submitted in due time the group exercise paper or presentation, within the deadline. The scores will be awarded according to the following rules: the exercise paper or presentation will be evaluated with a grade from 18 to 30, while the oral exam will serve to confirm the individual contribution for each member of the group. The evaluation will be based on the mastery shown by the students in applying the concepts learned during the lessons, on the quality of the design solution identified, on the quality of the paper or presentation produced, and finally in the ability to orally discuss it with the Examination Committee. Students unable to attend lessons or exam sessions (worker students only) will have to complete and submit the group exercise or presentation: it is admitted - just for them - to prepare it without joining a group., and a shorter exercise will be admitted in that case: however, the instructor will encourage the other "regular" students to consider the inclusion of a worker student in their group. The oral discussion could be carred out - just for worker students - remotely and in a date agreed by the instructor and the student..

In addition to the message sent by the online system, students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) are invited to directly inform the professor in charge of the course about the special arrangements for the exam that have been agreed with the Special Needs Unit. The professor has to be informed at least one week before the beginning of the examination session in order to provide students with the most suitable arrangements for each specific type of exam.