A course of Prof. Mario Tokoro, e-mails in English

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Dr. Mario Tokoro of SONY CSL whom I have introduced to you in my posting of August 24  is also a Professor at Keio University (actually he moved to SONY CSL from Keio) and is offering a course on “Innovation” for graduate school students of science and engineering.

I was invited to give a lecture at the Yagami campus of Keio University.  The audience was about 120 students (master course and doctoral course), and I spent very enjoyable 90 minutes talking to those earnest students and answering to their questions.

In the end, as always, I requested them to listen to the 14 minutes’ commencement speech of Steve Jobs at Stanford in 2005.  I asked the students to listen and understand this speech by the creator of Apple, iTune, iPod, iPhone, etc. and tell me by e-mail via my website their reaction to it; what they felt or thought.

In the evening of that day, I received 4 e-mails.  I sent reply to all of them.  But after that – none came.

After having waited for several days in vain, I telephoned Dr. Tokoro to ask why.  He said “I think the students couldn’t believe that an important person like you could really mean what you said.”  So, I asked Dr. Tokoro to “Please tell the students to send me e-mails.  No need to be shy.”  Few days later, a flood of about 50 e-mails came in in two days!  Many of them were written in English.

I read the mails for 2 nights, sent my response to each one of them, and reported so to Dr. Tokoro.  I included Dr. Tokoro in CC to some of my responses since I thought he would enjoy reading them, too.  I stayed up for most of those two nights, but well worth it because there were so many things being said, including reactions to my lecture, in those e-mails.  Being able to exchange views with the students is also very amusing.

About a week later, one student sent me a message saying “Dr. Tokoro said that you responded to all e-mails from the students.  But I’m afraid I haven’t received your reply.”  I rushed to my PC to check.  Yes, I missed just one.  It was a fairly long, good writing.  I started my response by an apology for overlooking his e-mail.

By the way, I write my e-mails in English most of the time.  Even to the messages in Japanese, I reply in English.  When Dr. Tokoro introduced me to the students, he said “Dr. Kurokawa’s e-mails are always in English” so quite a few students challenged sending me an English e-mail.

Why English?  It’s not because it’s cool.  I have mainly 4 reasons.  My typing is not fast and not blind touch, to begin with…

1. Writing in Japanese needs converting typed letters to Kanji etc. which is time consuming.

2.  If I mistype one key of a word or phrase, I have to repeat all over again for that word or phrase, which is time consuming.

3.  In English, the meaning is understood even if I misspell a bit so I don’t have to be too nervous about hitting wrong keys.

4. And most importantly, language reflects culture.  In Japanese, ‘vertical’ relations such as titles or positions in society must be considered when deciding how you begin the letter.  You must first write some phrase of greetings such as “It’s been long time since I contacted you last time…” and so on (not a short one), to show respect politely.  Sometimes when I read those messages, I wonder what their point is.  English of course also has many polite ways of expression, but since people are basically “equal” as a person you can go straight and clear into the point without being rude.  In a ‘vertical’ society like Japan, one has to be mindful of the social positions of his/her counterpart; superiors vs. subordinates, professors vs. students, etc.  In my case, since most of the people I correspond with are younger than me, such as those students, it should be convenient for them to use English because they do not have to worry about greetings or being polite.  But I do have an impression that Japanese people are not used to writing in English.  My advice is ? ‘just get used to it’.

Writing e-mails in English has an advantage of being able to convey your message clearly without worrying much about misspellings.   But sometimes your expressions could be too straight forward and there are times when you have to be fairly careful about it.

Sony’s magic lab ? a place where geniuses and super-talents pop up

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This is a title of a book that was recently published. (in Japanese)

The book was written by “Mario Tokoro and Nobuko Yuri”, and on the Obi (a belt like sheet of paper over the cover of the book) it reads: “A secret of the ‘wonder lab’- The Sony Computer Science Laboratories Ltd. – home to Hiroaki Kitano, Kenichiro Mogi, Hideki Takayasu, and Jyunichi Rekimoto ”, “Haven’t you heard those names somewhere before?”

