- This article has been published on Substack.
- Due to its high public importance, I am also posting it on this blog.
Essential Understanding of Technological Innovation and Human Dignity
For those of you interested in environment and health, I believe it’s easy to share the understanding that “the whole, not the parts” is crucial. Therefore, this approach may be particularly advantageous for those who care deeply about environmental issues.
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The Age of Cognitive Pollution
I connected the above article with the literature of Franz Kafka and Haruki Murakami regarding the entire civilization of Homo sapiens and the changes since the Industrial Revolution.
How to convey this in English as a second language was a challenge for me.
The original Japanese version is distributed as a PDF at the above link. If you’re interested, Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview at https://aistudio.google.com/ can process up to 1 million tokens per day for translation and commentary.
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Homo sapiens society has repeatedly followed a four-stage historical pattern due to technological advancement: “1. Emergence of new technology → 2. Changes in society and lifestyle → 3. Formation of systems to manage humans → 4. Institutional corrections.” Each time, there has been an increasing tendency for humans to be evaluated not as “whole beings” but merely by “specific abilities or functions” as partial aspects.
This “compartmentalization of humans” began with the commodification of labor during the Industrial Revolution and has now expanded to internal domains such as attention, emotions, and creativity through modern social media and AI. As a result, children tend to find value in follower counts and grades, while adults are also bound by the logic of results and efficiency, living within structures where human wholeness becomes difficult to perceive.
This structure is not due to individual weakness or problems, but rather stems from historical mechanisms common to society as a whole. By recognizing this, we can adopt two directions: “critical understanding of structures” and “holistic recovery of humanity.” This can naturally be applied to food safety and environmental issues as well.
What is needed for the future is not merely the pursuit of efficiency and convenience, but new social design based on “uniquely human values” such as empathy, creativity, and ethics. To achieve this, the following practices are required across all domains—homes, schools, and social institutions:
- Evaluation and dialogue that views humans holistically
A perspective that emphasizes each person’s character and relationships rather than focusing solely on outcomes and skills. - Cultivation of critical thinking about systems
The ability to ask “why?” about social rules and technology, and to independently research, think, and discuss. - Environmental preparation for intellectual and emotional independence
Establishing places where both children and adults can continuously deepen their learning by utilizing libraries and connections with experts. - Redefinition of dignity in opposition to “compartmentalization”
Even in the AI era, centering on deep empathy, ethical judgment, and relationship building that only humans can possess.
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In short, AI has the potential to accelerate problems that have existed since the Industrial Revolution to their extreme limits. In crisis management, awareness is crucially important.