[October 11th / Free to attend] “Antikythera Tokyo” to be held in Japan for the first time, building a “new philosophy” for an era premised on “planetary-scale computation”
Desilo Press Release: September 13, 2025 [October 11th / Free Admission] “Antikythera Tokyo” to be held in Japan for the first time, building a “new philosophy” for an era premised on “planetary-scale computation” Antikythera, a think tank led by technology philosophy and speculative design researcher Benjamin Bratton, is holding its first event in Japan. The theme is “Artificial Life, Intelligence, and the Artificialization of Planets.”
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlPMV5LJc-I If we have not yet developed concepts or philosophies to describe the rapid evolution of LLM and the technological advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and artificial life, what should be our starting point for deepening our thinking?
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-98422f67d50bfdfef59f2a3f0abbfb8d-1024×684.jpg Antikythera Salon. This symposium will focus on the theme of “Artificial Life, Intelligence, and the Artificialization of the Planet.” Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and artificial life have led to research into the concept of “designed
biologicality,” becoming one of the most noteworthy themes of our time. As these fields intertwine and engage in dialogue, the fundamental question of “what is artificial?” is emerging before us.
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https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-259b2872da38601d11f7232fe14a34c2-3840×2160.png This time, Mr. Bratton and Google Following a keynote speech by Vice President and Fellow Blaise Aguera-Yarcas, which will reexamine the concepts of “artificialization” and “intelligence,” two talk sessions will be held, bringing together practitioners and researchers from a range of fields, including artificial life, artificial intelligence, robotics, architecture, design, philosophy, and the humanities. The first session will be themed “Synthetic Intelligence.” We will discuss the types of intelligence and perspectives on life that are currently emerging at the intersection of research in artificial life, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-ab086b89570bc9ca85dcb94ee1cc9358-3840×2160.png Speakers will be Takashi Ikegami, a world-leading expert in artificial life research; Tadahiro Taniguchi, a computer engineer who envisions a world in which AI and humans find meaning together through “symbol emergent systems theory”; and Tomoko Shimizu, a cultural theorist who has engaged in cross-disciplinary research on art and technology in the post-human era. The moderator will be Kazuya Kawasaki, director of Synflux, a speculative design laboratory that creates fashion for the planet.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-7b91171e7da3f3a306262cb984cddce8-3840×2160.png The theme of the following talk session was “Planetary Sapience.” As symbolized by philosopher Yuk Hui’s book “Machine and Sovereignty: For a Planetary Thinking” and historian Dipesh Chakrabarti’s book “One Planet, Many Worlds,” the “planetary” perspective, in contrast to the “global,” is currently gaining attention. This session will explore the survivability of life, intelligence, cities, and humans when planetary thinking is the premise. The speaker will be Masatake Shinohara, a philosopher known for his translations of Timothy Morton’s works and his works such as “Philosophy of the Anthropocene.” He will discuss the theme of the Japan Pavilion at the 19th
International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, “In-Between” The panel will feature artist Asako Fujikura, who presented her work at “Generative AI and the Future,” architect Keigo Kobayashi, who has worked at OMA/AMO, led by Rem Koolhaas, and whose architectural practice has continued to move between planetary and local themes, and philosophy and religious thought researcher Tadashi Yanagisawa, who focuses on “sacred value” and studies the relationship between cultural backgrounds such as religion and mindsets. The moderator will be Kotaro Okada, Representative Director of Desilo General Incorporated Association, which collaborates with a wide range of researchers in the humanities and social sciences and is co-hosting the event. How do we contemplate and implement “new intermingling through artificiality”? By intersecting fields such as artificial life, artificial intelligence, robotics, architecture, design, philosophy, humanities, and geopolitics, we aim to construct a new concept and philosophy for technology. The event will be held at the Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) in Odaiba, Tokyo. We invite you to experience the vision of the future depicted through experimental dialogue while viewing the “Geo-Cosmos,” a 6-meter-diameter spherical display projecting a fresh image of the Earth. We look forward to your participation. ■Event Details 17:30- Door open／Opening 18:00-18:10 Opening/Greetings 18:10-19:10 Keynote 01 Convergent Artificialization: Life, Intelligence, Planet The Convergence of Artificiality: Life, Intelligence, and the Planet by Benjamin Bratton 19:10-20:10 Keynote 02 What is Intelligence? What isintelligence? by Blaise Agüera y Arcas 20:10-20:20 Break／Break 20:20-21:20 Talk session 01 Synthetic Intelligence: Alternative view of life, intelligence and robotics Synthetic Intelligence: Alternative view of life, intelligence and robotics Takashi Ikegami / Tadahiro Taniguchi / Tomoko Shimizu Moderator: Kazuya Kawasaki 21:20-22:20 Talk Session 02 Planetary Sapience: From the Perspective of Philosophy, Art, and Architecture Planetary Sapiens: Thinking from Philosophy, Art, and Architecture Asako Fujikura / Keigo Kobayashi / Masatake Shinohara / Tami Yanagisawa Moderator: Kotaro Okada 22:20-22:30 Closing 22:30-23:00 Meetup *Keynote 01/02 will be in English, and talk sessions 01/02 will be in Japanese. There will be no simultaneous interpretation. *The event will not be broadcast online. ■Date and time October 11, 2025 18:00-23:00 ■Location Miraikan, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, 1st Floor, Symbol Zone 〒135-0064 2-3-6 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo ■Participation fee Free Due to limited seating, please apply in advance via [this Peatix form]. Ticket sales will close once the venue’s capacity is reached. ■Sponsor Antikythera, De-Silo ■Cooperation: National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Synflux ■Speaker/Moderator