“Hiroaki Kitano is….. one of the inventors of pet dog AIBO…..founder and top scientist of the new field of “system biology” …. Kenichiro Mogi is known for analysis of the function of brains such as “Qualia”, “Aha experience”…..original point of view and keen observations, fluffy hair, calm baby-face…….idol of media, books, TVs, games…..Hideki Takayasu is…..a best-seller author by his book “Fractal”…. started “Econophysics”, a field that is currently spreading throughout the world.  Junichi Rekimoto ……has developed a series of technologies that smoothly connect real world and the virtual world .. … these four were co-workers at one laboratory…. (Chapter one,  p.11)

This book is describing the 20 years of “Sony Computer Science Lab. (SONY CSL)”
since its foundation.  It is also a story about Mario Tokoro who devoted himself to the opening of the lab that produced number of geniuses and great talents.  Dr. Tokoro is by himself a “great talent, out of box type” but he is also a wonderful manager and a very attractive person.  His “out of box (henjin)” character was clear even from his childhood that his friends used to call him “Tokoro-henjin-Mariops”  (Chapter one, p.78)

SONY CSL – a laboratory that produced so many “henjins” who helped starting of a number of epoch making new fields, presenting new concepts to the world-, is but a small institute with only a little over than 30 members including administrative staff. And those 5 described above are not the only unique people that this lab produced.  There are many others.

I have had the privilege of working with Drs. Tokoro and Kitano in many ways for these several years (Ref.1, 2, 3)

Although the topics we talk about are quite serious, I always enjoy talking with them.  This book tells us that there are so many young people with great possibilities (including Tokoro and Kitano), the importance of setting up a “place” to nurture their talents, that in such place one can find the essence in things, create true values, and feel the excitement and challenges that are accompanied with discoveries.  The stories in the book are wonderful – it is truly an attractive book.  Partly this is due to the deep philosophy Dr. Tokoro and the extraordinary quality of his management skills.  Also Yuri, the co-author, contributes by her splendid talent on story telling and writing.

The content of the book is as follows:
1. It all began with a draft written in one day.
2. Working at the cutting edge of computer science
3. What is the essence of research management?
4. Escape from computer science
5. Broader, deeper
6. What the SONY CSL means to me
7. The future of science and SONY CSL

Chapter 2: “Tokoro says; ‘There are only two things that I do.  One is to decide the direction this lab must go.  Another is to manage human resources; hire those who fit in, help those who graduate, and ask anyone who seems to be a mismatch to leave.’” (p.62)

Chapter 3: “Most important is to open a new field of science, make a new culture.  If we succeed in this, it would not just skyrocket the brand value of Sony but will be without doubt an immeasurable contribution to humanity.” (p.75)

“The management that Mario Tokoro put into practice was clearly out of the “Japanese Standard”…..often we heard people saying “it’s insane”…..but “that insanity started to shine as they went on for years.  Oh, it was such a unique lab that they made.  Was it only possible because it was a private enterprise?  No, a private company will not have a way for such thing.  Well done!”

“Tokoro is known for being flexible and straight….  Even the editor in charge said, as Tokoro recalls, ‘Dr. Tokoro throws only straight balls’”

In Chapters 4-6 interesting episodes are introduced about how Tokoro met researchers such as Kitano, their backgrounds, and thoughts.  Tokoro sees their essence.  I recommend this book as reference to young researchers, or even non-researchers, for some lessons on life.

Kitano says “Synergy between fields that appear at first to be so irrelevant will not enhance unless we understand the fundamental idea that lies within each field.  However, that broadness is the only way to access to a new area or deep understanding of nature.”….”With the progress of computer technology, we are now able to handle sophisticated systems that involve many elements.  This opened the door to a new framework of science by breaking the walls between fields of information science, bio, sociology, economy, and so on and connecting them by new perspectives or methods.”  These words of Kitano become very convincing as we read through the works of seven (footnote 1) scientists that are introduced later.

Footnote 1; Junichi RekimotoLuc SteelsHideki TakayasuKenichiro MogiKazuhiro SakuradaFranc NielsenFrancois Pachet .

