eSOM
The Road to D, or the Story of Singularity High School (SHS) and Cowa
2025.05.09
eSOM (イゾーム): The Road to D, or the Story of SHS and Cowa (11) “イゾーム (eSOM)” and “リゾーム (Rhizome),” or the Greatness of Akira Asada
1. I’ve expanded the title starting from this episode. First, the main title is now eSOM (read as イゾーム in Japanese). And the subtitle includes the name SHS, as this writing is primarily intended for SHS members within the Cowa Group. As you can see from “The Road to D (10),” eSOM was the name for SHS before the name Singularity High School (abbreviation: SHS) was decided. I have been using this name since 2011, when I first conceived of SHS, as the name of the school I would create myself after leaving university. At the same time, from the beginning, it referred to “D” (Karatani’s mode of exchange D, and the world dominated by it) that SHS would construct. But where does this strange neologism come from? eSOM is an acronym for Jay-Z’s song “Empire State of Mind” (2009). From the moment I first heard this song on January 31, 2010, I moved past my yakudoshi year (2009), which was full of hardships, and began to move towards the construction of eSOM (D). If I were to dare to translate this song title into Japanese, it would be “我が心のニューヨーク（New York of My Heart）.” “Empire State” is the nickname for New York State. California is The Golden State. In Jay-Z’s song, it specifically sings about New York City (NYC). My true life began when I first stepped into NYC at the age of 18. NYC is truly “my spiritual home.” Nothing expresses this better than the song’s music video: youtube.com/watch?v=vk6014 Jay-Z in this music video is me. And this song is the theme song of SHS. As I will discuss in detail later, SHS was literally born in NYC. 2. The notation eSOM, when read by a native speaker, becomes “ee-sahm (イソーム).” I intentionally read it as “ee-zome (イゾーム).” This is because “eSOM (イゾーム),” which is SHS and will eventually become “D,” is modeled after the concept of “rhizome (リゾーム)” by the thinkers I most respect, Deleuze & Guattari. To state the conclusion first, my hypothesis is that “rhizome” is what Audrey Tang advocates for as “digital democracy” (in other words, “D” itself). Understanding this is the most important learning in SHS. I will explain this in detail here in “eSOM.” Here is a book: Akira Asada’s Structure and Power: Beyond Semiotics (1983). This book, published 42 years ago, was finally released in paperback about a year and a half ago, generating significant buzz. I currently have the first edition in my hands. I borrowed it from a classmate in high school and never returned it. Several other people in the class also owned this book. Incidentally, among the university professors I met during my time as a university professor, almost none of them truly understood this book. And these weren’t professors at some “wannabe university,” but even at some of the world’s leading universities. The fact that several students at a “wannabe college-prep school” in the countryside owned such a difficult book, and that it was reprinted in paperback more than 40 years later, speaks to its indescribable appeal. After moving to the United States in 1986 and living in North America for over 30 years, until recently returning to Japan, Structure and Power was always by my side. This is the only book like that. As I will explain later, this book literally paved the way for me to become a university professor. All of my major papers written during my time as a university professor were based on this book, and thanks to it, I achieved tenure (permanent job security), which is now almost impossible to obtain in North America. And now, based on this book once again, I am trying to build SHS, and “D” as advocated by Karatani, as eSOM. By the way, Mr. Asada is a close ally of Mr. Karatani, along with Mr. Nakagami, and also had close interactions with Mr. Nakagami. Regarding the relationship between Mr. Asada, Mr. Karatani, and Mr. Nakagami, please see here: book.asahi.com/jinbun/article book.asahi.com/jinbun/article Mr. Asada is also close friend with Mr. Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mr. Shiro Takatani, who appeared in “The Road to D (10)”: icakyoto.art/realkyoto/talk 3. In Structure and Power, Mr. Asada states the following about “rhizome”: “The instinct, which has become misaligned with the world of organic life, spins its wheels in the rhizomatic labyrinth of the hypertrophied brain, creating informational excess—an excess of direction = meaning. This is an extremely critical state. The deranged organic memory, ‘the memory of the great cosmic life capable of flooding every communal undertaking’ (Deleuze & Guattari, Anti-Oedipus), must be suppressed at all costs. On top of that, it becomes an urgent task to inscribe linguistic memory in the symbolic dimension” (Akira Asada, Structure and Power: Beyond Semiotics, p. 165). Here, it can be considered that the “every communal undertaking” that Deleuze & Guattari refer to is “B” (mode of exchange B, or what Deleuze & Guattari call overcoding) and “C” (mode of exchange C, or what Deleuze & Guattari call decoding) as advocated by Mr. Karatani. On the other hand, I believe that the “memory of the great cosmic life capable of flooding the undertakings” of “B” and “C” is “D” (mode of exchange D, or what Deleuze & Guattari call rhizome). And this “memory of the great cosmic life” is precisely the “Cosmic History + The Road to D (eSOM)” that is learned at SHS. Most existing schools other than SHS primarily function as “ideological apparatuses of the state = panopticons” of “C” (Structure and Power, pp. 178-183), and conduct education to suppress the “memory of the great cosmic life ≈ D ≈ rhizome” that could “flood the undertakings” of “C.” As a footnote to the above quotation, Mr. Asada states the following about “rhizome”: “If one reads Rhizome, one cannot help but recall the intricate neural circuits within the brain. Deleuze and Guattari themselves, in a section added when Rhizome was included in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, touch upon the rhizomatic nature of the brain” (Structure and Power, p. 171). The scientific elucidation of the “intricate neural circuits within the brain,” said to be analogous to the “rhizome,” has advanced dramatically since then. And based on this, the development of AI has also advanced dramatically. Regarding this point, Coro stated the following: x.com/shinkoukouwa/s This is nothing but incredible. I say so since, if my hypothesis that “D is a rhizome” is correct, then we have a model of “D” within our own heads, in the form of the brain. Therefore, we, whose ultimate goal is to construct “D,” should be able to create a “blueprint of D” by exploring this most familiar model of “D.” Also, if AI is modeled after the “intricate neural circuits within the brain,” then the inquiry-based learning of the brain should lead to an understanding of AI. I believe that AI is indispensable for the construction of “D,” so deeply understanding AI is extremely important. And if “D” ≈ brain ≈ AI, then understanding AI must be helpful in better understanding “D” and actually constructing it. (To be continued)
