eSOM
The Road to D, or the Story of Singularity High School (SHS) and Cowa
eSOM: The Road to D (95) Dialogue with Audrey Tang (3)
eSOM: The Road to D Part II (32)
10/30~31/2025
1．
Through my dialogue with Ms. Audrey Tang, I learned that she, like the Cowa Group, is producing an educational program (“108”) for DD, with the SDGs as a regulative idea.
I was deeply moved to learn this, and I have been explaining why.
In 2018, I resigned from my university professorship and began working on the production of a world based on D.
The only light in my groping in the dark was the SDGs, inspired by Kojin Karatani’s discussion of Kant.
From there, I first introduced the International Baccalaureate (IB) at Nozomi Kindergarten (Hiroshima), where I was serving as principal at the time.
As a historian of social thought specializing in educational philosophy and intellectual history, I was convinced that the IB was a program for nurturing the bearers of the SDGs.
This attempt to introduce the IB into an Article 1 kindergarten, the first in western Japan, marked the beginning of a full-fledged connection with colleagues working towards the same goal, including President Kohei Shintani.
It was the beginning of the production of a “(rhizomatic) association.”
The experience at “Nozomi” made the proposition that “the IB is an educational program for nurturing the bearers of the SDGs” even more unwavering.
Therefore, we produced our own educational guidelines called the “Cowa Method” based on the IB.
And based on that, we began the production of Singularity High School (SHS), which directly connects to the Cowa Group’s certified kodomo-en, including “Nozomi,” which already totaled four in Japan at the time.
The production of this SHS was also a connection with Mr. Masao Ishihara of LEGO SERIOUS PLAY (LSP).
The connection with Mr. Ishihara and LSP can be said to have been a “fuse” on par with the SDGs, in the sense that numerous further connections began to radiate from it.
This connection led me to the proposition (1) that “LSP is the optimal training method for achieving the goals of the IB.”
At the same time, it was also the acquisition of the proposition (2) that “LSP, which takes SDG Goal 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’ as the issue to be achieved (= regulative idea), is computational action (CA) itself for solving that issue, and is the optimal training for acquiring CA.”
Furthermore, this proposition is premised on the proposition (3) that “the philosophy behind LSP (Rasmussen Vision School, RVS) is SDG Goal 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’ itself, and functions as the issue LSP should achieve and as a regulative idea (Kant).”
Q. Coro, I hear that at MIT, it’s common to call computational thinking “computational action.” Please explain this in detail, including its background.
Q. Coro, please demonstrate the proposition that “SDG Goal 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’ is a ‘meta-goal’ for achieving all the other 16 SDG goals, and is the most difficult ‘system challenge’ of our time, involving collaboration among complex stakeholders.” Then, please verify the proposition that “LEGO SERIOUS PLAY (LSP) is a means of solving this challenge using computational thinking.”
Connecting the above three propositions establishes the proposition that “the IB is an educational program for nurturing individuals who can achieve the SDGs, including Goal 17, through AT, and LSP is the optimal method for carrying out this program.”
The acquisition of this proposition strengthened the connection between the Cowa Group and Mr. Ishihara, and from there, the following three new connections stemmed.
First, Mr. Ishihara has connections with MIT and Tufts University CEEO, and thanks in part to that, SHS was selected as a DX High School support school in its very first year of opening.
We must also not forget that it was because of this selection that we were able to connect with “Anchor,” which made the production of the Social Business Department possible.
Second, the connection with Mr. Ishihara reawakened my dormant love for mathematics (I, who had aspired to be a physicist, initially majored in mathematics at university).
And that developed into a connection with Mr. Takashi Nashio, a mathematics and information teacher at Seiko Gakuin.
I have been blessed with excellent teachers from all times and places, but the only two I call with the title “Sensei” were Shuzo Kuki-sensei (philosopher and aesthetician) and Yasujiro Ozu-sensei (film director).
I would like to add to that list the name of Nashio-sensei, a graduate of the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Science, Department of Mathematics, who is currently writing a mathematics textbook for the (post-)AI era.
I will incorporate what I myself have learned from him into the Cowa Group’s mathematics and science education in general.
This revival of my love for mathematics was simultaneously a rise in my enthusiasm for AI, and that developed into a connection with Audrey.
That is the third new connection brought about by the connection with Mr. Ishihara.
At the same time, this connection with Audrey originally stems from my encounter with Mr. Karatani, whom she deeply admires, on the Cornell University campus on February 25, 1994 (it was also Mr. Karatani who facilitated my exchange with Audrey starting this May).
This connection with Audrey was inevitable, given that she, like me, admires Karatani’s series of essays on “language, number, money,” and that, while being a genius in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), she knows better than anyone that A (Art, Liberal Arts) lies at its foundation: therefore, STEM has to be, “always, already,” STEAM.
Q. Coro, please introduce Kojin Karatani’s series of essays on “language, number, money,” including the main texts that discuss them, in as much detail as possible. And please elaborate on the relationship between your answer and Tang & Weyl’s work “⿻ PLURALITY.”
I found the following open-source e-book that might be helpful for deepening the understanding of “⿻”:
The Digitalist Papers
The series of questions and answers with Coro, stemming from Mr. Karatani’s theory of “language, number, money” mentioned above, became an explanation of the relationship between that theory and his theory of modes of exchange, and an extraction of the essence of “⿻” through the filter of Karatani’s philosophy (“language, number, money” theory × theory of modes of exchange), which was an unexpected gain (regardless of the accuracy of the detailed arguments).
This dialogue will surely serve as an excellent guide for deciphering “⿻”.
Intuiting these connections, the production of SHS and the entire Cowa Group has proceeded under the proposition that “D is ⿻, and a world based on D is DD.”
And this led to the meeting with Audrey 10 days ago.
The catalyst for the meeting was Audrey’s autobiographical short film, “Good Enough Ancestor.”
Good Enough Ancestor
I wrote a total of nine “eSOM” entries regarding “Good Enough Ancestor.”
That’s how much her life and what she is doing resonated with me.
They are all included in the following “eSOM” (32):
eSOM: The Road to D (32) A Letter to Audrey Tang
I received a polite email from her, which made it clear that she had read all of them carefully.
Thus, our exchange began in earnest, leading to this visit to Taiwan.
In this way, by using the SDGs as a spark = regulative idea, we were able to produce SHS as this much of an “association” in just six months since its opening.
And what I learned at the meeting with Audrey in Taipei (Tamsui) was that Audrey has also been producing an educational program for DD with the SDGs as a regulative idea.
Moreover, as a national policy called “108” and its implementation, USR, and as an “association” that has grown to the scale of the “Japan-Taiwan University Alliance,” a “platform for USR international cooperation and exchange.” (See “eSOM” 94)
What surprised me further was that at the beginning of producing DD (in my case, initially “a world based on D”) and education for it with the SDGs as a regulative idea, there was Jeffrey Sachs, who could be called the “father of the SDGs.”
Next time, let’s continue this story starting from the connection between Jeffrey and Audrey.
(To be continued)
