The restless Prometheus: The Technological Republic by Karp and Zamiska.

Reading The Technological Republic by Alexander C. Karp and  Nicholas W. Zamiska left me deeply disturbed and uneasy. While I recognized the phenomena and symptoms described in the book to be certainly legit, I experienced a surge of restlessness of reason about the wider connotations, after reading the book with pleasure. 

The authors are spot on in identifying the consumerism behind the recent boom of AI. It may even be acknowledged that there is a certain element of free riding or free lunch, vouchsafed by the existence of the nation-state, with its political and military might, which the AI startup types typically stay away from. Palantir, founded by Karp, Pieter Tiel, and others, has filled that vacant space, an intersection of the free enterprise and the harsh reality of the world.

There remain enigma and scope for investigation in the present-day Leviathans that are the nation-states. Countries such as the United States, China, Russia, and others are constraints on human activities, and they would not disappear into the air no matter how your mindset might tell otherwise. Even in the free-for-all zeitgeist of TikTok and ChatGPT, you would ignore the Leviathans at your peril.

On the other hand, there is something deeply counterintuitive about the nation-states. The spirit of Prometheus that is bringing a new fire to humanity does not thrive at the center of the Leviathan. There are certain truths about the idea that a nation-state would be the punisher, rather than the promotor, of the free flight and dance of Prometheus. In an ideal world, Prometheus would afford to be blissfully unaware of the pressure of the Leviathan. But of course, we are not living in an ideal world. We never did, and perhaps never will be. 

It is genuinely interesting to consider the makeup of decision making platforms that Palantir and other companies are developing, whether or not they are related to military/security purposes, the muscle and bone of the nation-states. There would be much scope for extended agency beyond that of the individual humans, and Karp and his colleagues are in an interesting ballpark.

There is a clear undertone of The Technological Republic that leaves a strong aftertaste, suggesting the ultimate preferability of the Western ideology of democracy and free market, as an extension of the Francis Fukuyama vision at the end of the Cold War. Perhaps it is true that we have lost the polar star in the midst of academic fads and waves of political correctness. On the other hand, technologies such as AI do seem to tango with the authoritarian governments as well. Whether the technological republic to come will turn out to be benign or malicious is still an open historical question. Issues raised and hinted in this treatise would provide foods for thoughts for those concerned, in all walks of life, beyond that of the technophiles. The Technological Republic an important book that provokes new thoughts rather than settling to fixed ideas, which is always great in a time of transitions such as this.  

Reviewed by Ken Mogi

The fifty shades of Wuthering Heights

Watching Emerald Fennell's film based on the immortal Wuthering Heights in a Tokyo theater was a very unique experience. 

It was a work with a constellation of great acting from Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, and Owen Cooper, under Fennell's original interpretations of the classic.

The hallmarks of a creative spirit can be felt in the bits of oddities found in an otherwise canonical fictional worldview. 

Fennell's liberty at interpreting or rather creating on top of Wuthering Heights is perhaps the reason both for its box office success and critical turmoils. 

There are infinite possibilities, perhaps, in a work like Wuthering Heights, to be drawn into our own fountain of life at this time. The fifty shades of Wuthering Heights presented by Emerald Fennell finally had a tinge of rainbow.

Nagomi is an apotheosis of the diversity and inclusion ideology.

Matcha is so nagomi.

Not only in terms of the feeling that a cup of matcha brings, but also in terms of the constitution principles involving matcha, or powdered green tea.

Matcha, needless to say, is very Japanese. Consider the case of matcha ice cream then, a pristine example of the nagomi principle. You mix matcha (Japanese) and ice cream (Western), and the result is a heavenly sweet delight that fascinated Barack Obama when the future US president visited Japan as a boy.

Nagomi is an apotheosis of the diversity and inclusion ideology. Like many things Japanese, you don't have to be overtly politically correct or controversial. Just enjoy a scoop of matcha ice cream and you will be in the harmonious heaven of nagomi.

Kintsugi is a celebration of the diversity of life histories

Kintsugi is wonderful because you don't throw away something that is broken. You amend it, and a new vista is born, sometimes even better than the original.

You can apply kintsugi in your life, too. No matter what happens, you accept your imperfections, and carry on.

Through kintsugi, you become tolerant of your own and others's shortcomings. 

Kintsugi is a celebration of the diversity of life histories, and embracing of the enigma that is the once-and-for-all existence of one's soul in this vast and brutal universe.

Surrounded by heathers and flanked by the mother earth and the sky

I read Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights for the first time since my college days.

I was struck by the sheer honesty about human nature, emotion, live, death, and love. Narrated by Nelly, who is of the world, we get to know the inner turmoils of Catherine and Heathcliff, who are half of this world but also of quite another universe.

I once had the great opportunity of visiting Howarth. It is wonderful to ponder the unlimited possibilities of human imagination. Surrounded by heathers and flanked by the mother earth and the sky, my soul gradually wondered yonder. 

