Smart Cities, Mushrooms, and Buddha: Thinking Methods for "Non-"Human-Centered Design

2025/03/25

Computers, as "tools" that expand our thinking, are becoming entities that coexist with us as "others," much like AI that converses with humans or robots with physical bodies. Furthermore, they will likely exist as "other species" with intelligence and bodies different from humans. While humans have exterminated bears and wolves, they have also domesticated dogs and horses, constantly updating the boundaries with other species. In the history to come, the boundaries with new "others" and "other species" such as AI and robots are bound to be updated.

So, how will these new artificial environments called "smart cities," where we live with such others and other species, be designed, and how will people live within them? Will they go beyond mere convenience and become something that enhances people's intelligence and virtue? Ultimately, what kind of intelligence should we exercise there?

In this book, to address these questions and relativize our rational and planned intelligence as inhabitants of civilized cities, I have summoned "mushrooms (fungi) as symbols of intelligence different from humanity" and "Buddha as a symbol of intelligence that transcends humanity" to re-examine our world. Centered on dialogues with people from various fields, I explain the importance of "non-discriminative wisdom" as an Oriental/Japanese way of knowing—newly discovering the value of things and events right before us (heuristic) and connecting that value elsewhere to create further value (eye-opening). I also present examples where this is applied and exercises for mastering it.

The catalyst for my focus on Oriental and Japanese creativity was my stay at Stanford University, supported by the Fukuzawa Fund, where I experienced the world of Silicon Valley. The process by which technology is accepted into society reflects individual cultures and worldviews. How will Oriental and Japanese thinking be reflected in the process of creating a world where we coexist with AI and robots? Mushrooms and Buddha provided hints to that question. The title is often called a "mystery," but if that mystery stimulates your imagination, you may be standing at the entrance to mastering heuristic and eye-opening creativity.

Smart Cities, Mushrooms, and Buddha: Thinking Methods for "Non-"Human-Centered Design

Yasuto Nakanishi (Co-author)

BNN, Inc.

360 pages, 2,750 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.