静寂と沈黙という次世代の武器Silence as the Next Generation’s Weapon

Now that the era of competing solely on numbers and probabilities has become a relic of the ancient past, I feel strongly each day that true silence—found within stillness—is the next generation’s weapon for survival. The era of fighting with a single weapon is a product of obsolete thinking; we must voluntarily abandon it. What is required of everyone now is the high-level technique of utilizing new concepts befitting a new era, without ever allowing them to separate within oneself.

Here, I wish to advocate for what can be broadly divided into two logics. First, let us examine the "Shotgun Logic."

If we translate Shotgun Logic into a modern mode of thought, it is the ultimate extreme of "Linear Thinking." It is the structural bracket that has supported the "quantity over quality" paradigm, which became excessively elevated in the fields of modern business and creation. However, as is glaringly obvious from the trends since the 2010s, this mode of survival functioned merely as an absolute rule within an excessive dopamine economic sphere. Meanwhile, those who sought quality over quantity fell into situations where survival itself became difficult; thoroughly beaten down by the linear logic of numbers, they could only self-affirm by saying, "Seeking quality is the highest human capability." However, the cruel reality remains: the future was never there to begin with.

The "former future" we stepped into was, ironically, one that thoroughly enforced a rule of selection: those who cannot move forward in any era cannot move to the next. To put it another way, the intensity of culling has increased for those who possess the resolve to move forward but lack the ability to decide.

The symbolic event is the rise of AI, which has transcended the dualism of quality versus quantity that has been fought on the human dimension. As everyone understands, the most important characteristic of AI is the undeniable fact that humans can absolutely never win against it in "linear processing power" and "generation of quantity." However, there is one inconvenient fact that the majority still refuses to acknowledge. AI has already achieved a high level of quality as well as quantity; the pre-modern debate of "quality or quantity" has become a completely meaningless artifact.

The critical point is that people who have lived by the Shotgun Logic were, in reality, people who could only be used by tools. They were able to survive reasonably well simply because victory or defeat was determined by the negligible differences in processing speed between human brains, or by which tools they used. Pre-modern people often loudly proclaim "human creativity," but from my perspective, such people have no qualification to speak of it. Why? Because they calmly proclaim it despite not knowing what "human creativity" fundamentally is. To state the inconvenient truth that no one admits: if "human creativity" is to be brought into the AI debate, the answer lies precisely with those who were quickest to switch to production most closely aligned with AI.

And now, because the existence known as AI has begun to permeate with a destructive power that drives out all who stand on that obsolete arena, the possibility of surviving solely in the realm of linear thinking has become zero.

As everyone suspects, continuing to fight with numbers, or even a certain level of quality, is now equivalent to a suicidal act for humans. This is because, in the domain where the Shotgun Logic—mass generation and mass firing—is instantly possible at high quality, it is clear to everyone’s eyes that humans can absolutely never defeat AI. It is foolish to cling to old tactics on a new foundation where the old premise of human-versus-human battles (competition) has already collapsed. The same is occurring with the generalized fear that AI will steal jobs. This, too, is a misunderstanding born from humans trying to fight on the same stage as AI—that is, the realm of linearity. Personally, I view those who currently list their accumulated social career on their profiles as a calculation formula as being, without exception, destined for elimination. This is because, from the perspective of AI, they are regarded as pre-modern humans who do not understand that the rules have changed.

However, my purpose here is not to adjudicate which is correct, nor do I intend to pander to Western AI debates. I wish to show the "beyond" of that generalized argument so that readers are not dragged into the stagnation of a collective retreat.

When looking down from a bird's-eye view at the trends of a dopamine world made excessive by the Shotgun Logic of quantity over quality, there is one thing I keenly realize. In contemplating this, a possibility for a new era became visible. For me, the major premise is the firm fact that the act of scattering bullets while in a state of suspended thought is not the practice of a success law, but merely being used by a tool. This point is extremely important. The recognition of the difference between "using a tool" and "being used by a tool" seems to be fatally missing, or misunderstood, by the vast majority of people even now. The act of scattering bullets without thinking is a state of having lost oneself, and in the state of being used by a tool, it brings the most fatal blow to the person as a price. That is the "Loss of Presence."

While firing a shotgun wildly, the person shooting completely loses the ability to read the opponent's presence (kehai). Because they are used by the tool, they abandon the most important element in battle: "human creativity" (that which AI does not possess). Because they are linear thinkers, they see only the visible world, the measurable world; thus, their vision is obstructed by a wall of roaring sound, dust clouds, and piles of shell casings. And after a while, they succumb to the illusion that the enemy is gone and begin to rest in false peace. What I am discussing in this text is the daily life of those winners who emerged in the startup bubble after the Lehman Shock, or the winners of social media, who devote themselves to mindfulness. They do this not because they must to stay sane, but as a natural reaction to having already lost sight of themselves. And if one loses one's own presence, one loses the ability to detect the presence of the opponent. What I want to assert at this time is that the world which appears as if the enemy has been eliminated from before one’s eyes is merely a world clouded by one’s own noise.

