Tokyo College Symposium “What is a human being? Thinking about the digital revolution, genomic revolution and human society“ - Tokyo College

Tokyo College Symposium “What is a human being? Thinking about the digital revolution, genomic revolution and human society“

When:
2019.10.31 @ 17:00 – 20:00
2019-10-31T17:00:00+09:00
2019-10-31T20:00:00+09:00
Tokyo College Symposium "What is a human being? Thinking about the digital revolution, genomic revolution and human society“

Tokyo College Symposium “What is a human being? Thinking about the digital revolution, genomic revolution and human society”

Professor Masaki Sano (Deputy Director, Tokyo College) moderated the first part of the session, which featured presentations from Professor Hiroyuki Morikawa (School of Engineering), Professor Osamu Nureki (School of Science), Professor Toru Nishigaki (Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo), Professor Takuji Okamoto (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), and Professor Takahiro Nakajima (Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia).

First, Professor Morikawa gave a presentation titled “The digital transformation of industry, the economy, society, and localities,” in which he gave the examples of sports, comedy theaters, and waste paper collection systems to explain the new added value obtained from digital data. He stated that “human capacities” are important in the digital revolution, and that people need to share a sense of the benefits of digital technologies.

In a presentation titled “Genome editing: the situation now, and the future,” Professor Nureki then explained genome editing using CRISPR-Cas9, and explained the possibility of applications such as accumulating beta carotene in rice, and cultivating tomatoes with a longer shelf-life or onions that do not make you cry when cut. Next, Professor Nishigaki gave a presentation on “The future of AI and human freedom,” in which he proposed the desirability of taking account of discussions overseas known as the singularity hypotheses and the Homo deus hypothesis to understand AI systems as pseudo-autonomous agents, and that we should go on to use AI as an IA (Intelligence Amplifier), which incorporates the meaning of being something put to use by human beings.

Professor Okamoto’s presentation was titled “Society facing new science and technology: from the experience of modern Japan,” and used the principal examples of electricity theft and the atomic bomb to consider, the effects of new science and technology on society and the state, and how society and the state have responded, based questions concerning the national polity and the people. He stressed that core values can be abandoned, altered, or transformed, and that interpretations can be changed in the context of post-transformation perspectives. Finally, Professor Nakajima gave a presentation titled “Re-defining human beings today,” in which he examined the concept of human beings from a philosophical perspective, referring to the “Jewish Turn” of the 20th century, technological progress, and the emergence of global history as three factors behind changes in the concept of the human being. Introducing Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011), and based on the view that the nature of the future will change depending on what we want in the future, he argued that the time has come when we must think of “spirituality” as distinct from religion.

The second part of the event was a panel discussion and Q&A session, also moderated by Professor Sano. There were questions from the floor on topics including issues of privacy associated with the use of data, and the safety of genome-edited foods. The session developed into an extremely significant discussion for the consideration of humanity’s future, with diverse views received from speakers in each field on themes such as the question of whether AI systems used for autonomous driving and the like can be considered “liable”, differences in the consciousness of the digital and genomic revolutions in Japan and overseas, and how to treat human “emotion.”

Finished
Date(s) Thursday, 31 October 2019, 5:00-8:00 pm (Doors open: 4:30 pm)
Venue

Ito Hall, Ito International Research Cener, the University of Tokyo (Hongo Campus)

Registration Pre-registration required (390 seats - First come, first served)
Language Japanese langauge only
Organized by Tokyo College, The University of Tokyo
Contact tcevent@graffiti97.co.jp

Upcoming Events

Exploring the Future of Crowdsourced Healthcare (Lecture by Prof. Simo HOSIO)

イベント予定講演会/Lecture

Tuesday, 3 October 2023, 16:30-18:00 JST

Artificial intelligence already has the potential to revolutionize healthcare in the near-future. This talk introduces Prof. Hosio’s work on digital health, highlighting the convergence of different digital technologies, some ongoing case studies on mental health, and crowdsourced, massively scalable online experiments exploring the cross-cultural differences and human factors.

