The author describes the cultural and operational context of the Club of Rome, starting from the visionary and innovative figure of Aurelio Peccei. Born in 1908, his story is traced from his childhood in Turin and his employment at FIAT, followed by his career as an international business manager. Together with a group of internationally innovative personalities, in the 1960s he collaborated with Pietro Ferraro in the foundation of “Futuribili”, and in 1968 founded the Club of Rome with Alexander King. In the fraught and contradictory climate of those years, the principle objective of both initiatives was the formulation of predictions which would enable individuals in positions of power to shape the future of the world. The exercise of prediction comprised a number of methods, ranging from intuition to simulation. Carried out according to the latter method, the Club’s first research project saw the light of day in the form of the book The limits to growth (1972). It was a controversial work, attracting, like the Club of Rome itself, a good deal of criticism. The author’s analysis illustrates the method of simulation and the macrovariables used, along with their levels and states of flow. It then turns to the modifications applied to the research in 1992 and 2004, and the subsequent reports of a more qualitative nature. It emerges how over time the Club of Rome became a source of research and operational indications for decision makers and also for educators. Lastly, the author analyses Aurelio Peccei’s testament Club of Rome. Agenda for the end of the Century, published shortly before his death in 1984.
