There is little more relevant that questions regarding the enormous amount of data and the extraordinary quantity of information that each of us, however consciously or unconsciously, releases onto the internet every day. Who is responsible for their miraculous gathering? Who elaborates them? Who processes them? To whom are they of use? To whom are they harmful? Can they dictate our choices? Can they affect our behaviour? Are we right to worry, or are we facing a new and significant scientific opportunity? With mathematical models based on data processing, we are witnessing progress made in studies into artificial intelligence and robotics, applied in extremely wide-ranging and fascinating ways. And so to the play written by Laura Curino with the contribution of a pool of professors from META, the network set up by the Politecnico di Milano that brings together scholars from the departments of Engineering and Architecture and Design, and examines the ethical, philosophical and epistemological questions related to scientific and technical development and to innovation. 

The Big Data B&B (a delightful bed and breakfast with kitchen) plays host to a group of eclectic computer scientists, each one an expert in a specific branch of digital science. This very special hotel forms the pretext for examining the various aspects of the matter from a secular point of view, without seeking to provide answers but rather with the aim of soliciting questions. A place for the transformation of food, but also a place of alchemy, the owner’s kitchen is an oasis of comfort, care and attention, where guests can still enjoy warmth and company during the brief mealtimes. All of the guests trust their landlady and her skill in preparing infusions and “healthy” concoctions gathered in a past New Age phase and have no idea that she snoops into their files, studies their lives and their projects, and is forming her own “home-made” opinion on the matter, employing their own tools. The theatre has, for millennia, been the elected forum chosen by communities to debate their most pressing matters, involving the senses and the emotions as well as thoughts. The Big Data B&B still has some rooms... free.