Japan’s A.I. - Pygmalion

Japan's A.I. - Pygmalion

by
William Wolfman

Important terms
Shinto (神道 Shintō), or kami-no-michi (among other names) - is the ethnic religion of Japan that focuses on ritual practices to be carried out diligently in order to establish a connection between present-day Japan and its ancient past.
Buddhism - is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies.
________________________________________________________________


Art by William Wolfman
Deviant Art: @WDWolfman

Japan doesn’t have a religious precedent like the US, as the country is mostly Buddhist and Shinto. Monotheistic religions like Christianity usually have something to say about morality — think about how much money has been spent fighting women’s rights to abortion. Japan hasn’t really had that battle.
Of course there are two sides to the coin as privacy remains a particularly big concern for Japanese people, but the integration of AI in the daily lives of Japanese people is unlikely to face any religious debate. Japan ain’t scared of no AI!
Secondly, if you haven’t heard, Japan is facing some serious challenges in it’s labor force. There has been a labor shortage for several years now, and the birthrate has been steadily declining. The reason for the declining birthrate is not one-side and stems from a host of cultural and economic factors that will need to be individually addressed (Mike Kanert wrote a great piecesummarizing this recently).
The clock is ticking for Japan to somehow reverse this slowing in both GDP growth and population. The labor force is highly inefficient so AI could help maximize productivity, and thus has the full support of Prime Minister Abe. In fact, IoT and AI are at the heart of his revitalization strategy.
Japan is technology driven and has generally thought less about how their tech is going to expand globally, often falling prey to the “galapagos syndrome.” In it’s recent tech solutions for AI a lot of it is focusing on very local solutions and largely connected to robotics. This may not seem beneficial for a global audience …but the intense specialization on one area could lead to faster breakthroughs instead of trying to develop a wide range of applications for an international market.
In sum, I think Japan has some great scientists and some great minds. The greater challenge is actually getting a lot of this research to market and connected to the right people for commercialization.



SOURCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Odyssey (essay) Kalypso's Island

The Odyssey – Kalypso’s Island In Homer’s epic “The Odyssey”—on pages 89-91, from lines 50-104, translated by Richmond Lattimore, Hermes travels to Ogygia, an island ruled by a Goddess named Kalypso who fell in love with Odysseus, the story’s main protagonist for seven years. His encountering with the Goddess in this small passage tells us that Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, is arguably the most adaptable character in the Odyssey, and his importance here in particular, differentiates an adaptable character from a single-minded one. Lattimore’s description of the island from Hermes’ point of view gives a magnificent effect on the reader when Hermes has a conversation with Kalypso which helped Odysseus continue on his journey home to Ithaca. Ten years before “The Odyssey,” Odysseus was a loyal warrior who fought alongside the Acheans, during the Trojan War. After the war was finally over, Menelaus and Helen both reside in Sparta, and Odysseus’s son Telemachus and wife Penelope r...
Read more

Cult of Artemis Ephesus, 1st Century AD

Cult of Artemis Ephesus, 1st Century AD A Narrative by William Wolfman My name is Hermolaos, Roman citizen, silversmith, and member of the cult of Artemis at Ephesus, the coast of Asia Minor. It is 59 AD and I am afraid of a small monotheistic group that has expanded due to the apostles and their quest looking for converts. St. Paul and his followers title this religion “Christianity” and have come to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus to convert many of the gentiles, some of which have belonged to our cult. We respectfully reiterated the value of our deity, Artemis, daughter of Leto and Zeus, and the twin of Apollo, is the goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and fertility. She is the helpers of midwives as a goddess of birth. With the presence of Paul and the slow rise of Christianity, my career in sculpture has taken a hit in earning a stable income. My works of art that are created for the greek goddess Artemis has, and most certainly will lose intere...
Read more

Social Media Chaos

Image
Social Media Chaos by William Wolfman Social media will pressure you into not being standoffish... Hold onto your dichotomy as Jung believed, and never abandon that dichotomy. Artist communities have imposed an extremism that 'dichotomies' shouldn't ever govern who you are and that an 'everyone is equal' mentality' is somehow inherently true in accordance to some 'creationist' heresy. But this however, is faulty to an extreme and is something I've speculated as detracting from modern art in general as well as artists' creativity today. And sure, 500 years ago we didn't have that science of psychiatry that would aid artists in their discoveries and inventions like we have now, or at least, refined to the extent of it even being considered a medical craft like it is today. Nevertheless, two halves of the brain will be in constant conflict with your decision making whether you are aware of it or not. And sure, this vague facet o...
Read more