Paper short abstract:

The contact with extraterrestrial intelligence appearing in SF is considered, from the perspective of anthropology. First, the contact based on "rationality" or on "embodiment" is examined, and second, the existence of another layer called "intentional stance of understanding" is investigated.

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers contact with extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI), the so-called "first contact," from the perspective of anthropology and communication theory. Science fiction has conducted various thought experiments regarding how such kind of mutual understanding is realized. For example, Leinster's novel "First Contact" describes the encounter between two spaceships, one human and one alien. Lem's "Solaris" represents one planet's oceanic surface as some kind of intelligence. However, every attempt by human researchers to communicate with it ends in failure.

Also in some philosophical discussions, such as Wittgenstein's "Philosophical Investigations," and Bateson's "Mind and Nature," Martian as ETI plays an important role. In these discussions, Martian represents some intelligent existence, yet lacking common clue of understanding with human being.

The way of understanding in first contact can be classified into two categories. One possibility is to use rationality, such as represented by mathematics. Objective truth appearing in physics is also frequently used. Another possible basis is "similarity of body." In this case, if an aliens' body is similar to a human body, understanding becomes possible.

Finally, we discuss the existence of another layer above these "ways of understanding," that we call "intentional stance of understanding (ISU)" Whether ETI is peaceful or hostile, the understanding in broader sense is accomplished. On the other hand, like "Solaris," ETI may discard ISU from the start. Any living body attributed "self-replication" must be similar to others. If it is universal, ISU might emerge naturally, and then first contact with ETI will be successfully achieved.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation will examine the characteristics of the Japanese image of space in conjunction with representations of space in television programs from the 1960s to the early 1990s.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation will examine the characteristics of the Japanese image of space in conjunction with representations of space in television programs from the 1960s to the early 1990s. Television has offered the Japanese many programs in the form news, documentaries, and variety shows on the topics of space, the space race, space flights (Apollo project, space shuttles), and astronauts. The most historic event was the live broadcast of Apollo 11's moon landing in August 20, 1969. These programs constructed and changed Japanese viewers' image of space. This presentation will range from the 1960s, when the space race between the USA and Soviet Union accelerated, to 1992, when the first Japanese astronaut, Mamoru Mohri, flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. Applying the methods of film studies, this presentation analyzes these television programs with the aim of historicizing one aspect of the Japanese imagination of space.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine the characteristics of the socially multilayered supply chains in Japan related with manufacturing space appliances, focusing on some of the manufacturers called "machikouba" that do subcontract work.

Paper long abstract:

The Space industry, in part, encompasses a variety of economic activities including the manufacturing of products such as satellites, rockets etc., in which these products will eventually go into outer space around the Earth's orbit. It therefore can be said that it is an industry involved in the utilization of outer space for commercial reasons.

In Japan the Basic Plan on National Space Policy was established to plan for Japanese development and utilization of outer space. Enacted in 2008, its purpose, according to Article 24 of the Basic Space Law, is to promote integrated and systematic measures for the development and utilization of outer space.

The suppliers of products to the space industry are often large companies with many small and medium companies also manufacturing machinery and parts. These products can be composed of a lot of machinery and parts, and manufactured under the socially multilayered supply chains between many companies.

This paper will examine the characteristics of supply chains in Japan, highlighting some of the factories that do subcontract work which are called "machikouba" in Japanese.

How are the parts made at machikouba? The manufacturing process is not a mechanical activity which could be described in something like a manual, but more so a complex, elaborate, socially and economically mediated activity. This paper describes those aspects, and how workers, often referred to as syokunin which means craftman, behave in a number of different aspects of their work such as adjustment to communication and management of knowledge.

Paper short abstract:

Since the launch of the ISS (International Space Station), many astronauts have stayed in extraterrestrial space. In this presentation, based on the texts written by astronauts, their everyday experiences are examined from three standpoints: psychological, physical, and ontological perspective.

Paper long abstract:

Since the completion of the ISS (International Space Station) in 2011, over 80 astronauts have already experienced months of life in an extraterrestrial space. In this presentation, based on an analysis of the texts mainly written by three Japanese ISS astronauts (Wakata, Noguchi, and Furukawa), the meanings of their everyday experiences in ISS are examined from three standpoints: psychological, physical, and ontological perspective.

1) Psychological studies show that long-duration astronauts showed an increased concern with Universalism more than short-term flight astronauts (Suedfeld et al. 2010).

