MIRAI Archive
京都⼤学未来創成学国際研究ユニット

International Research Unit of Advanced Future Studies(IRU-AFS)

No.2015-001-E＜ Greeting＞

Kyoto University, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics
The Symposium Commemorating Opening of the Kyoto University,
International Research Unit of Advanced Future Studies
Date

August 6 th 2015（Thu）18：00－18：18

VenueSpeaker

COOP-INN Kyoto 202
Juichi Yamagiwa（the President, Kyoto University）

Greetings from Juichi Yamagiwa, the president
Hello, everyone.
Professor Masatoshi Murase, I’ve been looking forward to seeing theactivities of Advanced Future Studies ever since I heard of its opening.

It has long been a tradition at Kyoto University to have people working on
the frontlines of various fields get together to develop a new field inscience. There are, however, a number of phenomena that are still poorly
understood about humankind and the world we live in. To give an example
from human evolution, which is my field of study, the reason why our ancestors began walking
on two legs is still a mystery. This is an example of what is known as “emergence”. There is noother primate close to man that walks on two legs.
What made us stand up on two legs and start walking?

Only humans speak languages, but how and when we started communicating through languages
still remains a mystery. In today’s study, the word “merge” is used to describe such things. It isbelieved that things developed through different roots that merge into each other at some point
to form something new. However, what specifically, is still unknown.

In the contemporary world, there are many mysterious phenomena in your field of study.
I believe we live in an age where researchers are asked to approach these phenomena throughshared knowledge of other fields rather than proceed with them unrevealed. To enable us do this,1MIRAI Archive

No.2015-001-E

technologies have been developed over time and various cases have been accessible to us. In
particular, technologies to analyze big data have gained in popularity. Along with this, I believe
we have to be in step with times and take steps to find other unknown phenomena.

It is no exaggeration to say that our future rests upon those engaged in Advanced Future Studies.
What I expect in the future is the creation of a new theory of civilization. I believe we canachieve this by operating Advanced Future Studies on an international basis. And Kyoto is theoptimal place to do just that.

For several years, I was part of a study group called “Qualia AGORA” along with our former
leader, Masao Horiba, who passed away on July 14 th , 2015. Our motto was “Question common
knowledge and think of something new and interesting”. We provided lectures as well as ourworld cafe to welcome people from various fields of study. We did it with the aim of obtaining
new ideas through debate and conversation.

In the process, I experienced a great many things that made me think we had found a way to findthe science of the future. Professor Murase is a part of the Qualia AGORA group today and healso played a central role in planning this fantastic gathering. I thank him for making it possible
for us to continue our activities and I’d like to say that I expect great things in the future from
Advanced Future Studies. I cannot wait to see what they come up with. Thank you very much.

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