The International Tax Framework in a Fragmenting World (Lecture by Prof. Pascal SAINT-AMANS)

イベント予定講演会/Lecture

Friday, 20 October 2023, 16:00-17:30 JST

Over the past 15 years, a massive transformation of the international tax framework has occurred. Traditional instruments have been modified and completed by new rules aiming to better fight tax evasion and tax avoidance. These changes have also fostered tax cooperation between authorities. What will happen to this reform in a context of geopolitical fragmentation and crisis of global governance?

Culture and Democracy in Contemporary Korea (Lecture by Prof. KIM Hang)

講演会/Lecture

Tuesday, 24 October 2023, 10:30-12:00 JST

The so-called 'K' culture originating from South Korea has gained popularity not only in Japan but also globally. This talk will focus on understanding this current situation in the context of political, economic, and societal changes in South Korea since the late 1990s. By doing so, it will provide an opportunity to shed light on the relationship between culture and democracy in contemporary South Korea, and offer some modest insights for contemplating the often turbulent Japan-Korea relations.

World Literature in Translation Book Launch The Bankruptcy

シンポジウム/Symposium

Thursday, 26 October 2023, 19:00-21:00 JST (London: 11:00-13:00; Sao Paulo: 7:00-9:00am; New York: 6:00-8:00am)

The new award-winning translation of The Bankruptcy by Júlia Lopes de Almeida makes this novel available to Anglophone readers for the very first time. To celebrate its publication, this symposium will gather the translators and editor of the novel together with scholars in translation and literary studies to discuss the state of world literature today and the role played by translation in Brazil, Japan and beyond.

Previous Events

Joint Webinar Series by Tokyo College&MbSC2030 Approach for Future Science and Technology “Future Mobility: The Relation Between Humans and Services”

イベント予定講演会/Lecture

Thursday, 21 September 2023, 15:00 - 16:30 JST

Mobility—the ability to move people, goods and information—is fundamental for all of humanity. Woven by Toyota's purpose is to deliver safe, intelligent, human-centered mobility to the world. We will discuss the variety of software-intensive systems that power this mobility, supported by an advanced, state-of-the-art vehicle software-platform.

Energy Transformations for Decarbonization and Sustainability (Lecture by Prof. Yiguang JU)

イベント予定講演会/Lecture

Wednesday, 13 September 2023 15:30-17:00 JST

With the increasing public concerns on climate change and environmental sustainability, in the next decades “fossil fuel energy” will be transformed into “electron energy” with renewable electricity. This lecture will focus on three ways of addressing some of the challenges that arise with renewable energy such as its storage and irregular production. These include non-equilibrium energy and chemical conversion, materials manufacturing, and upcycling. The benefits of these processes will also be discussed relative to decarbonization and sustainability.

Balancing Deterrence and Diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific (Lecture by Bill EMMOTT, Ushioda Fellow)

イベント予定講演会/Lecture

Tuesday, 25 July 2023, 1:00-2:30pm (12:30pm Doors Open)

“Ukraine today could be East Asia tomorrow,” Prime Minister Kishida has warned. But how to prevent this? America’s allies, including Japan and the Philippines, are seeking to build a network of deterrence. How can this be combined with diplomacy? Could deterrence become provocation? This lecture will explain and explore these dilemmas.

Book Launch “Plural Entanglements: Philippine Studies”

イベント予定講演会/Lecture

Thursday, 20 July 2023, 4:00-5:30 pm

In this online launch of “Plural Entanglements: Philippine Studies,” anthropologist Dr. Dada DOCOT discusses the ethic of scholarly generosity, plurality, and diversity that frames this newly edited volume, and Dr. Grace BARRETTO-TESORO introduces their chapter that uses Indigenous perspectives to rebuild a chronology that advances a decolonial approach in the study of Asia.


TOP