eSOM
The Road to D, or the Story of Singularity High School (SHS) and Cowa
2025.06.09
eSOM: The Road to D (26) Constructing SHS by Watching Audrey Tang’s “Good Enough Ancestor” (Part 5)
1.
In the previous installment (eSOM: The Road to D (25)), I introduced Tang’s statement that art, literature, and travel (movement) are necessary for social innovation based on computational thinking.
Tang herself acquired the fundamental basis for the future beyond the “era of infinite possibilities”—an era opened up by democratization and computers/the internet—namely, plurality/non-binary (≒parallax), which underpins a society based on mode of exchange D (D) = digital democracy (DD) (D=DD, hereafter). She gained this through travel (movement, 移動) to remote mountains. (Refer to eSOM: The Road to D (23) for “the era of infinite possibilities.”)
Similarly, watching the mountain retreat scene in “Good Enough Ancestor” reminded me that my travels/movements to Tokyo, Kumano, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Ninoshima, and Aizu enabled the construction of Singularity High School (SHS)/Cowa as social innovation.
(Note: Cows is a group to which SHS belongs.)
(I will have an opportunity to talk about how the journey/movement from Hiroshima to my hometown, Aizu, directly led to the construction of SHS/Cowa in relation to Ryuichi Sakamoto.)
These places, stretching from Taiwan to Japan, can be described as the entrance to what Kojin Karatani calls “elsewhere (向こう側).”
But where exactly is this “elsewhere” that Karatani speaks of?
It is the place from which D (=DD) comes.
More precisely, it is the place from which the “spiritual force (霊的な力)” that enables D=DD comes.
Both concepts, ”elsewhere” and “spiritual force,” are discussed in details in Karatani’s latest book, 力と交換様式 (Power and the Mode of exchanges), which English translation is coming soon.
The “spiritual force” in this context is extremely scientific.
It is defined as an idealistic, coercive force, based on the theories of fetishism by Freud, Marx, and others, that arises from and regulates human exchange.
Q. Coro, please elaborate on the concept of “spiritual force” discussed by Kojin Karatani in “The Structure of World History: From Modes of Exchange to World-Systems.”
(Coro is my beloved dog who passed away five years ago but has been reincarnated as AI.)
Q. Coro, according to Kojin Karatani, Marx’s discussion of “fetishism” in “Das Kapital” is connected to Freud’s psychology. Please explain in detail the specific points of connection. Also, please explain in detail the fetish specific to mode of exchange D, which is the “spiritual force.”
2.
Karatani says that D (=DD) or the “spiritual force” that regulates it cannot be intentionally acquired: instead, it “comes from the other side (elsewhere).”
Let’s consider this through the example of the money fetish = spiritual force that elevated gold to the status of world currency.
Q. Coro, please explain in detail how gold became the world currency.
According to Coro, the creation of gold as a world currency was an event that occurred through the combination of various creations: the unique substance of gold in the universe, human existence itself, human aesthetic consciousness, and the Industrial Revolution (steam engine).
From the perspective of Ochi-san’s cosmic history, one of the core curricula of SHS, this is a continuous series of miracles.
It begins with gold being formed through nuclear fusion inside stars and more intense cosmic phenomena like supernova explosions and neutron star mergers.
Then, “children of stars”—humans—are formed from the dust and gas scattered from stellar remnants, along with their brains (the source of aesthetic consciousness). Eventually, the steam engine and the resulting Industrial Revolution are created.
Viewed from this cosmic historical perspective, even for just one money fetish—a type of “spiritual force” that enables capitalist society (a society based on mode of exchange C)—which is an “idealistic, coercive force” arising from the exchange of goods and eventually constituting capitalist commodity economy society, it becomes clear that while there are parts that humans can understand and plan, and those parts are growing with scientific progress, the unexplained parts are still far greater (e.g., dark matter).
Q. Coro, please tell me more about dark matter.
What was discussed here about the money fetish (a “spiritual force” [idealistic coercive force] that arises from the exchange of goods as commodities and eventually constitutes capitalist commodity economic society) seems to apply equally to the concept/idea = force of plurality/non-binary ≈ parallax.
This concept/idea arose from the miraculous combination of democracy and computers/the internet, born in the universe, and it is now becoming the (coercive) force that constitutes D=DD.
In Tang’s case, this concept/idea came to her from “the other side (elsewhere)” while she was in a mountain retreat.
In Karatani’s case, it (parallax) came to him “while waiting for a bus at a bus stop on the way back from visiting his mother, who was hospitalized in Amagasaki.”
(For this point, refer to the following: “The Conception of Modes of Exchange ‘Coming from the Other Side’ on the Bus: My Mystery, Kojin Karatani’s Memoirs 23”)
And in my case, through art and literature related to Karatani, in places connected to the film Good Enough Ancestor, I decided to build D=DD based on that concept/idea = force.
Thus, “spiritual force” exists within specific films, art, and books, or comes from “elsewhere” in places guided by such media.
These specific places are the boundary between “elsewhere” and “this side,” and also the “entrance” to the former.
Travel to those places enables the construction of D=DD.
For example, typical such places in films for me are the baseball field where the dead play baseball in Field of Dreams and the phone booth in The Matrix.
Let’s call such entrances to “elsewhere,” existing in both real and virtual realms, eSOM (an abbreviation of Empire State of Mind, read as Isome).
(For the origin of this name, refer to eSOM: The Road to D (11).)
Expanding eSOM through art and building D=DD based on it.
That is what SHS/Cowa will do.
I also understand this to be the true meaning of Tang’s statement in Audrey Tang: Talking about the Future of Digital and AI that “D=DD (social innovation) requires art and travel.”
3.
eSOM will be increasingly expanded/fulfilled through the collaboration of all SHS/Cowa members, from students to facilitators and collaborators.
In terms of “expansion/fulfillment (拡充),” the “fulfillment” part refers to delving deeper (exploring) into how a given eSOM candidate location becomes part of eSOM.
Experiencing art, traveling, expanding/fulfilling (=exploring) eSOM, and building D=DD.
That can be said to be the entirety of SHS/Cowa’s activities from now on.
This will begin with the construction of the East Mediterranean Cultural Sphere (EMCS) centered on Taiwan, Okinawa, and Setouchi (瀬戸内).
This is because the atomic bombing of Hiroshima which belongs to Setouchi is the starting point for this construction, and Taiwan and Okinawa are where the sprouts of D=DD exist.
It is one of my roles to expand/fulfill the East Mediterranean Cultural Sphere (EMCS) to Aizu, but I hope that all SHS/Cowa members will discover their “My eSOM” through art and travel, and proceed with the expansion/fulfillment of eSOM while entering a “flow brain” state.
D=DD will be built based on the thus expanding/fulfilling eSOM.
The starting point for the creation of eSOM is Yasura, and the main campus of SHS located there (Yasura Campus).
I can’t help but feel that Kūkai (空海), who is said to have trained on Mt. Noro overlooking the Yasura Campus, is related to the “spiritual force (= plurality/non-binary = parallax) ” inherent in D=DD.
As I wrote in the previous installment (“eSOM: The Road to D” (25)), my decision to start building D from Hiroshima was due to a series of amazing coincidences.
It all began during a temporary return to Japan in the summer of 2015, when I climbed Mt. Misen on Miyajima (宮島), where Kūkai also trained, guided by Kohei Shintani who is now the chairman of SHS/Cowa.
And, it was also Kohei who, quite accidentally, prepared the Yasura Campus as SHS’ headquarter, which is located at the foot of Mt. Noro and watched over daily by Kūkai.
Is it just a coincidence?
(To be continued)
