Introducing 2 books about AI and the body.

■ Introducing 2 books about AI and the body.

I will introduce two publications about AI and the human body.

“NEO HUMAN” by Peter Scott-Morgan.

The book follows the author, of a scientist diagnosed with motor neurone disease, who transformed himself into a cyborg by replacing his body with a machine while supplementing his brain with AI. He lives virtually through voice synthesis, gaze input, and his own avatar.

Rather than confronting his disease, he uses it as an opportunity to be born again, a challenge that paves the way toward the future of humanity. 

Even if limb or organ function is impaired, life can be maintained as long as the brain can operate.

Rather, the brains direct connection with AI and robots will expand the body and give it freedom of activity.

The author is said to be active even now that his limbs are immobile and he has lost his voice.

The book does not paint a linear picture of the bright future of a fusion between the physical and IT, but rather juxtaposes the author’s difficult life, speaking of the fault lines between him and establishment, the pressures against living as a gay man, and his struggles in business.

The main subject of the book, the execution of his project, is also a harrowing one. In the end, the Seven Samurai finally break through.

This is a book about the way of life.

What we have given up on in the past may be turned around and be used to bring about a new future by embracing technology.

This requires a commitment to fight against the orthodox, to gather comrades, obtain funding, and to communicate.

I wonder if I would have the energy to do so if I think about the author’s situation as my own. That is my impression after reading this book.

The other book.

“Genius Weapons: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Weaponry, and the Future of Warfare” by Louis Del Monte.

This book questions the development of AI weapons and their control and management by mankind.

Autonomous weapons, omnipotent weapons, autopiloting, AI-implanted soldiers, and the technological and political scenarios they conceive.

It is a looming reality and an endless thought experiment.

I thought about it vexingly.

AI and nanotechnology are too advanced.

A treaty prohibiting the development of autonomous weapons would require both major powers (the United States and China to see the benefits.

This would be when the possibility of small nations, ethnic minorities, and terrorists using the new weapons increases.

This points to a situation in which the democratization of technology would need to be curbed.

What will Japan do to control tech democratization?

The military will become system-engineered.

Operational units will be replaced by AI, and the majority of personnel will be allocated to AI development and maintenance.

Like investment banks.

The unemployment problem among military personnel will be troublesome.

The military may become the strongest force against AI evolution.

This book discusses whether soldiers will control AI or AI will control soldiers, assuming the mass emergence of soldiers with AI implanted in their brains after technological singularity.

There would be no military incentive except for AI to have control over the soldiers. 

The question is, who would want that?

What AI-implanted people upload into the AI system is not knowledge, but experience and emotion.

This would bring about new life support and regeneration, so there would be incentives for this.

Post-singularity. Live to see what technology awaits.

That’s a good goal.

At the end of the book, there is a commentary by Keiji Ono of the Ministry of Defense.

The debate on security should not be kept to the experts.

Hanshin fans in the Kansai region comment on everything from professionals to aunties and children.  Mr. Ono explains the utility of public opinion, “the psychology of Hanshin fan support,” in maintaining governance.

This section of the book hit closest to home for me.

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The Fight Against GAFA’s Expansion

■ The Fight Against GAFA’s Expansion

“The Fight Against GAFA’s Expansion,” written by Masako Wakae.

A business book on how telecommunications, manufacturers, and eC companies suffered defeat.

…which is what I misunderstood it to be, and was late in reading it.

Journalism, academia, and policy theory follows nationalists from industry, academia, and government, who confronted the struggle for data supremacy and questioned national strategy. 

A good book, and a must-read for IT professionals.

The secrecy of communications, freedom of expression, personal data protection, privacy, network neutrality, communications security, extraterritorial application, competition policy, and content policy.

IT Headquarters, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Consumer Affairs Agency, Fair Trade Commission, and the Personal Information Protection Commission.

I would like to pay tribute to the efforts of these organizations in tackling “cross-cutting problems that are difficult to solve in the traditional stove-piped matter.” 

Professor Tsunetoshi Shishido of the University of Tokyo, Attorney Ryoji Mori, President Kunihiro Tanaka of Sakura Internet, and bureaucrats from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.

Although I knew that many of the people who appeared in the book by their real names, I did not know many of their detailed backgrounds, which made my heart throb with excitement.

They’re distinguished citizens, I thought.

There were a few remarks about Yasuhiko Taniwaki, who left the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

“Taniwaki’s departure is a loss for Japan.”

“Taniwaki is a geek and a bit of an oddball, but he is an academic and plows through anything like a bulldozer, getting it done. I have seen him many a time in late-night discussions with young engineers and customer service representatives at an inexpensive izakaya bar, sharing wisdom about the realities of the industry.”

“At least in his dealings with NTT, Taniwaki did not appear to be corrupt in protecting his interests. Rather, he was feared by them for his willingness to argue about things on their merits.”

I was also thoroughly impressed that, as a reporter taking a hard look at Kasumigaseki, Ms. Wakae has commented on what I would like to testify to.