Regardless of the type of noise, those who scatter noise are fated to be buried within it themselves, unable to detect the fatal crisis creeping up on them. To be unable to detect a crisis means one is also unable to detect an opportunity. That is why those who have driven out opponents with the logic of numbers to stand atop the market cannot survive in the long term, and are constantly frightened by the anxiety of being in a replaceable state. Mindfulness has been used to escape this anxiety, but it is nothing more than a promised temporary rest in a reality that is not real. It is precisely because these people are constantly frightened by the anxiety that you will be the one eliminated in the next instant that mindfulness was able to become popular as a hollowed-out package.

In this unstable arena, even if one acquires some profit temporarily, it is immediately copied and diffused; one must simply keep shooting wildly as opponents appear one after another. eventually, as you keep firing the shotgun, you gradually lose sight of yourself, become completely a slave to the tool, and no longer even know your own standing. You can no longer see where you stand or from where you are firing the shotgun. Therefore, you are finished the moment you are shot by a human holding even one gun (the latest tool) of higher performance.

The obsolete type of human who views the Shotgun Logic as absolute has lost the root and strongest sensor of a biological being: "reading the opponent's presence." At this moment, the positions are reversed. This becomes the entrance to the other logic I advocate: the "Logic of One-Cut" (or Ittoryodan).

In truth, regarding the rise of AI, it is precisely those who have yearned for "quality over quantity" in this last decade or so who should have been the first to realize that AI has brought a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This is because the era has begun to disclose a characteristic, for the first time in human history, where one can conquer "quantity and quality" through one's own will. It is often asked whether one has a "worldview" or not; for me, a worldview is something born from designing one's life from the inside out through introspection. If one can construct a worldview by this method, then one simply needs to execute the "quantity and quality" that accords with that worldview—currently, 90% by AI and 10% by humans. Please be warned: if you use your head to think of a worldview, that is pre-modern, and you will be culled. In the current era where everything is multilayered, a characteristic is that even if the same concepts are used, the true meaning and truth are entirely different.

Now, Ittoryodan (cutting in two with a single stroke) is the crystallization of wisdom in the philosophy of the Japanese Samurai. When reinterpreted as wisdom for survival, it holds extremely suggestive power and becomes an eminently practical weapon for modern people to survive turbulent times. The important thing is that this is not simply a discussion of the physical action of "defeating with one blow." Samurai did not defeat opponents with swords through brute force; if you think that way, there is no longer any possibility for you to proceed further at this point. The Samurai lived in a world where, the moment they faced an opponent and crossed swords, the match was already decided.

If I were to define this uniquely in a modern context, this is the ultimate "Non-linear Thinking."

To rephrase it in my own way: it is a philosophy that, in the face of chaotic situations the human brain cannot process, nullifies all processes of linear thinking, and within a honed silence, grasps the single unique solution at the optimal timing, at the critical moment.

The most important aspect of the One-Cut philosophy begins with the main theme of Shitsurae: "introspection to align one's own Qi." Only when one cultivates the technique of controlling the movement of one's own Qi through introspection, and makes preparations to trigger that state of silence at any time, can one confront an opponent for the first time. This is because, when this state is attained, the opponent's flow of Qi is assimilated into one's own flow, making it possible to read the opponent's minute movement of Qi "just before" it happens. The crucial point is not when the opponent's Qi moves, but just before it moves. If the Qi has already moved, it is too late; in that case, you have been cut. In other words, I am advocating not for raising one's heavy hips to move after things have moved, but for sensing the presence of movement and moving just before it. To do this, however, one must constantly update the OS known as one's own ideology to the latest version.

This moment just before the opponent's Qi moves—that is the "Gap" (Suki). The instant a gap is born in the opponent, it is impossible to miss it, and one cuts in solely in that instant. The match is decided by a disturbance of Qi lasting only a split second. In other words, viewed from the reverse perspective, if one’s own Qi does not waver, one cannot lose the match. The discussion around AI is similar; people whose social interests are being replaced by AI are constantly just venting emotions, and at a glance, they may appear to possess a legitimacy full of heat. But this is not so. In the world of the Samurai, even if one appears outwardly full of heat, if the inner self is not filled with silence, one can absolutely never win the match. Therefore, the reason I say there is no future for people caught up in emotional arguments is that, despite having voluntarily abandoned the silence within themselves—that "human creativity" (which AI lacks)—they conveniently and arbitrarily interpret the AI crisis as a "crisis of humanity" in an attempt to maintain the social system.