Two women helping them as staffs comment in the book: “I go to the presentations of researchers… and their way of thinking or ideas astonishes me quite frequently.”  “I am stimulated…… by the small words that the researchers utter in every day life”, “The researchers are all gentle and kind….of course there are many aspects in them that do not fit in to the standard value of company or ordinary life, but for matters outside research, they are basically nice people.” (p.226-227)

It seems that Dr. Tokoro’s philosophy is about finding unbelievably out of box “henjins” that have high potentials and creating a “place” to enable them grow freely. Maybe it has to do with his experience of being at several western laboratories working together with first class researchers.  Because of this experience SONY CSL is able to say that “…fresh PhDs…young inexperienced researchers are treated as colleagues, fairly, openly, and also with strictness….this atmosphere…. is a manifestation of very pure spirits that has nothing to do with disguise or connivance……” “….even in the presence of the most distinguished professors, no matter what they may say, SONY CSL researchers will not flinch” (p.216-217)

In Chapter 7, Dr. Tokoro proposed an “open system science”  as one possibility in facing future challenges and has published a book by this title  early this year in celebration of the 20th anniversary.

Anyway, I recommend this book strongly to anyone who is interested in research or anything fun, and to students in universities or graduate schools.

And as I repeatedly point out in this site also (please ‘Search’ by keywords such as ‘out of box (henjin)’, ‘nails that stick out’ or ‘common sense’),  it is these “out of box (henjin)”, “nails that stick out” “non-common sense” that go beyond the frontier, create new values, and change the world.  My conviction is even stronger after reading the stories of many scientists introduced in this book.

To Okinawa; Asian Youth Exchange Program, Influenza, and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

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August 20, I came to Okinawa.

The visit is for the Asian Youth Exchange Program (Ref. 1)   that started last year.  As I have reported before it is a project of having youth from Asia and Japan spend 3 weeks together in Okinawa.  This year, 35 international students (15 nations) and 42 Japanese students (14 from Okinawa) participated. Their age was mostly 15 or 16.  This kind of exchange programs should be more actively expanded.  Experience of mixing with other young people in their youth is the basis of formation of broad perspectives towards the future and constructing networks of friendship.  The whole world sees this as especially important (Ref.1) in this global age and is moving based on this notion.

6 students from the Asia Pacific University  who participated as Tutors last year were also present as well as students from the University of the Ryukyus and Okinawa University.

But this year, the swine flu spread rapidly in Okinawa including 3 mortalities and when I arrived some participants were taking rests because of fever.  My topic was “The Global Age and Innovation”. I was told that there were several sessions on “Water”, and students divided in several groups according to their views had variety of discussions on the problem of “Water”.  So, I asked each group what they discussed about “Water” and we had a dialogue along that line.

The participants were all very lively and active.  I enjoyed being with them.  The overall program was full with seminars, transfer to islands, snorkeling, home stay, and so on.  Maybe a bit more of free time could have done them good.  I do imagine, however, that looking after such active youths must be exhausting!

Anand Ivannanto of APU, a participant of last year (who unfortunately could not be in my seminar because of sudden fever), and other university students are voluntarily setting up website and Networks such as FaceBook.  I would like to encourage all to spread such activities.

I have mentioned this last year too, but the ratio of male and female of Japanese participants  was again ‘1:2’ this year.  There are much less applications from male students.  Why is it so?  I wonder.

I went to see the site where construction of Okinawa Institute of Technology (OIST)  was going on.  Grand campus buildings were being built and I look very much forward to their completion.  Of course, there will be many obstacles that we should overcome along the way.

Reformer of Education for the Global Age

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After the Rehman shock, Japanese economy’s status is worse than it was initially anticipated by domestic authorities and the weakness of the structure of industry is rising to the surface.  ‘The 1955 Regime’, beginning of ‘Iron-Triangle Regime’ of Post-War Japan coming to a deadlock may have something to do with this.  When situations like this take place, it is always the case that some people start discussing “Leader theory” that sounds nostalgic of the activities of the people in the Meiji era such as in the novel by Ryotaro Shiba, “Saka no Ue no Kumo” (Ref. 1).  However, the situation is very different today and their viewpoints seem irrelevant. 

Changes in the world today will not wait for Japan to catch up.  If we think of 5, 10, 20 years ahead from now, it is perfectly clear that the producing future human resources should be the most important basis of national policies (in Japanese).  Search in this site by keywords such as “human resources”, or “education” since there are many columns that I have written on this theme.

Budget for education is extremely small in Japan compared to other developed countries.  Political parties at last came up with manifests with budgets for “children, education” included for the next Shugi-in election ? a speed not at all impressively wonderful.

