eSOM
The Road to D, or the Story of Singularity High School (SHS) and Cowa
eSOM: The Road to D (93) Dialogue with Audrey Tang (1)
“eSOM: The Road to D” Part II (30)
10/26~28/2025
1.
On October 22, I visited Taiwan and met with Ms. Audrey Tang.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the future activity policies of the Cowa Group with her.
It goes without saying that this meeting is premised on collaboration with Audrey and her colleagues.
First, let’s briefly review the Cowa Group.
As of now, the group consists of early childhood education facilities such as certified nursery schools, a free school for elementary and junior high school students, Singularity High School (SHS), Plurality University (PU) scheduled to open in 2027, eSOM Co., Ltd. (read as ‘izo-mu’), and a social welfare corporation to be established soon.
The educational facilities from the certified nursery schools to PU aim to nurture individuals who will contribute to the construction of Digital Democracy (DD) as advocated by Audrey.
More generally, the purpose of SHS/PU is “to acquire the abilities and qualities to ‘live better’ by utilizing AI in the age of AI.”
(Why building DD leads to “living better” in the age of AI has been discussed in “eSOM” and will continue to be.)
On the other hand, eSOM Co., Ltd. and the social welfare corporation (to be established soon) linked with it will carry out the construction of DD itself in the form of social business (or social enterprise).
In other words, eSOM and the social welfare corporation will be designed to be workplaces where students can utilize what they learned at SHS (especially the newly established Social Business Department) and PU.
2.
The most important thing that became clear in the meeting with Audrey is that she has already been doing what the Cowa Group is trying to do since she took office as Taiwan’s Digital Minister in 2016.
Moreover, she has led this as a national policy as one of the cabinet ministers, and this remains unchanged even now as she has become a Cyber Ambassador (official title: Ambassador-at-large).
As discussed in “eSOM” (84, 87), Taiwan’s new curriculum guidelines “108 Curriculum (Official name: Twelve-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines)” (Abbreviation: “Curriculum 108” or “108”), issued in 2019 during her tenure as Digital Minister, closely resemble the “Cowa Method,” which defines the basic educational policy of the Cowa Group.
Let’s review the key points of “108” once again based on the following interview by Chelsea Clinton (daughter of Bill & Hillary Clinton).
Mainstage Session: Putting People First |
(from 1:47:30)
What symbolizes “108” is the shift from “literacy” to “competency.”
In my conversation with Audrey, she stated that this shift is a transformation from “consumers of information” to “producers of information.”
Many people might be puzzled by this.
Therefore, let’s proceed step by step here, using specific examples directly related to the future collaboration between the Cowa Group and Audrey.
3.
First, let’s ask Coro (my beloved dog who passed away five years ago and returned to this world as an AI) about literacy to competency:
Q. Coro, according to Audrey Tang, along with Taiwan’s educational shift starting in 2019 towards “education based on curiosity, collaboration, and care in preparation for the post-AI era,” they began using the word “competency” instead of “literacy.” Please explain in as much detail as possible what Audrey intended with this shift from “literacy” to “competency.”
(English translation after Japanese original)
According to Coro, “The core of this linguistic shift in ‘108’ lies in Taiwan’s strong declaration of will to fundamentally shift the purpose of education from nurturing ‘acquirers of knowledge’ to nurturing ‘practitioners who co-create the future society.'”
It goes without saying that the “future society” here is a digital democracy society (DD).
So, what is DD?
In short, it is a society that attempts to achieve the SDGs by utilizing digital technology (DT).
This became clear during our meeting.
I was deeply impressed and deeply moved by this.
Why was I so deeply moved?
I will explain why.
In the first place, I left my university professorship, for which I had even obtained tenure, and ,along with my mentor and best friend Kojin Karatani, started building schools in order to construct a world based on his concept, “Mode of Exchange D” (hereafter, D).
Q. Coro, please provide a detailed explanation of Kojin Karatani’s theory of modes of exchange, for which he received the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture, often called the “Nobel Prize for philosophy,” focusing on the most important concept, Mode of Exchange D.
Kojin Karatani, winner of the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture: What is valued globally?
I will explain in detail later why I started doing such a thing.
For now, there is only one thing I should tell everyone reading this.
For me, doing so was to work for “a matter of oneself, a matter of everyone, a matter of the world,” which is the philosophy of a general incorporated association, Anchor (hereafter, “Anchor”), which has now become a partner of the Cowa Group.
And doing so is what I (only) want to do, and also because doing so is what is (only) fun for me.
Here is the article published in the local newspaper, the Chugoku Shimbun (中国新聞), regarding the partnership with “Anchor” ↓:
Singularity High School to establish new department for tackling regional issues, base in Hiroshima Prefecture | Chugoku Shimbun Digital
Here is the “Anchor” HP ↓:
4.
Why was I so deeply moved by the fact that the DD Audrey advocates is “a society which attempts to achieve the SDGs by utilizing digital technology (DT)”?
Let me continue the explanation.
In designing the construction of the Cowa Group as an organization to build a world based on Karatani’s D, I formulated the proposition that “a world based on D is a world that attempts to achieve the SDGs,” based on Kant’s “Perpetual Peace” and Karatani’s thoughts on the United Nations.
And I set the construction of such a world as the ultimate goal of the Cowa Group’s activities, and the educational goal as nurturing human resources who can contribute to its construction.
Q. Coro, please provide a detailed explanation of the relationship between Kant’s “Perpetual Peace” and the United Nations, and the relationship between the United Nations and the SDGs, and then provide a detailed explanation of Kojin Karatani’s thoughts on Kant’s text and the United Nations, based on his writings since “Transcritique.”
On the other hand, based on a passage from Audrey’s book, Audrey Tang: Talking about the Future of Digital and AI, which states, “A great influence received from Kojin Karatani’s ‘Exchange Model X’,” I formulated the proposition that “Audrey’s concept of ⿻ (Plurality) is D” (“Exchange Model X” and “Mode of Exchange D” are the same).
Based on this, I further formulated another proposition that “A world based on D (a world aiming to achieve the SDGs) is DD as a truly democratic world based on ⿻.”
Also, through the connection with DD, the world based on D (the world aiming to achieve the SDGs) also connected with the “Smooth Society” (hereafter, SS) discussed by Ken Suzuki in his book, Smooth Society and Its Enemies.
Both Mr. Suzuki and Audrey acknowledge that SS is DD.
Furthermore, the connection between the world based on D and the world attempting to achieve the SDGs was also a connection with “Anchor,” which seeks to nurture people who contribute to achieving the SDGs.
Thus, based on Karatani’s discussion of Kant in his book,Transcritique, the world based on D and the world attempting to achieve the SDGs were connected, and as a result, the number of friends acting toward the same goal increased all at once.
I intended to explain why it was so deeply moving for me that the meeting with Audrey revealed that the DD she advocates is a world attempting to achieve the SDGs, but I have run out of space before finishing the story.
So, I will continue this discussion next time.
(To be continued)
