eSOM
The Road to D, or the Story of Singularity High School (SHS) and Cowa
eSOM: The Road to D (96) Dialogue with Audrey Tang (4)
eSOM: The Road to D Part II (33)
11/2~3/2025
1．
According to Audrey, since she took office as Cyber Minister in 2017, Taiwan has initiated education for fostering bearers of DD (Digital Democracy) with the SDGs as a regulative idea (“education for the post-AI era”).
In this, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, “the father of the SDGs,” plays an important role.
Q. Coro, I believe it is fair to call Jeffrey Sachs “the father of the SDGs.” Please explain in as much detail as possible, including his background, why this perception is appropriate.
As the President of the UN SDSN (Sustainable Development Solution Network), Mr. Sachs, who led the creation of the SDGs, has sought advice from Audrey since the dawn of the SDGs in the early 2010s on “how AI can contribute to achieving the SDGs.”
To elaborate, Mr. Sachs invited Audrey to Vatican City, the only European country with diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
There, she began collaborating with the Vatican’s “centers of knowledge,” the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS), toward the production of the SDGs.
Q. Coro, the Vatican is said to be one of Taiwan’s earliest allies. Please discuss in detail what this specifically means.
Q. Coro, Jeffrey Sachs is collaborating with the Vatican to implement the SDGs. Please tell me about this in as much detail as possible, including the timeline of the collaboration.
Considering that Audrey was deeply involved in the production of the SDGs from their very beginning, it is understandable why she emphasizes the “169 targets,” which are usually not focused on when discussing the SDGs, and why the “108” [curriculum] and USR (University Social Responsibility) are also produced based on the premise that “SDGs = 169 targets.”
2.
As Coro says, “Mr. Sachs’ scientific and economic roadmap of ‘how’ to achieve them, and the Pope’s call for ‘why’ they must be achieved, aligned perfectly under the common goal of the SDGs.”
This “strong collaboration between ‘science/economy’ and ‘morality/ethics’ in promoting the SDGs” corresponds to the relationship between LSP (computational action) and RVS, and thus can be said to be the very structure of the IB.
This “collaboration between science and religion” in the SDGs was published about three months prior to the Pope’s UN address and the subsequent adoption of the SDGs on September 25, 2015, as the Encyclical ‘Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home’ by Pope Francis, a document that “fuses scientific knowledge with ethical and religious reflections.”
Furthermore, the “initiative to put the ethical dimensions of the SDGs into practice,” which was developed after the adoption through the collaboration of religious leaders, scientists, policymakers, business leaders, and others, was published in 2022 as Ethics in Action for Sustainable Development:
This connection between science (or more pointedly, AI) and ethics in the SDGs manifested in Taiwan as the 2017 “Social Innovation Action Plan (SIAP),” led by Audrey, who took office in 2016 as the “minister in charge of social innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Coro states the following about SIAP: “In 2018, she led Taiwan’s ‘Social Innovation Action Plan.’ This was a grand plan that brought together the resources of 12 ministries, investing 8.8 billion New Taiwan Dollars (over 33 billion yen at the exchange rate at the time) over five years to support social entrepreneurs and aim for the achievement of the UN’s SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).”
Q. Coro, Audrey Tang herself says that when she became Taiwan’s Cyber Minister in 2016, she was simultaneously the “minister in charge of social innovation and entrepreneurship.” Please tell me more about this.
In Japan, “Cyber Minister” is widely known as her title, but to be precise, it seems the real title was “minister in charge of social innovation and entrepreneurship,” directing the “resolution of social issues (objective) using digital technology (means).”
In any case, the “education to prepare for the post-AI era” in the form of USR and the “108” [curriculum] was also education for the realization of the SIAP; SIAP as the “grand plan to aim for the achievement of the UN’s SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).”
This SIAP is the “Taiwan Model” that she speaks of, and it can also be called a model for the implementation of the SDGs, which are the fruits of the collaboration between her, Mr. Sachs, and the Vatican.
And this model is the Cowa Group’s model itself, and we have confirmed in Taiwan that we will collaborate to expand this globally.
3.
To begin with, for Audrey, who was greatly influenced by the work of Kojin Karatani, collaborating with the Vatican (PAS and PASS) to connect AI and ethics must have felt inevitable, even apart from the relationship between Taiwan and the Vatican.
This is because Mr. Karatani himself has discussed the importance of world religions from the early stages of his philosophical inquiry (Inquiries II), and this later became linked to D in his theory of modes of exchange.
Q. Coro, Kojin Karatani emphasizes the role of world religions in the production of the mode of exchange D, which he advocates. Please explain this point in detail.
