Philosophical study of life, death, and nature
Philosophical study of life, death, and nature
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A work, published in 1993 before the advent of commercial internet and portable phones, that anticipated today's chaotic cyber-society, employing such terms as "community of anonymity," "consciousness interaction field," "consciousness communication," and "dream navigator." (Winner of the Telecom Social Science Award) This book was written in 1991 and 1992 and published in 1993. While there were no commercial Internet services, or mobile phones at that time, it nontheless succeeded in predicting many aspects of today's cyber-society. In this text I analyzed computer-mediated-communications from the viewpoint of deep psychology and sociology. I distinguished two concepts, "information communication" and "consciousness communication," and concluded that the latter would be greatly activated in a networked society. As Niki Lambropoulos puts it, "consciousness communication" means "the communication for the purpose of social interaction itself," which is now prevalent in email communication through mobile phones and chatting on the Internet. This kind of communication was once called "consummatory communication" (Festinger, 1950), or "intrinsic use" (Keller, 1977). In this book, I added new meaning to these concepts, and proposed a new term -- "consciousness communication." In consciousness communication, my consciousness flows out through the feeler of my personality, and gets mixed with other consciousnesses in the consciousness interaction field. I proposed the"consciousness interaction model" as a replacement for Shannon and Weaver's communication model. I introduced the concept of a "community of anonymity" where anonymous persons meet and interact with each other. I argued that this kind of community would expand and prevail in cyber-space. In 1993, I was not able to find the concept of a "community of anonymity" in English books or papers, so Consciousness Communication may very well have been the first text in which this concept was articulated. It is interesting to compare this idea of a "community of anonymity" with Webber's "non-place community" (1967). In the last two chapters, I proposed the new concept of "dream navigator," and depicted possible future interactions among the subconsciousnesses of participants in cyber-space. In these hypothetical interactions, people's consciousnesses and subconsciousnesses are guided by a dream navigator, and their collective imaginations create an unimaginable world of collective dreams. This is the most provocative part of the book. Some people criticized it as total nonsense, but others found this description of a dream navigator compelling. After the publication of this book, the words "consciousness communication" and "dream navigator" have been repeatedly used by commentators and researchers in this field in Japan. Consciousness Communication won the 1994 Telecom Social Science Award. Tassos Missouras This book is currently out of print, but you can read the entire Japanese text on the web. It was written more than 15 years ago, and while the Internet has significantly transformed itself since then its fundamental characteristics seem to have remained the same. I believe this book should be rewritten in the future. Preface Part 1 Thoughts on Media Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Part 2 Dream Navigator Chapter 4 Dreams Dreamt by Society
Chapter 5
Postscript Book Reviews Toru Nishigaki - "We can feel the author's eternal yearning for a shaman in an electronic age." (Sankei Simbun Newspaper, Jun.3, 1993) Editorial staff of Kyoto Shimbun Newspaper - "This is a stimulating book that provides a new vision of communications theory." (Kyoto Shimbun Newspaper, Jul.13, 1993) >> Pipi - "A world of science fiction, just like Solaris. An astonishing communications theory floating in the world of The Matrix." (bk1 book review, Sep.30, 2003) >> Read more Niki Lambropoulos - "Morioka cited in Aoki describes this kind of use as "ishiki tsushin" (conscious communication). According to Morioka, it is the communication for the purpose of social interaction itself, which is distinguished from "joho tsushin" (information communication)." (Intelligent Dynamic Enquiry Methodology for Innovation Technology, 2004 ) >> Read more (pdf) Kumiko Aoki - " (....) In addition to the above mentioned communities, another kind of communities exist in computer networks, which can be called "communities of anonymity [tokumeisei no komyuniti]" (Morioka, 1993). These communities of anonymity are the communities whose members are anonymous and share virtual spaces for their self-expression which may not be possible in the situation that they have to identify themselves. In such virtual spaces, people play whatever role they want to play, knowing other people are also presenting created images of themselves." (Pacific Telecommincations Council 1994 Conference) >> Read more Book reviews also appeared in the Asahi, Nikkei, Mainichi, and Yomiuri newspapers and various other publications. Publication Data Chikuma Shobo, Apr.25, 1993 Out of Print Japanese website for this book
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