The Universe of Isomorphism: From Life to Policy

The Universe of Isomorphism: From Life to Policy

Also related to plurality.

>seshiapple: Here are the main articles I worked on. First, "The Universe of Isomorphism: From Life to Policy" is an interview with Keita Nishiyama, formerly of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). We interviewed Mr. Nishiyama, who as a bureaucrat put together the concept of Data Free Flow with Trust, about his career and philosophy.

The content is probably quite different from what one might expect from the introduction of >....... The talk begins with Yukito Emorya, whom he read in the 1990s, and develops into his own cosmology, "Strong Isomorphism," inspired by models of artificial intelligence, and discusses the relationship between governance and technology, using both domestic and international examples.

(This is completely personal, but I believe that his cosmology is characterized by the realism of patterns and relationships. While vaguely recalling what I read about Perth and Whitehead as a student, I was surprised and refreshed to see such a vision submitted from a different place than so-called university research.)

Next, "Inheritance of Memory, Plurality of Future" is a trilogy discussion by Ginga Kondo (@SpiralGinga), Reina Saijo (@r_saijo), and Tomoko Shimizu (@tomo_kororin). Intersecting such cut-off points as gender, ethnicity, and class, they will analyze the technology and its representation in and outside of the works.

The dialogue will eventually turn to the potential of technology to take on local context and narrate the memory of the community. This trilogy will question the nature of technology as open to plurality and chance, referring to various examples from art and literature, and explore ways to make the future truly pluralistic, rather than majority-oriented.

(Again, on a personal note, this trilogy was a project that we really wanted to make happen in this special issue. I felt it was necessary to critically relativize the technology we have today and our expectations of it, and to ask those who are capable of doing so about the future.)

(On a more personal note, I learned a lot from the discussions in this trilogy, especially in the middle and latter half. I hope it reaches people involved in technology as well as pop culture. There are plenty of concrete examples that I thought would be helpful.)

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