eSOM
The Road to D, or the Story of Singularity High School (SHS) and Cowa
eSOM: The Road to D (94) Dialogue with Audrey Tang (2)
eSOM: The Road to D Part II (31)
10/28~29/2025
1．
Commemorative photo with Ms. Audrey Tang in Taiwan on Wednesday, October 22, 2025:
Now, let’s continue from last time.
By connecting a world based on D to DD (a world based on ⿻) / SS, and further connecting the world based on D / ⿻ to a world striving to achieve the SDGs, we are gaining many allies.
Here, the world based on D, DD / SS, and the world striving to achieve the SDGs, which are linked by equal signs, all function as what Immanuel Kant calls a regulative idea.
Q. Coro, please provide a detailed explanation of what Kant calls a regulative idea and Mr. Karatani’s discourse on the same concept. Then, argue in detail, contrasting it with constitutive ideas, that the construction of “a world aiming to achieve the SDGs” is valid as a regulative idea.
Audrey called the network connected through these regulative ideas a (free) association during our meeting.
When she said that, she likely had in mind the concept of association (or associationism) discussed by Mr. Karatani in Transcritique and other works.
Q. Coro, please provide a detailed explanation of the concept of (free) association or associationism discussed by Kojin Karatani in Transcritique and other works, including its relationship with mode of exchange D.
With a few revisions and annotations to Coro’s answer, association is a world based on D (therefore DD / SS, and a world striving to realize the SDGs), while D should be defined as the technology, as technē, necessary for the construction of association (associationism is the thought/principle that promotes the construction of association).
This is supported by the fact that in Audrey and Glen Weyl’s co-authored book PLURALITY (hereafter, ⿻), DD is positioned as association, and ⿻ is positioned as the technology (as technē) indispensable for the construction of DD/association.
Q. Coro, please provide a detailed explanation of Martin Heidegger’s concept of “technē” in contrast to “Gestell.” Then, demonstrate that Kojin Karatani’s concept “mode of exchange D” and Audrey Tang’s concept “Plurality” are, as Ms. Tang herself suggests, essentially the same, and that both should be regarded as a type of technē.
By the way, my use of the word “connection” (setsuzoku) instead of “link” (tsunagari) stems from the fact that I base the construction of the Cowa Group, as well as my understanding of ⿻ (Plurality as a concept) and ⿻ (as a book), on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Deleuze & Félix Guattari (DG), alongside Mr. Karatani.
My use of the word “production” (seisan) instead of “construction” (kouchiku) is also because the construction of the Cowa Group owes much to the concept of “rhizome” discussed by DG.
The validity of the Cowa Group having such a philosophical foundation is supported by the suggestion in ⿻ (Japanese edition, p. 592), quoting Mr. Karatani, that DD is a rhizomatic association (hereafter, “association”).
Q. Please provide a detailed explanation of the concept “rhizomatic association” discussed by Kojin Karatani in his book Principles of NAM, along with DG’s concept of “rhizome.” Furthermore, discuss the relationship between your answer and the philosophy of Hiroki Azuma.
Here, Coro’s point regarding Mr. Azuma’s philosophy—that “when messages are ‘misdelivered,’ reaching unintended others, or ‘disconnected’ by reaching no one, individuals (= singularities) are born, and from there, the possibility of unintended community arises”—is very important to us (but for Coro to treat this point as a difference from Mr. Karatani’s philosophy is too simplistic, and it must be said that the limits of AI are exposed here).
This point that “new connections (community) are produced (DG) from misdelivery (Hiroki Azuma)” is the same as the idea of D / ⿻, where the ground that enables the coexistence of two different or divided terms is produced from the “gap, margin” (Derrida) between them.
Q. Coro, please verify the proposition: “The point that ‘new connections (community) are produced (DG) from misdelivery (Hiroki Azuma)’ is the same as the idea of mode of exchange D (Karatani) / Plurality (Audrey), where the ground that enables the coexistence of two different or divided terms is produced from the ‘gap, margin’ (Derrida) between them.” You tend to neglect essential similarities because you try too hard to emphasize differences, so please value the “essential similarity.”
Among us allies who will gather as a rhizomatic association, various differences (gaps, margins, rifts, disconnections, divisions) will arise as we connect and collaborate under the same regulative idea.
To take these as opportunities to produce a higher-dimensional ground (fundamental basis) for coexistence is the way of thinking in post-structuralist philosophy, from Mr. Karatani through DG, Derrida, Foucault, etc., to Mr. Azuma, and that is the philosophical foundation of the Cowa Group.