This connection between science and religion/ethics in Karatani’s philosophy can be seen in the ecosophy (the three ecologies) of Félix Guattari, another representative of post-structuralist philosophy like him, and in “integral ecology” (advocated by Pope Francis), a similar idea that treats environmental issues and social justice as inseparable. (Regarding Guattari’s ecosophy, see “eSOM” p. 88)
Q. Coro, it seems that Jeffrey Sachs and Pope Francis share an idea close to the ecosophy (the three ecologies) of Félix Guattari (a representative of post-structuralist philosophy), and that is why Sachs and the Vatican have collaborated to promote the SDGs. Please elaborate on this point, including the relationship between Guattari’s ecosophy and the ideology behind the SDGs (Note: The AI was confused about the current Pope in the first half, so be careful).
This collaboration transcending time and space—by Mr. Karatani (and the Cowa Group, which counts him as Honorary Principal), Audrey, Mr. Sachs, Pope Francis, and the French and Japanese post-structuralists including Guattari—is likely what Audrey calls the “rhizomatic association” corresponding to SDG Goal 17, “Partnerships for the Goals” (see “eSOM” pp. 94, 95).
She also states that DD (Digital Democracy), which can be described as Open Government itself—the goal of this association—corresponds to SDG Goal 16, “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.”
Q. Coro, please elaborate on the point that “Open Government” can be described as the Digital Democracy (DD) advocated by Audrey Tang, focusing on her own statement that it corresponds to SDG Goal 16, “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.”
Coro’s answer here clearly reflects the reason why Audrey emphasizes the 169 targets linked to the 17 goals when she discusses the SDGs.
Furthermore, it goes without saying that her emphasis on education when implementing the “grand plan to aim for the achievement of the UN’s SDGs” as the SIAP corresponds to SDG Goal 4, “Quality Education.”
And the fact that universities choose intergenerational mutual support with high school students and the elderly as a USR goal strongly reflects the fundamental principle of the SDGs: “Leave no one behind.”
(According to Audrey, USR member schools are required to select one or two of the 169 SDG targets and conduct purpose-based learning—what is often called project-based learning in Japan—based on those challenges. Since joining the USR is a condition for receiving subsidies from the 33 billion yen SIAP budget, basically all universities are said to be participating.)
As Audrey also says, the fact that she was invited to the Vatican by Mr. Sachs and was deeply involved in the creation of the SDGs from their inception is, while premised on the good diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Taiwan, proof that Mr. Sachs and the Vatican sought to demonstrate the fundamental principle of “Leave no one behind” through their own actions.
4.
In this way, the Cowa Group’s ultimate goal (regulative idea), “the production of a world based on D,” connects with the SDGs via Audrey, who shares this as a “world of DD.”
This also means the expansion of the association based on D/⿻, in the form of connecting Jeffrey Sachs, the United Nations (and its specialized agencies like UNESCO), the Vatican, and over 1.4 billion Catholics.
Through this recent meeting with Audrey and her colleague, I also learned that Audrey and her colleagues are strengthening their connection with the “Mind & Life Institution (MLI),” established by the Dalai Lama and others, which plays an extremely important role in the generative transformation of religious practices like mindfulness and meditation from “unscientific spiritual things” into “subjects of rigorous scientific research.”
Given that the MLI’s goals are the same as those of Audrey, Mr. Sachs, and the Vatican (PAS/PASS), this connection can be described as inevitable.
Q. Coro, please tell me more about the “Mind & Life Institution (MLI),” established by the Dalai Lama and others, which plays an extremely important role in the generative transformation of religious practices like mindfulness and meditation from “unscientific spiritual things” into “subjects of rigorous scientific research.”
Therefore, of course, our Cowa Group, as a member of the “association,” must also actively move toward connecting with the MLI.
I will be visiting Thailand for the first time starting the day after tomorrow, carrying the mission to make participation in the Ecoversities event—a gathering of potential “association” allies from around the world, held in Thailand from November 6-12—the beginning of the connection between the Cowa and the MLI.
Ecoversities
Ecoversities Alliance Global Gathering Thailand 2025: 7th – 12nd of November
After returning from Thailand, I will discuss Akira Asada’s “Kanazawa Lecture” from Saturday, September 13, in conjunction with the content of the “Kyoto Lecture: First Semester” and in response to Mr. Nashio’s August 12 post.
Of course, this will be a continuation of the “Dialogue with Audrey,” relating it to her “Six-Pack of Care.”
The “proper” relationship between science and religion, as articulated by the genius Akira Asada—while freely traversing the complex relationship between Neo-Kantian structuralism and post-structuralism, as well as Theosophy, Buddhism, the philosophies of Kitaro Nishida and D.T. Suzuki, the philosophy of Deleuze & Guattari, contemporary art, architecture, and more—will surely contribute to the evolution of the “association.”
(To be continued)