If you have seen even one movie with a Samurai motif, you will recall scenes where, for a time, they appear to be doing nothing but staring at each other. That scene must appear boring if this context is not understood. This is because, from a linear perspective that tries to visualize everything, this conflict—the battle in the true sense—cannot be perceived. I believe one of the reasons the inhabitants of the dopamine world cannot watch films from the 1950s and 60s lies here. Films of that time were not yet designed to trigger dopamine on a second-by-second basis.

The important thing is that Samurai did not originally slash blindly as long as they had strength. Within the conflict of Qi, the victory or defeat was already decided at the point the swords crossed. Therefore, the human who is cut is cut because they were destined to be cut, and the human who cuts, cuts because they were destined to cut. This is because it is not a physical match, but a match of Qi. The victory or defeat is already settled in the invisible world, and it is merely manifesting in a visible form after a slight time lag between that and the real world. In short, linear thinkers are looking at the wrong location of the match.

In this world of Samurai combat, the one who reigned at the most supreme position was the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. If we transfer his perspective to the modern day, the most important thing lies in the "time before drawing the sword." Samurai, to begin with, did not let others touch their own swords and rarely showed them. This was not only because they were sacred, but also due to strategic rationality. Showing the state and sharpness of the sword to an opponent against whom one might fight at an unknown time—before the battle—is synonymous with revealing one's own hand. And above all, for them, the sword was a projection of themselves, a specialized alter ego. Samurai did not dedicate their daily lives solely to martial training; they also poured considerable time into the acquisition of liberal arts (kyoyo). Furthermore, what formed the core of their daily lives was introspection.

In other words, in my view, Samurai designed their lives from the inside out through introspection, and assimilated that inner world with the sword. Therefore, to the Samurai, the sword was the self, and showing it to others was equivalent to exposing one's own inner world. That is why they did not easily show their swords to others. In the modern age, I redefine this sword of the Samurai as our human "Thought."

Based on the philosophy of One-Cut—that is, Non-linear Thinking—touched upon here, let us look at the modern age again while corresponding it to the aforementioned Shotgun Logic. Against an opponent who is used by the tool called a gun (algorithm) while in suspended thought and simply scatters bullets, the delusion they typically fall into is believing that "the linear world I see is correct." That delusion is, in fact, nothing but a "Gap" to one who possesses the One-Cut philosophy. This is because the process of controlling Qi by oneself is completely missing from the Shotgun Logic, having been entirely abandoned to the algorithm.

They intend to hold the strategy of "if you fire enough, you'll hit" as a tool, but it is crucial to note that this is merely an "intention." Believing they can win the battle by being used by tools without aligning their own Qi, and making them believe that, was precisely the key to the social media era of the 2010s (which is why platformers gained enormous profits). At this time, gaps are born infinitely, and it is not difficult at all to cut them down. Certainly, if one blindly fires a shotgun without thinking anything, one might defeat a human used by a tool fighting on the same stage, and conversely, one might be defeated. But this is merely a scramble for dominance. This is the limit of the old-style world, spearheaded by social media.

However, even if there is an influencer who has risen through this blind firing, when the smoke clears and silence wraps the field, that person is already cut and dead before they even realize it themselves. This is my logic of One-Cut. Because the match is already decided. Excellent Samurai possessed the technique to kill before the physiological reaction of being cut reached the opponent. This is called "Instant Kill" (Shunsatsu). It is a very high-level technique, but by utilizing it in our own swords, the possibility opens to proceed beyond this dead-ended world.

And significantly, what I am thinking is not about which is correct, but that everyone must immediately acquire both techniques within themselves. It is no longer possible to survive by leaning toward one side.

Let us consider the case where I present these two logics. Intellectuals tired of the Shotgun Logic will say, "Then the future lies in the One-Cut Logic," and attempt to reject AI by burying themselves solely in that. However, that is not what I am saying. The core of my argument is that the ability of the infinite shotgun by AI to scatter omnidirectionally should be happily and actively transferred from the human self to the AI.

To put it simply, this begins with happily transferring 99% of the daily tasks one currently performs oneself to AI. However, what is crucial when making this transfer is that the future will change depending on how well one understands the fundamental meaning that AI is, after all, a tool, and the presence or absence of a worldview. Whether it is AI or the people used by AI, without exception, the flow of massive amounts of information will become normalized, and it is impossible for this to stop in the future. Conversely, for those who understand the nature of this era, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Such an opportunity will likely never come again. Because in a state where it is promised that everyone will lose sight of themselves due to unimaginable noise, for those who design their own possibilities and future through introspection, and who possess the will to constantly advance toward the future by incorporating the new era rather than rejecting it, they will win no matter what they do. The reason is clear: there are no competitors. Moreover, the greatest fruit of the modern age is the new era's rule that if you become a winner of the times once in this match, you will never become a loser again. Conversely, if you become a loser of the times even once in this match, you can never crawl back up.