2) Physical transformation in the ISS, such as space adaptation syndrome (SAS), decreased muscle strength, and "moon-face" are commonly experienced. As a physician-astronaut, Furukawa describes these changes scientifically and subjectively, being surprised by the rapid adaptation of the human body to a micro-gravity environment.

3) The basic orienting system (Gibson 1966) formed around a vertical axis defined by gravity is going to be temporally dysfunctional in the ISS, but within a month or so, astronauts become accustomed to a micro-gravity environment, and feel free to move around in the ISS. This process may be seen as a reconstruction of interrelated structure between things and the body, which Heidegger once called "familiarity with the world," as an ontological basis of human beings.

Overall, this research suggests that an extraterrestrial culture has already started to be generated in an ISS environment, forming new ontological relationships between human-beings and the extraterrestrial nature.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation discusses how the imagination of space in the works of Japanese animation, especially "Mobile Suit Gundam", which is one of the most popular works in Japan, has changed.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation discusses how the imagination of space in the works of Japanese animation, especially "Mobile Suit Gundam", one of the most popular works in Japan, has changed.

Since the dawn of TV animation, science fiction has been an important genre in Japan. Mostly, severe battles with aliens from outer space have been described. However, after the 1990s when the typical science fiction or space opera deceases, the topic about parallel universe, different dimensions and inner space is mainly and eagerly described. This qualitative conversion can indicate a change of the imagination in the works of Japanese animation.

It seems that the viewers consider the worldview of Gundam to be real, compared to the other animations. In the story of many of Gundam series human beings appears as follows. After the war which causes the global deterioration of the environment, they survive mainly on the surface of the moon or the space colonies constructed at Lagrangian points, and travel beyond the solar system. In every episode the political inequity and economic disproportion causes the tremendous war as in our contemporary world. Although many contradictions and erratic situations of these works are pointed out, Gundam series are constructed by the imagination for "reality" of space.

Does this imagination conform to the evolution of space development and scientific knowledge of real world or prefigure the reduction of stories of outer space in the animation? These questions will be considered, understanding to examine the characteristics of the worldview and concept of Gundam.

Paper short abstract:

The purpose of this study is to consider space tour from the viewpoint of anthropological study of tourism. I would like to point out the problem of space tourism that, as the space was industrialized, we could not assure the new ideas about world and "new possibility for human culture".

Paper long abstract:

This presentation examines the space trips from the view point of "tourism anthropology", a sub-field of cultural anthropology. One difference of the private space trip from the national or scientific projects is that it is inseparable from the tourism industry. The advertisement of the space trip uses the same phrases as the "exploration tours" to the Amazon rainforest or Antarctica. The phenomenon of the tourism today is closely related to the globalization. The exploration to Amazon or Antarctica by the ordinary tourists has been enabled by the development of the transportation and communication technologies, namely the products of the globalization. It shows that the space trip is considered as the same type as or the extension of the sight-seeing tours on the ground, and hence "space tourism".

We may reasonably consider the space tour as to be one extended of these exploration tours. It will be a tool that provides "old experience" that is projection of the image on the ground. This invokes another serious problem. When people just consume the place called "space", the industrial system which supports it may develop, but perhaps we cannot expect the other possibilities of space activities or scientific results. In the so-called "exploration tours", the tourists just reproduce their own image, ignoring the knowledge brought by the exploration or the reality in the destination.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation will discuss the future of space development on the basis of human evolution and will propose two facets of space development: the continued expansion of the human world along with the simultaneous protection of human biocultural diversity on Earth and in outer space.

Paper long abstract:

Human beings are characterized by their ability to multiply and to freely extend their own mind into their environment, thus constructing diverse human–nature complexes such as life-worlds. Armed with this ability, the species has expanded over all the surface of Earth, adapting to various natural environments from equatorial belt to arctic tundra. Today, human beings are about to expand further into outer space.

　　In this presentation, I will examine the future of space development on the basis of human evolution, focusing on the human ability to multiply and to freely extend one’s own mind into the environment.

　First, on the basis of the hypothesis of “cumulative cultural evolution” proposed by Tomasello and Bateson’s model regarding the evolution of learning, I will show how this ability enabled human beings to expand over the entire surface of Earth. Then, with the relationship of Inuit societies of the Canadian arctic with a global network as an example case, I will examine the present conditions of the human world while focusing on the relationship between a global technoscience network and diverse regional subsistence societies in order to consider the future of space development.

　Finally, on the basis of this consideration, I will propose that space development should have two facets: it should continue to extend the human world as far as possible beyond the terrestrial world into outer space, and it should also protect human biocultural diversity, so that it flourishes on Earth and outer space, both now and in the future.