A Campus for Designing Artifacts | Jiro Kokuryo, Vice-President and Professor, Faculty of Policy Management
2020.02.25
In our world, there are things that humans can design and things they cannot. Machines and laws are things that humans can intentionally design (artifacts), but it is often impossible to know what kind of society will result until we try. I do not think anyone could have predicted with complete accuracy how the internet would change the world. If things had gone as intended, our online society would have become a utopia where people understand each other across borders. In reality, it is sometimes used to stir up prejudice against other countries, and because it is such a powerful tool, it can also create serious divisions. Now, if someone were to claim to know with 100% certainty what consequences AI will bring to the world, it would be rather suspect. In other words, society cannot be designed.
I write this because I believe that SFC is a campus where the arts and sciences come together, united by the concept of "design." Here, "design" does not, of course, refer to appearance, but rather the act of humans creating artifacts to work toward making society better.
The difficulty in designing society as intended is that society is a complex system formed by the intricate entanglement of many elements. As various factors overlap, unexpected results can emerge. This is the so-called phenomenon of emergence. A society that exhibits emergence is, therefore, impossible to design.
Considering this, what is needed is the humility to recognize that only a very small part of the world is designable, and a sense of responsibility to pay attention to the consequences of what one has created, making corrections based on feedback. As the potential of technology grows, we must continue to constantly ask what it is bringing to society and what adjustments it requires. To fulfill this responsibility, it will be necessary to acquire the fundamental knowledge and methodologies to view the entire social system beyond one's own specialty. We want to be a campus that continues to meet these needs.