And from the perspective of a human who possesses both logics by their own will as a new survival strategy for the era, there is no need to fight in the world of those who become losers, and it actually becomes possible to obtain silence. The gold of the 21st century is "Silence." You can simply leave those who devote themselves to pre-modern war games alone. The era does not exist to save the masses; it is heading in a direction where one advances first oneself, and then saves only a small number of one’s loved ones.

However, as asserted here, the Shotgun Logic itself is wonderful, and there is no need to reject it. The problem is trying to survive on that alone, even now.

I believe the innovation that can be understood as the most important Japanese wisdom for the future world I personally envision lies in the philosophy of "Non-separation." It is the power not to oppose conflicting things, but to "include" (hosetsu) them while they remain contradictory. Here, you may use the concept of integration initially instead of inclusion, but since it will surely deviate later, it is better to understand it as inclusion. To make this logic clear, it is helpful to learn from the way of thinking of a certain swordsman. That is the aforementioned Miyamoto Musashi.

Miyamoto Musashi devised the unique swordsmanship style "Niten Ichi-ryu" (Two Heavens as One Style), handling a heavy long sword and a subtle short sword simultaneously. It is said that by completely possessing this, he never lost once throughout his life. The philosophy of Miyamoto Musashi, who defeated strong enemies one after another, was eventually compiled into a single book, The Book of Five Rings, which possesses such intense power that it can be transcribed directly into modern survival strategy.

Based on this, let us look at the broad picture for now. As the weapon of the right hand, "Linear Thinking (Shotgun Logic)"—that is, when everything is transferred to modern AI—we should quickly entrust the tools of probability theory that suppress wide areas, the coverage of information, the infinite generation of patterns, and the creation of chaos entirely to AI, and thoroughly enjoy its benefits. And simultaneously, as the weapon of the left hand, "Non-linear Thinking (One-Cut Logic)"—we should simply hold the human self, or more accurately, oneself, earnestly cultivate the technique of handling and triggering Qi through introspection, and position ethics, aesthetics, and decision-making as intuitive tools that pierce a single point of truth in our survival strategy—an inviolable territory for AI—honing the parts that only a human can handle.

Therefore, One-Cut is not spiritualism to me. I am speaking of a new era technique where, from within the linear barrage of hundreds of millions of choices presented by AI, one cuts out the correct answer that should be chosen in this moment, instantly, by cutting in at a non-linear speed that transcends logic. If I say it is a unique update of William Burroughs' cut-up technique within a worldview, it might resonate with Western readers. And that implies it is always determined by gravity from the future, thus requiring the discipline of mind and body to receive that gravity.

The more AI evolves, the more the power of the shotgun increases. This is not a threat, but means that our right hand is directly strengthened. While wielding the mighty power of AI with the right hand, we hone the silent sword with the left hand, and use them skillfully without separation, as the one and only existence capable of designing everything from the "I" myself—the inner world—to the outer world. By doing this, like Miyamoto Musashi, you will likely never lose against anyone you confront in the future.

I believe that within the new-era dynamism presented here lies the evolution of a new species that nullifies the adversarial structure of linear AI and non-linear humans. And here there is absolutely no universalism, no West and East; there is nothing but "yourself," stripped of decoration. Here, I feel the future.

To synthesize, what has been discussed here is not merely an objection to the issue still debated within old-model thinking of how to resolve the adversarial problem between AI and humans to fit the times, but a completely new proposal on how to create the world.

What I wish to propose here is to first thoroughly calm one's own Qi, perform the discipline—that is, preparation—to be able to trigger it at any time, and hone the thought of drawing the opponent's Qi to oneself and severing it in one go. The modern sword is Thought. To keep thought quiet, to ignore others entirely, and to earnestly devote oneself to discipline becomes extremely important as a method of survival from now on. Those who become losers move by the logic of numbers, so they will try to drag those attempting to move forward down into the same world of defeat, even if they have to crawl on the ground to do it. Therefore, ignore the opinions of others entirely; first is thorough introspection. In fact, that is what I am doing. You only need to listen to the words of a small number of people you trust most.

And just as Samurai despised showing off their swords, we despise showing off our thoughts, and devote ourselves to preparation for the coming time. By this, we do not survive the next world, but create the survival strategy of the next era through our own actual practice (pratique). I truly want to connect this to the theory of Wang Yangming from here, but I will save that for another occasion.