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Smart Cities, Mushrooms, and Buddha: Thinking Methods for "Non"-Human-Centered Design

Publish: March 25, 2025

Writer Profile

  • Yasuto Nakanishi (Co-author)

    Faculty of Environment and Information Studies Professor

    Yasuto Nakanishi (Co-author)

    Faculty of Environment and Information Studies Professor

Computers, which are "tools" that expand our thinking, are becoming entities that coexist as "others," much like AI that converses with humans or robots with physical bodies. Furthermore, they will likely exist as "other species" with intelligence and bodies different from those of humans. While humans have exterminated bears and wolves, they have also tamed dogs and horses, constantly updating the boundaries with other species. In future history, the boundaries with new "others" and "other species" such as AI and robots are bound to be updated.

So, how will the new artificial environments called "smart cities," where we live with such others and other species, be designed, and how will people live in them? Will they go beyond mere convenience and enhance people's intelligence and virtue? Ultimately, what kind of intelligence should we exercise there?

In this book, to address these questions and to relativize our rational and planned intelligence as inhabitants of civilized cities, I summoned "mushrooms (fungi) as a symbol of intelligence different from humanity" and "Buddha as a symbol of intelligence transcending humanity" to re-examine our world. Centered on dialogues with people from various fields, I explain the importance of "mushunbetsu-chi" (non-discriminative wisdom) as an Oriental/Japanese way of knowing¡ªwhich involves "newly discovering the value of things and events right in front of us (heuristic)" and "connecting that value elsewhere to create further value (eye-opening)"¡ªand present examples where this is demonstrated along with exercises for mastering it.

The catalyst for my focus on Oriental and Japanese creativity was my stay at Stanford University through the Fukuzawa Fund, where I was exposed to the world of Silicon Valley. The process by which technology is accepted into society reflects respective cultures and worldviews. How will Oriental and Japanese thinking be reflected in the process of creating a world where we coexist with AI and robots? Mushrooms and Buddha provided hints to that question. The title is often called a "mystery," but if that mystery stimulates your imagination, you may be standing at the entrance to mastering heuristic and eye-opening creativity.

Yasuto Nakanishi (Co-author)

BNN

360 pages, 2,750 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.

Writing Notes