AI and the future of the brain power society: When the descendants of Athena and Prometheus work together

• Published date: 01 August 2018
• Author: Masahisa Fujita
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/roie.12310
• Date: 01 August 2018

SPECIAL ISSUE PAPER

AI and the future of the brain power society: When

the descendants of Athena and Prometheus work

together*

Masahisa Fujita

Konan University, Japan

Correspondence

Masahisa Fujita, Konan University,

8-9-1, Okamoto, Higashinada-ku,

Kobe Hyogo 658-8501, Japan.

Email: fujitam@center.konan-u.ac.jp

Abstract

Taking the great opportunity of visiting Crete, I have pre-

sented my freewheeling imagination about the future of the

brain power society, bearing in mind the recent development

of AI and robots. Based on Greek mythology, I consider

that all brain-power professionals in civil society are the

descendants of Athena, whereas the rapidly developing AI

and robots are the ultimate descendants of Prometheus. In

this context, in order to foresee the possible future of eco-

nomic research in the coming AI revolution, I introduced the

recent attempt by Marcus Berliant and myself to develop a

formal framework for modeling the operational process of

economic research. Then, I have suggested that if real

humans and AI work together through such a framework

while amplifying mutual comparative advantages, creativity

in economic research as a whole will be vastly enhanced.

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INTRODUCTION

I am very honored and pleased to have this great opportunity to speak at the GeComplexity Conference

in Crete, the origin of Greek Civilization. Speaking of Crete Island, actually, when I visited Athens for

the first time in the early 1980’s, I also planned to visit Crete. So, one day, my wife and I left Athens

on boat bound for Crete. Unfortunately, on the way from Athens to Crete, a big storm came, and our

boat turned back to Athens. Since then, it was our dream to really visit Crete someday. Thanks to this

GeComplexity Conference, our dream has come true.

My presentation today is entitled, “AI and the future of the brain power society: When the descend-

ants of Athena and Prometheus work together.”As you can imagine, unlike most of the papers to be

presented in this conference, my talk today is not about serious academic work. Instead, my

* Keynote lecture delivered at the GeComplexity Conference organized under the COST Action, Heraklion, Crete, Greece,

May 26–27, 2016.

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C2017 JohnWiley & Sons Ltd wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/roie Rev IntEcon. 2018;2 6:508–523.

DOI: 10.1111/roie.12310

presentation today is intended to be a rather entertaining one. Based on my imagination, I would like

to talk about the future of the brain power society, with the background of the recent rapid develop-

ment of artificial intelligence (AI). So, please relax and enjoy my freewheeling, optimistic imagination.

As we know, recently, revolutionary developments in information and communication technology

(ICT), and transport technology have been promoting, on the one hand, the so-called globalization of

the world economy in trade and investment, and on the other hand, the development of the so-called

brain power society where the creation of new knowledge or innovation has been becoming the major

activity of most countries and regions throughout the world. Together, it has been bringing a major

reorganization of global economic, political and social systems.

In this context, my major question today is, who will be the main actors of brain power society in

the 21st century? Do humans continue to be the main actors? Or, do AI and robots become the main

actors? Or, merging humans and AIrobots together, will a new humanity will be created? Or, in addi-

tion to humans and AIrobots, something else might participate in the coming brain power society?

In order to get a hint on the question of main actors in the coming brain power society, let us recall

the Greek mythology on the origin of brain power society, which I have summarized in Figure 1. By

the way, honestly speaking, my knowledge of Greek mythology is very limited and inaccurate. So,

please discount and make appropriate corrections in what I say about Greek mythology.

As is well known, Zeus was the king of the gods of Mount Olympus. Zeus is the youngest son of

Kronos and Rhea, but, when Zeus was about to be born, Rhea escaped from Kronos to Crete in order

to prevent Kronos from swallowing Zeus like all his other sons. Thus, Rhea gave birth to Zeus in

Crete, and Zeus was raised by Rhea’s mother, Gaia, in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. Later, after taking

over the kingdom from his father, Zeus had many wives and partners. His first wife was Metis, and

after a complicated story, Athena was born from the head of Zeus as the Goddess of wisdom and

knowledge in civil society and the military. I would like to consider that all brain-power professionals

today such as philosophers, artists, craftsmen, and lawyers are the descendants of Athena.

In contrast, according to a Roman mythology, Prometheus was born as a son of Zeus and his sec-

ond wife Themis. I am not sure about this, but, anyway, Prometheus has been considered to be the

God of technology. As is well known, Prometheus created humanity from clay, and he stole fire from

FIGURE 1 Greek mythologyand the origin of BrainPower Society

FUJITA

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