I was Heathcliff, and I was Catherine.

I was so grateful that I was alive.

I weighed 85.9 kg on the morning of Tokyo Marathon 2026. To be precise, I took off some extra clothes compared to usual, so I must have weighed more than 86. 

This was a personal record of heavy weight Marathon running.

Even when I walked, I interpreted it as a strategic walking. I was not being defeated. I was just pacing intelligently.

I finished with a net time of about 6 hours 25 minutes or so. Both figures for my weight and time were personal highs.

After the finish line, I looked up at the blue sky, and felt almost like crying.

I was so grateful that I was alive and could finish my 10th or so full Marathon.

Meanwhile, people were being bombarded all over the world.

It is at these moments that I feel mono no aware, the pathos of things.

A while ago I went to the city of Mito, in the northern suburb of Tokyo, for a day trip. I gave a public lecture there.

On my way back, I was waiting for my express train on the platform. On the next track, there was a local train bound for Oyama, a city in the south of Mito, closer to Tokyo.

It was dusk, and the world was becoming dark. The inside of the local train could be seen in a bright light, through glasses somewhat dimmed by moisture.

There was a man seated, enjoying what appeared to be a can of beer. Apparently the gentleman finished his work in Mito, and was heading home.

I don't know exactly how it happens, but at twilight sometimes the social contexts surrounding me appear to be dissolved. I am alone, in the vast world, and I feel I could be, could have been, and would be, anyone in this complex human society.

I imagined how my life would have been if I was like the guy in the train. Working in the city of Mito, heading home after a day's work, enjoying the consolation prize of a can of beer.

It is at these moments that I feel mono no

aware, the pathos of things.

A carp, a dragon, and the Red Queen

I went to Yokohama yesterday for a public lecture and there was a dragon.

There is the legend of a carp going upstream in a  fall, and then becoming a dragon.

Masaru Sato, a former diplomat and author, recently said to me that a carp actually does not become a dragon. A carp remains a carp.

How true.

It would be rather that in a streaming water a carp needs to keep swimming, just to stay at the same place.

In this sense, a carp in a stream is similar to the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, who famously said to Alice: Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.

Acting Humpty Dumpty in Tokyo.

Qualia Journal.

I was in a public discussion session in Tokyo.

I typically do not stand or sit still. I am always moving around like a five year old child.

Maybe I am one.

I was explaining how intelligence grows in proportion to the range of possible movements. The more room for movement you have, the wider your intelligence would become.

I was moving around explaining the principle of movable space for intelligence, and I sat back on  my chair.

Suddenly, I fell backwards, and I fell out of the platform about 30cm or so high, together with my chair, onto the floor.

As it is typical, I felt that everything was happening in slow motion.

There were cries from the audience, but I was fine. It was just I could not move at all, stuck in the chair, upside down. Some kind people came to help me and my chair stand up and back.

I sat on the chair again on the platform, and participated in the discussion as if nothing had happened. This time, I was careful not to move around too much in my chair, especially not backwards.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a chair, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the nice audience members and all the nice staff helped Humpty get back to the chair together.

Acting Humpty Dumpty in Tokyo.

Another normal day for Ken Mogi, who is five years old.

Flexible as a cat and airborne as a butterfly.

Qualia Journal

For the record, I do not write to do lists externally.

I keep the list in my head.

It is cumbersome and a waste of time to write a list. Many people are satisfied by just writing one. It is rather pompous to boast about a to do list, in my humble opinion.

The world is a chaos, with small world network connections. Things come up, and the to do list needs to be updated constantly.

I therefore have a mental image of the to do list in my brain, and constantly update it in a continuous contingency planning. That way, I can be flexible as a cat and airborne as a butterfly.

I find myself reading a novel just like I am studying a set of mathematical equations.

I love reading books while walking around in my room. I also love it when I go out for a run, or when I meet people, but reading books inside while walking around is something I deeply love.

Right now I am reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë for the first time since high school, for obvious reasons (the film, soon to be released in Japan!). Before that I read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. This year I also read Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

Reading a book, you are absorbed into an inner universe previously unknown. I find myself reading a novel just like I am studying a set of mathematical equations these days, perhaps an attitude fit in the age of large language models.

In a tiny corner of Yokoo's universe. Qualia Journal.

I visited artist Tadanori Yokoo's studio.

It was so wonderful to talk about art, life, death, Yukio Mishima, Andy Warhol, Takashi Murakami and much more, surrounded by Yokoo's works in progress.

At lunch time, we enjoyed Yokoo's favorite tonkatsu bento. The kanji character on the wrapping paper, tsubaki, was by Akira Kurosawa, Yokoo said.

Creativity is wonderful, and it was so inspiring for this humble comet to fly by in a tiny corner of Yokoo's universe.