However, though reinforcement of conventional budget on education is important, it is much more necessary to create strong policies for producing variety of talents for the future challenges.  At present, the changes in this nation are too small and timid even at the level of university education.  I have been pointing this out so many times in this site (Ref.1, 2) and although I do notice some good drastic attempts they are unfortunately too small to become big trends.  Such activities at Asia Pacific University or Akita International University , for example, are not well known even in Japan.  Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, HItotsubashi University  is a revolutionary program open to the world and is evaluated highly by international standards.

By the way, reforms are underway in many of the Western universities as well as in the field of education utilizing IT technologies such as internet where totally new potentials are being sought after or being put into practice.  In this respect there are several Japanese active in overseas universities such as Dr. Miyagawa who was involved in the development of MIT’s OpenCourseWare  or Dr. Iiyoshi, who is seeking for new possibilities having recently moved to MIT from the Carnegie Foundation.

I met Dr. Iiyoshi in Dubai last year (Ref.1, 2)  Recently he edited and published a book “Opening Up Education” together with Dr. Vijay Kumar.  The book is highly evaluated as you can see from the book reviews written by people such as Dr. Charles Vest (who was the President of MIT for many years.  Search for topics related to him in my site.)

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Photo: Dr. Iiyoshi and I at GRIPS

Recently, I had an opportunity to see Dr. Iiyoshi.  I learned that there is a possibility of unimaginably big change in the field of education in this “Flattening” world.  People of the world are very much devoted in effort to produce leaders who will lead the politics, industries, universities in the global societies with clear vision, strong will, and strong energy by strengthening the potentials of young generation, their spirits of challenge, minds not afraid to change in the face of this global age.

I strongly advise people of Japan to listen open mindedly to the opinions of educators such as Drs. Miyagawa and Iiyoshi, who have minds full of love for the nation (see footnote), working actively at “outside”, seeing Japan from “outside”

Footnote: Person with love for the nation as I understand is “Patriot” not “Nationalist”.

Asian Innovation Forum

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Mr. Nobuyuki Idei is one of the globally active business leaders.  I agree very much with his philosophy as well as his view of the time.  After retiring from the position of Chairman of Sony, he started a new challenge by setting up a new business consulting/investment firm named “Quantum Leaps” .  Many talented young people are gathering there to start new businesses or to support inception of new businesses.  His commitment as the great senior of business world is so admirable.

One of Quantum Leaps’ various activities is Asian Innovation Forum which was initiated in 2007.  I have the honor of joining in this forum to offer some help.  Unfortunately, I had to miss the 2007 meeting but did participate in 2008.  A great rise of energy and enthusiasm was felt in the air.

This year’s forum will take place in Tokyo on September 14th and 15th.   Dr. Hirotaka Takeuchi (Dean, Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University, also well known in connection with the Davos meeting etc.) and I will participate as senior advisors but most of the plans and discussions will be carried out by young members.  We all share Mr. Idei’s vision and the event should be very enjoyable.

Search with keywords such as “Idei” or “Takeuchi” in this site and I am sure that the search engine will come up with many “hits”.

The forum posted an announcement ad on Nikkei newspaper .  I whole heartedly wish that new businesses – driving force for the growth of economy – will emerge from such networks as in this forum.

I feel that wonderfully energetic young people; capable of developing “personal” power, open-minded to the world, spreading networks with high speed, are emerging one after another.  Each one of them are the resources we need for the good of this nation’s future.  They are our hope, and I intend to help them in any way I can.

University Students of the United Arab Emirates visit Japan

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The United Arab Emirates; UAE has a strong relationship with Japan.  Dubai and Abu Dhabi are probably the most popular among the cities of UAE.  Please search for these cities in this site since I also have had several opportunities to visit UAE since 2007.

Especially, Dubai had been the topic of the whole world for its fast growth but now things seem to be halting as if to see the trend probably partly due to the global economic crisis.

Among the Emirates, Abu Dhabi is the largest, producing most of the oil of UAE.  50% of its export goes to Japan, and 25% of oil import of Japan comes from Abu Dhabi. Thus, Japan and Abu Dhabi have been building good relationship and Abu Dhabi is known for being a pro-Japan city.