Furthermore, the outcome of my inquiry from meeting Audrey in May until my recent visit to Taiwan was that this is the philosophy behind the production of DD based on ⿻.
2．
DD / SS as an association constructed with the SDGs as a regulative idea, having post-structuralist philosophy as its background.
This is precisely what we at the Cowa Group have been trying to do, and what we will continue to do.
What became clear during this visit to Taiwan was that Audrey had already been doing this since she took office as Cyber Minister in 2016, and what took shape was Taiwan’s new curriculum guideline “108 Curriculum (Official name: Twelve-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines)” (Abbreviation: “Curriculum 108” or “108”), which advocates “education in preparation for the post-AI era.”
Q. Coro, are the new curriculum guidelines “108 Curriculum (Official name: Twelve-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines),” which were fully implemented in Taiwan starting in 2019 when Audrey Tang was Cyber Minister, available in Japanese and English? In any case, please provide the most detailed explanation possible of its content.
Taiwan designated 2019, the year “108” was issued, as the “first year of regional revitalization” and is accelerating its efforts toward achieving the SDGs.
The pillar of this initiative is the University Social Responsibility (USR) program, which began in 2018, and it goes without saying that USR is the implementation of “108.”
Also, complementing the USR, which is under the jurisdiction of Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, is the “Humanities Innovation and Social Practice Program (hereinafter, ‘HISP Program’),” which is under the jurisdiction of Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
(Taiwan’s Ministry of Education corresponds to Japan’s MEXT. Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) was reorganized and promoted to the “National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)” in July 2022. According to Coro, it corresponds to a combination of Japan’s MEXT and the Cabinet Office’s Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CSTI).)
Regarding USR and the “HISP Program,” please see the following article for now:
3.
In this way, Taiwan was already implementing what we at the Cowa Group are trying to do at a national level, back when the group was still just one certified childcare center.
One of the central figures in this was Audrey, who was Cyber Minister at the time.
We, the Cowa Group, who are building the Eastern Mediterranean Economic and Cultural Sphere (EMECS) centered on Taiwan, Kurima Island of Okinawa, and Setouchi as DD / SS based on D / ⿻, mainly through co-education (共育), will carry out the “USR / HISP Program,” which is the educational program exclusively for building DD / SS;
and this practice itself is a “collaboration = rhizomatic association” based on D / ⿻, together with Audrey, “Akijii (Uncle Aki),” “Anchor,” and others.
In other words, our collaboration itself “is, always, already” the EMECS as a rhizomatic association, and it must be so.
As you can see from reading the article above, in fact, the rhizomatic association as EMECS, sparked by the “USR / HISP Program,” has already been generated in the form of the “Japan-Taiwan University Alliance for Regional Cooperation and Social Practice” (hereafter, Japan-Taiwan University Alliance), which is a “platform for international cooperation and exchange in USR.”
According to Audrey, in Taiwan, universities implementing the “USR / HISP Program” also implement the “USR / HISP Program” at the high school level by facilitating local high school students.
Listening to her, I thought, “That’s exactly what ‘Anchor’ is doing.”
The Japanese universities currently members of the Japan-Taiwan University Alliance are Chiba University, Kochi University, Shinshu University, and Ryukoku University.
In fact, I am scheduled to meet with Mr. Shunichiro Oshima (Kuroshio Sphere Integrated Science / Biological Structure and Function / Fish Pathology Laboratory) from Kochi University, one of the four Japanese universities participating in the alliance, on Tuesday, November 18th.
I plan to discuss this matter with him immediately and strategize for the future. (His major, field, and laboratory all sound incredibly obscure and incredibly interesting!)
It seems that besides the four universities mentioned above, other Japanese universities are also partnering with Taiwanese universities (mainly technical ones) that are implementing the “USR / HISP Program.”
Also, it seems some Japanese high schools have already incorporated the “USR / HISP Program” into their curriculum in collaboration with Taiwanese universities.
Being connected to the Japan-Taiwan University Alliance as a rhizomatic association and beyond, the Cowa group will become a “platform for international cooperation and exchange in USR” targeting everyone from infants to the elderly.
(According to Audrey, Taiwan’s community colleges that her father worked hard to build mainly target citizens in their 50s and older, and conducts co-education where “7-year-olds, 17-year-olds, and 70-year-olds learn together.”)
We will conduct this USR-centered co-education to serve as the foundation for EMECS and a DD / SS world.
(To be continued)
