More fascinating than the results of the Scottish Independence Referendum.

With the final counts of the Scottish Independence Referendum expected within the next few hours, it is only human to anticipate the results with excitement. The U.K. betting houses have been collecting tens of thousands “votes” before the real votes were cast. The developing drama full of uncertainties in the Scottish (and U.K.) destiny is certainly a great attention grabber.

The real fascination, however, resides in the very fact that this referendum is taking place at all. The historic Edinburgh Agreement (Agreement between the United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Government on a referendum on independence for Scotland) signed by David Cameron, Michael Moore, Alex Salmond, and Nicola Sturgeon on 15^th October 2012 is a Nobel Peace Prize material in retrospect. 

The very fact that a sovereign state can take the devolution process to such an extreme so that a part of the union would be allowed to go its own way, in a more or less peaceful manner (one would hope), provided the results of the referendum is a yes, shows how mature the U.K. democracy has become. Such would not be the case in many parts of the world, where similar issues have been raised.

It is also very interesting how the wording of the referendum has been discussed and prepared. The originally proposed question  "Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?" has been found leading, and it has been changed to "Should Scotland be an independent country?" The process of the Electoral Commission comparing various wordings of the referendum question and deciding on the most neutral concise one is a case of applied cognitive science.

Thus, although the results of the votes would be certainly exciting, more interesting and fascinating perhaps is the process leading to the referendum. 

I would like to propose a toast to the people concerned, even before the results come in, for having come all the way to this historic vote. 

Nation States

To me, it seems apparent that the nation states are approaching the end of their "good before" period. The NSA scandal in the United States is just the tip of a huge iceberg. 

How could democratically formed governments be such monsters? Because they are just showing their true nature. Why do we need nuclear arsenal at all? The MAD (mutually assured destruction) strategy is trivially "mad", as it becomes increasingly difficult to control nuclear weapons in a reliable way (just think of the "rogue" states and potential nuclear terrorists).

For me, it seems increasingly difficult to justify the brutality (symbolized in a newly coined word "privicide") of nation states, just in the name of social contract theories. Nay, I am not advocating anarchy. That would be too trivial. I am just pointing out that nation states are approaching the infamous status of "religion" (sensu Richard Dawkins) nowadays.

Sports drinks.

I must confess I never really liked sports drinks. I know they are isotonic and contain electrolytes, but plain water usually seems to be good enough for me.

This morning I made an exception. I was running and it was hot. I felt that I sweated a bit more than usual. I happened to have some coins in my running shorts pocket, so I bought a bottle of Aquarius, manufactured by Coca-Cola.

Well, I am not too sure about the benefit. I suspect there might be some “threshold” of activity above which sports drinks might be beneficial. I have run three full marathons, and after these races sports drinks did seem desirable. For mild exercises, I am still not convinced.

I am a mixture of things.


It was sometime ago when I learned the convenient word “broadcaster”. Yes, I am actually one.

My career became complex when I agreed to host the Professionals program of NHK in 2006. Since then, I have been a mixture of things. I am a brain scientist, writer, and broadcaster.

While I make other plans, I still pursue the holy grail of qualia. I believe the prevalent statistical approaches (all of them) to qualia do not lead to a solution. I am the odd one out.

Meanwhile, I am hosting a program on design and arts with my co-host Asami Kiyokawa. I enjoy the studio shootings, in which I interview creative people from various walks of life.

That’s me. I am a mixture of things.


http://www.tdwa.com/en/tv/

The Yuai Council.

Tensions in East Asia are rising. There are territorial disputes between Japan, China, and Korea. North Korea extolls its ill-advised nuclear program. This situation is unfortunate, as no nation or region in the global era can thrive on nationalism and aggression.

In order to promote an atmosphere of peaceful collaborations within the region, I have started, with the founding members of about twenty committed individuals, some humble efforts to research and execute what we can do for the future of East Asia and beyond. We are the members of Yuai Council (https://sites.google.com/site/yuaitable/yuai-council). “Yuai” (Japanese word for fraternity) is inspired by the writings of Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, regarded by many as the father of European Union.

The mentor of the Yuai Council is Dr. Yukio Hatoyama, a former prime minister of Japan. Dr. Hatoyama has been pursuing the spirit of Yuai throughout his political career.

The founding members are mainly in the 20s and 30s, and very eager to promote a spirit of friendship in the East Asian region through theoretical and practical research and activities.

If you are interested in the Yuai Council, please contact Ken Mogi at @kenmogi (twitter), or e-mail (kenmogi @ qualia-manifesto. com, please delate space).

Photo: Ken Mogi with former prime minister Dr. Yukio Hatoyama, at a public session in Tokyo, January 2013

The joy of being a native speaker.

The joy of being a native speaker of a language is that you can play with it in an endless pleasure hunting. You can make stupid puns, create new expressions on the spot, and find hidden connections. You can tickle people with what you say.

With a second language it is difficult to do so, although you could certainly try. English is my second language, which I started to learn when I was 12. Thus, it is difficult to tickle people with what I  say or write in the language of Mr. Shakespeare. I hope I can make people ticklish with what I say someday, not through my clumsiness, failure, or misery, but as a fair result of my bold attempt to tickle people on the verbal front in my second language. 

You can go to sleep but the quality of sleep changes.

For the last 5 years or so I have been watching my favorite British comedy just before going to sleep. Father Ted, for example. The theory was that if you were exposed to something new before sleep, you would be excited. I was afraid that I would then be unable to sleep.

About one month ago, I started to experiment. I read new books, listened to new audio, watched new video. And presto! I could actually sleep, usually after 5 minutes or so (yes, I AM a very sleepy person by nature, especially after a drink or two). I got excited for sure, but sleepiness usually had a control over me. I would be overcome, and lose my consciousness straightaway after closing my MacBook air (or often even before closing the lid, followed by battery outage).

However I noticed something interesting. The quality of my sleep seems to change. I have dreams more often, and there seems to be this vivid sensation all the time. I do not have sufficient data or control to claim that this is due to the exposure to new information before sleep. Even so, I feel like a child.

Consuming Strangers

One of the interesting enigmas of Japanese society is that it is kind to an outlier. You may be surprised. You have heard that it is a homogeneous society. You may have been informed that that peer pressure is high in Japan. These observations are certainly true. At the same time, the Japanese society is kind to outliers, aka strange people. As long as they are entertaining, that is.

You may say something really unusual. You may advocate a very unique system of education. You may testify how corrupt the Japanese society is. As long as you provide some entertainment values (the way you say it might be rather cute, or the fact that you believe you can stand up to the status quo might be rather amusing), people don’t really care. They rather welcome you. They put you on tv variety shows. You can give interviews in large circulation magazines.

So as long as you provide some entertainment, giving a safe glimpse into a rather outlandish universe of human nature, people of Japan would welcome you. Actually that is precisely the status that some expatriates living in Japan have come to enjoy, whether they are comfortable with that situation or not.

The problem with this is that you are not really supposed to touch the core of society. It is OK if you say some unusual things about how children should be educated. However, you are not supposed to change Japanese education in any substantial manner. That would be quite another story. There, Japan is surprisingly resistant

There is a popular culture of consuming strangers. This tendency would be certainly true in many cultures on the globe. In Japan it has been made into an industry. It is a mechanism in which the nation is able to maintain the status quo while enjoying occasional distractions away from the norm. People can get bored even in a homogeneous society, you know.