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Photo; Students from Khalifa University, Faculty members of Keio University, people from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, His Excellency Hatano. In white clothes are the students from UAE.  This clothes are called Kandura (Ref.1)

Students from Khalifa University (it is a university of science and engineering) in Abu Dhabi visited Japan twice for about a week in a group of about 15 each time.  The first group was all female and the second group was all male.  I had an opportunity to meet the latter group.  I was told that they had quite a full time by visiting Keio University and the research facilities at Tsukuba.

Exchanges of young people are very important for the future.  They will all be partners in the global world.

Most of the students were from UAE, but some came from Sudan Palestine, Lebanon, or Syria.

Emirates Airline that uses Dubai as the hub base is famous, but an airline of Abu Dhabi, Etihad is also scheduled to operate in Narita from 2010.

Tracks of politics; Masato Shimizu, journalist

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At last, we are having the Shugi-in (House of Representatives) election.  Dissolve of Parliament by Minister Koizumi of the time, named “Yusei (Ministry of Post and Telecommunications)” dissolve, and the following Shugi-in election which ended up with the sweeping victory of Jimin-to (Liberal Demographic Party) seems just like yesterday.  But after this, Koizumi, Abe, Fukuda, and Aso respectively became Prime Minister for one year each, which I assume was somewhat a “strange” period of time perhaps to many people.

There are many unclear elements in the background of politics like this, unknown truths hidden behind, but here lies the mission of journalists.

Mr. Masato Shimizu of Nikkei published for us the “documentary record” of the process and record of Kantei initiatives led by PM Koizumi, activities of Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (Keizai Zaisei Shimon Kaigi), and the drama of 3 PMs taking turns after Koizumi.  Now the record is a “series of 3 books”.

I read through the first book and was very impressed.  Shortly after, he wrote another two books in very timely topics.  I am very pleased about it.

“Kantei initiatives-revolution of Junichiro Koizumi (Kantei syudo – Koizumi Jyunichiro no Kakumei)” (2005)
“Commentaries on the war on Economy and Finance (Keizai Zaisei Senki)” (2007)
“Misstep of the Prime Minister (Shusyo no Satetsu”) (April, 2009)

They are records based on careful coverings by Mr. Shimizu on the national politics of Japan ? what happened, who did what, when, how and what are their meanings and impacts.

It is always the case that newspapers, televisions, or magazines-because of the limits they are imposed of time and space-are not sufficient to make us fully understand about the politics of Japan.  Besides, it takes great effort or almost impossible to try to access to these reports or articles later on.

For this very reason, it is so important and valuable for us Japanese citizens to have a journalist, active in that time, publish a timely book on what happened based on his/her coverage in spite of the very busy life they lead.  It will be a good record, too.  The “Afterword” of his third book illustrates very well the difficulty Mr. Shimizu encountered in catching up with such rapidly changing circumstances.

In newspapers and other medias, journalists cover, study, and write articles on his/her own focused fields (but probably most of their works do not appear on the pages due to editing policies the desks have based on the priorities of the news etc.) but I would say in most cases one article is not enough to cover the issue simply because of the transient nature of newspapers, its limited spaces.  Of course, there are weekly and monthly magazines, series on newspapers too.  And quite a volume of articles are now readable on internet.  But still, I would say that it is quite meaningful to have those information gathered, edited, added and published as a non-fiction.

Are we capable of making an open minded journalism?  This is an issue of consciousness and ethics of organization ? of media relations, journalism.

Media is a huge power that bears tremendous responsibility to the society.  I am weary and tired of our old, never changing “kisha club”, too.  There is no hope if institutions continue to be rigid, or journalists keep on behaving like salary earners.  Remember that the whole world is watching.  Excuses good for Japanese only will not persuade them.

Escape from “Garapagosnization (Garapagos-ka) of industry”

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A word "Galapagosnization (Garapagos-ka)" widely spread to refer to Japanese industry that possesses high technology but do not seek to go out to the world; cell phone industry, for instance, being a typical example.

What are the problems of “Garapagos-nization” and how do we fix them?  To answer this question Dr. Takeshi Natsuno, the father of “iMode”, and his friends launched “Cho Garapagos Kenkyu-kai (Overcoming Garapagos study team)”  (the site is in Japanese).  I participate as one of the members of the cheer group.  The goal is to find ways to conquer “Garapagos”.  Discussion was heated from the very beginning (Ref. in Japanese 1, 2)

We want to liberate the technologies of Japan from secluded management and have them go out to the world.