This book does not tell a narrow story of the Japanese industry’s defeat against American IT companies. Rather, it is a telling of the failure of the Japanese industry and government’s maintenance of monozukuri (production) and in addressing intellectual property and software strategy, as indicated by the 1983 Young Report. she further addressed the lack of sensitivity of society as a whole through data-driven technology.

The author, Ms. Wakae, has interviewed me several times three years ago in the fight against piracy. She was the journalist who most acutely delved into the crosscutting digital constitution issue of the secrecy of communications vs. protection of intellectual property. That, too, has yet to be resolved. 

In the digital field, “cross-cutting problems that are difficult to solve in the traditional stove-piped matter” will still arise.

We strongly hope that the Digital Agency will confront these cross-cutting issues, but if it is not done properly, a new stove-pipe may be created.

We want to create a zagumi (performer’s organization), a community, to confront these challenges.

That is why we created the Digital Policy Forum, a discussion platform consisting of key players in the digital policy industry, academia, and government.

I have asked Ms. Wakae, the author, and other people who appear in this book to join us.

Mr. Taniwaki will serve as the secretariat.

Ms. Wakae’s book has inspired me to take action.

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The Century of Communication

■ The Century of Communication

I read through “The Century of Communication: 150 Years of Information Technology and National Strategies” by Tetsuya Ohno. 

The attack and defense of communication sovereignty and infrastructure development since the Meiji era.

Fierce political and military struggles between nations and dark conflicts between the political, public, and private sectors regarding the domestic telecommunications industry.

Reading this makes the current GAFA measures seem childish.

Teruo Ariyama’s “Information Hegemony and Imperial Japan,” published in 2013, describes the fact that information and communications have been important political matters of the state since the modern era. Furthermore, Japan, too, has seen a series of high-level political decisions by the Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet.

Both publications are must-reads for telecommunications geeks.

I became a telecommunications bureaucrat during the monopoly era of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (NTT) in Japan and Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD) internationally.

In the midst of the technological epoch of telephone automation, the KDD scandal occurred, and the company advanced headfirst toward telecommunications liberalization.

This was followed by the battle with the U.S. and the U.K. over the liberalization of telecommunications, the reorganization of NTT, and finally, deregulation.

It is quite nostalgic as my own work history.

Mr. Ohno takes the harsh view that the restructuring and deregulation of NTT at the end of the 1990s was “a failure of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications,” which lacked the ability to take part in technological progress and market changes.

I, as a middleman, took it as a purely administrative evolution. Though, when considering the correlation between the subsequent reorganization of ministries and agencies with the dismantling of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, I wonder if Mr. Ohno’s view is the legitimate one.

However, the offensive and defensive battleground that continued on for 100 years was drastically changed by the Internet.

Japanese carriers became truly domestic, while AT&T, BT, and Vodafone withdrew.

Yet, the leading role in telecommunications shifted to the upper layers, led by GAFA.

Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are also trying to get their hands on submarine cables.

It was only last year that the Telecommunications Business Law finally accommodated foreign services such as Gmail. As someone who knows the international offensive pre-Internet, it was like watching the Qing Dynasty under imperialism.

Let the EU lead the way and live with the US—is this the way to handle the next few decades?

“I think I would have gone into telecommunications bureaucracy even if I was born a hundred years ago.”

I wrote this seven years ago at the end of my book-reviewing blog on “Information Hegemony and Imperial Japan.”

It is no different now. I would like to enter that field and become a policy entrepreneur.

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The establishment of an industry-academia-government forum on digital policy.

■ The establishment of an industry-academia-government forum on digital policy.

The Digital Policy Forum, a discussion platform for digital policy among industry, academia, and the government, has been launched.

The forum is a community for open online and offline discussion and proposal of cross-cutting themes related to social, economic, and digital issues such as technology.

It is a place where wisdoms are connected and discussed, from which action can be taken.

https://www.digitalpolicyforum.jp/

Purpose: “In recent years, issues such as security measures, cyber-terrorism countermeasures and intellectual property protection have expanded. At the same time, technological innovations such as AI, Big Data, IoT and 5G have advanced and a new international policy agenda has emerged. We will form a community to discuss and make suggestions to further digital policy.”

In addition to myself, the promoters of the Digital Policy Forum include Masaru Kitsuregawa, Director of the National Institute of Informatics, Ken Sakamura, Professor of Toyo University, Hideyuki Tokuda, President of NICT, Masao Horibe, Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University, and Jun Murai, Professor of Keio University. 

The forum’s inaugural meeting was attended by researchers from universities and other institutions, ministries, and agencies including the Digital Agency, the Intellectual Property Headquarters, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and the Agency of Cultural Affairs.

The central figures discussing digital policy have gathered. More will join. 

As an initial agenda, we presented five items.

Data-driven society: Data distribution market and platform measures

Borderless market: international rules for data transactions

Market structure change: layer structure and competitive environment, especially in the telecommunications sector

IP policy: strategy for digital content

The state of the rules: frameworks for hard law and soft law, co-regulation, etc. 

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