The Power to Formulate Questions

Chapter 2: Books Cannot Be Defined (11)

Next, if we look just a little bit into the future, one change that has been visible over the past five years is that the word AI (Artificial Intelligence) has finally entered people's daily lives in the form of practical tools.

One of the major technologies of AI is voice recognition. In fact, as of 2018, Amazon is leading the field in that area as well. The Amazon Echo, released in the United States at the end of 2014, is a device for using Amazon's AI assistant called Alexa, which you use by placing it on a desk or similar surface and speaking to it. These are called smart speakers, and various companies are pushing forward with their development. In Japan, starting with Google Home at the end of 2017, the Amazon Echo, LINE's Clova WAVE, and others were released one after another (the release date for Apple's HomePod in Japan is undecided). By simply speaking, you can accomplish small tasks that were previously done via computers or smartphones, such as searching, having news read aloud, playing music, and even ordering pizza or taxis.

Kelly wrote, "A world where you can ask the cloud any question in the tone of a normal conversation will arrive soon," and then stated the following.

A good question is something a machine might never be able to do.
A good question is something only a human can do.
(...)
Facts, order, and answers will always be necessary and useful in the future. They will not disappear, and in fact, they will continue to support much of our civilization, like microorganisms and concrete. However, the most important aspects of our lives and technology—the most dynamic, most valuable, and most productive aspects—lie on a new frontier, where uncertainty, chaos, fluidity, and a multitude of questions spread out. Technology that produces answers will remain indispensable, and thanks to it, answers will be everywhere, immediately obtainable, reliable, and almost free. However, technology that helps generate questions will become even more valuable.

Kevin Kelly, "The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future" (NHK Publishing, 2016), pp. 381-382

When AI has swallowed every book published to date, every piece of information uploaded to the internet, and all other content and communication, the accuracy of "answers" to every "question" should become more precise. Futurist Ray Kurzweil named the time when AI eventually surpasses human limits the "Singularity (technological singularity)."

However, Kelly takes the position that a "strong singularity" scenario, where "in the end, AI reaches a point where it possesses god-like wisdom and can solve all existing problems, leaving humanity behind," will not happen (ibid., p. 390). AI and humans are simply heading toward a "complex interdependence." That change may indeed become something beyond current human understanding. But Kelly believes that no matter how many "answers" are derived from AI, it is humans who hold the "questions" that transcend them.

I do not know what kind of future will arrive. But if AI continues to develop toward the future and becomes able to derive every "answer" so that it is "immediately obtainable, reliable, and almost free," and if humans still ought to read books, then the books of that time must be things that cultivate the power to formulate "questions."

Opinions will likely differ on what kind of books cultivate the power to formulate "questions." Until now, when we had "questions" about things we didn't understand or problems we faced, we sometimes sought "answers" in books. Now, at least for things where simple "answers" exist, such as the meaning of words or etiquette for ceremonial occasions, you don't even need to type on a keyboard; you can just ask Alexa and find out immediately. But the more a "question" is one that cannot be answered easily, the more the "answers" written in books will generate the next "question." Returning to the example of the Edo period, one could say that what "Soshi-ya" (bookstores) handled were "answers" to desires like utility and entertainment, while what "Mono-no-honya" (bookstores) handled, such as academics and culture, were more likely to generate the next "question." That said, there is no doubt that "technology that helps generate questions" will also become increasingly capable of answering more advanced "questions."

But at the very least, defining "a book as something that cultivates the power to formulate questions" connects to the possibility that books will continue to be necessary for humans in the future.

In the not-too-distant future, let us assume, as Kelly says, that "all the books in the world will become one fluid construct, connecting words and ideas to each other." If you ask the Alexa in front of you, it will search for any "answer" from there. At that time, what will we even talk to it about? Thinking that books are what generate the words we speak—that is, the "questions"—seems like a not-so-bad definition for bookstores in the coming era.

*Reprinted from "A Reader for Future Bookstores" (NHK Publishing), pp. 80-83