Dr. Natsuno is known as the true Entrepreneur, “Nail that sticks out”, man of ability, a challenger who overcomes failures.  He is one of the leaders recognized by the whole world.  Dr. Natsuno is also a person who makes you feel good.  I sincerely think that we must cheer and support such people..

This is his recent interview (in Japanese). “Uh-huh”, I nod as I read. It is precisely what I think.

Jaques Attali; A brief history of the future ? a brave and controversial look at the twenty-first century

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To trace the history of humans and predict the future ? this is always important at any time.  “Wise men learn from history, fools learn from experience”, “Historia Majistra Vitae”…. East or west, same kind of sayings are inherited.  They are the “wisdom of human kind”. Here in this site also, I have sent out messages of the like for a number of times. (For references in Japanese, please see 1, 2, 3, 4)

In my last posting I introduced a book by Fareed Zakaria, but “a brief history of the future ? a brave and controversial look at the twenty-first century”  written by Jaques Attali, one of the greatest intellectuals of France today, is equally very powerful and provocative.  This book predicts the world in the 21st century by sorting out “keywords to analyze the past and predict how our world will look like in the 21st century” from the long history of human beings. “Laws of history, rules for success are also applicable for future.  Understanding them will enable us to predict how the future will be…”.

For the Japanese edition, a short chapter titled “21st century ? will Japan survive?” is added as well as a chapter titled “Will France survive in the history of the 21st century?” in the end.  Anyway, the Japanese edition looks much more voluminous compared to English edition although I cannot read French original to compare.

Many of you might have seen the 2 hours’ interview with Jack Atari regarding this book on NHK.

The book’s content is structured by 6 chapters:
1. A Very Long History
2. A Brief History of Capitalism
3. The End of the American Empire
4. First Wave of the Future: Planetary Empire
5. Second Wave of the Future: Planetary War
6. Third Wave of the Future: Planetary Democracy

It was first published in 2006, but in “The Beginning of the End” of 2nd chapter it says: “Proliferating, excessive, limitless, and out of control, the American financial system requires profitability rates that industry cannot deliver, to the point where industrial corporations now lend their money in the financial sector rather than invest it in their own activities…” and “”Salary-earners are also increasingly indebted, especially in regard to two public corporations (Fannie Mae, second-ranking American corporation, and the fifth-ranked Freddie Mac), which hold or stand behind five trillion dollars’ worth of mortgage loans, a debt multiplied by four in ten years….” (p.98,99)  Here, we may say that Attalie predicted the subprime mortgage crisis as the financial panic started in the summer of 2007.

Attalie also introduces concept of “Core cities” and writes that “It constantly reinvents itself in a unique shape, around a single center, a single core, which attracts an innovative class (shipbuilders manufacturers, traders, technicians, and financiers) marked by its taste for the new and its passion for discovery.  Until a crisis, or a war, leads to replacement of one core by another. (p.35)

Many “lessons for the future” are given, but here I will list just a few:                  “transmission is a condition of progress" (p.5)
"a new communications technology, seen as a centralizing influence, turns out to be the implacable enemy of the powers that be." (p.50, footnote *1)
"the authoritarian state creates the market, which in its turn creates democracy." (p.69)
"the link between technology and sexuality underpins the whole dynamic of the mercantile order." (p.81)
"many major innovations result from the work of researchers paid out of public funds to look into something utterly different." (p.90)

Sub-titles illustrate brilliantly of the 21st century phenomenon that appears.  For example;
“Nomadic Ubiquity” (Arrival of Nomadic Ubiquity that Changes History)
“Irretrievable Scarcities” (Environment of Earth in the Future)
“Time: The Only True Scarcity” (Time: The Only True Scarcity Left)
And so on…
(In the parenthesis are sub-titles from Japanese edition for your reference.)

Then, the 4th Chapter begins.  First, second, and third waves of the future are described.

How can I describe the content?  Stimulating, horrifying, provocative… I have a feeling that most of them will actually realize.  There are many signs even now.

After reading, I thought of Jared Diamond’s book “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

I recommend these books in addition to “The Post-American World”.  Please keep them in your mind and read whenever you have opportunities.

Footnote 1:  I also have been pointing out the weakness of “Vertical Society” in a “Flat World” by quoting Latin words “Incunabulum, Incunabula” in number of lectures.  For instance, please see my columns 1, 2, or 3.