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-a1a3950bfaec1bbc888186579896a2a1-500×700.jpg BENJAMIN BRATTON | Benjamin Bratton BENJAMIN BRATTON is a researcher in the philosophy of technology, focusing on the ongoing evolution of computational technologies. He is a professor at the University of California, San Diego, where he teaches philosophy of technology and speculative design. He is also director of Antikythera, an R&D institute specializing in various forms of planetary-scale
computation. Antikythera hosts design studios, salons, seminars, and public programs, and publishes an academic journal and book series through MIT Press. Bratton’s research positions computation not simply as a technological device, but as a planetary-scale infrastructure reshaping culture, politics, and knowledge. His book, “The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty” (MIT Press), introduces the concept of “planetary computation.” He discusses how networks of Earth systems, cloud platforms, cities, interfaces, and users are forming new “accidental megastructures” that reconfigure sovereignty and agency. A 10th-anniversary edition of the book will be published later this year. In 2024, Bratton joined the Google “Paradigms of Intelligence (Pi)” group as a visiting scholar, working on neuromorphic computing, algorithm design, and artificializing intelligence in large-scale agent simulations. He has also taught at the European Graduate School, SCI-Arc, UCLA, USC, and NYU Shanghai, where he founded the Center for AI and Culture.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-a7a415a82e91d6edb0f6433dde214c86-499×749.png Blaise Agüera y Arcas Vice President and Fellow at Google, CTO of Technology & Society. Founder of Paradigms of Intelligence (Pi), which conducts fundamental research in AI and related fields. Pi’s research focuses on the foundations of neural computing, active inference, sociality, evolution, and artificial life. In 2008, he received MIT’s TR35 Award. At Google, he has innovated on-device machine learning for Android and Pixel devices, invented federated learning, which allows models to be trained in a decentralized manner without sharing personal data, and launched the “Artists Machine Intelligence” program. His books include “Who Are We Now?”, “Ubi Sunt,” and “What Is Life?” His new book, “What Is Intelligence? Lessons from AI About Evolution, Computing, and Minds,” is scheduled to be published in September 2025.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-3a7026275277cbb06946d5fb7d6444fe-1304×831.png Takashi Ikegami | TAKASHI IKEGAMI Professor at the University of Tokyo. Specializing in complex systems science and artificial life, his research spans a wide range of fields, including evolutionary modeling, self-organizing oil droplet experiments, and research on the android ALTER3. He has received international acclaim for his work bridging the gap between science and art, winning awards at Ars Electronica and the Japan Media Arts Festival organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. He is also involved in social communication efforts, such as the “Tree of Life Evolution” project at EXPO 2025. His books include Movement Creates Life (Seidosha, 2007), The Sandwich Theory of Life (Kodansha, 2012), and Between Humans and Machines (co-authored, Kodansha, 2016).
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-838e83ca9c66943733538e74c033aaf8-3900×2600.jpg Tadahiro Taniguchi | TADAHIRO TANIGUCHI Professor, Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University. Ph.D. (Engineering, Kyoto University). Completed his doctoral studies at the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University in 2006. He served as an assistant professor, associate professor, and professor at the College of Information Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, before assuming his current position in 2024. During this time, he has served as a visiting associate professor at Imperial College London, among other positions. He currently serves as a senior technical advisor at Panasonic Holdings Corporation and is also involved in AI research and development. He is also a director of Tomorrow Never Knows General Incorporated Association, representative director of Bibliobattle Association General Incorporated Association, director of AI Robot Association General Incorporated Association (AIRoA), technical advisor to ABEJA Inc., and chair of the IEEE Cognitive and
Developmental Systems Technical Committee. His areas of expertise are artificial intelligence, emergent systems, and cognitive developmental robotics. He pioneered the field of “symbol emergent robotics,” which uses a constructive approach to explore individual language learning and semantic understanding, as well as the mechanisms of symbol system formation in society, from the perspective of symbol emergent systems. In recent years, he has attracted attention by proposing the Collective Predictive Coding (CPC) hypothesis. His major awards include the Institute of Systems, Control and Information Engineers’ Paper Award and the Advanced Robotics Best Survey Paper Award. His publications include “Symbol Emergence Robotics” (Kodansha), “Artificial Intelligence for Understanding the Mind” (Kyoritsu Shuppan), and “Learn an Introduction to Artificial Intelligence through Illustrations” (Kodansha).
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-d29bef63803b8c5895d0890cc80350cd-360×364.jpg Tomoko Shimizu｜TOMOKO SHIMIZU Professor at the Graduate School of International Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Specializing in cultural theory and media culture theory, she has researched issues surrounding art and politics, such as animals, gender, and ecology, with a focus on the intersection of art and technology. Her
publications include Culture and Violence: The Shaking Union Jack (Getsuyosha) and Disney and Animals: Unlocking the Magic of the Kingdom (Chikuma Sensho), and she has co-translated works such as Judith Butler’s Assembly (Seidosha), Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt’s Rebellion (NHK Publishing), and David Ryan’s Surveillance After 9/11 (Akashi Shoten).
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-a1ce6a6d192e6ec65eac2be159960c3b-2173×2700.jpg ASAKO FUJIKURA Born in 1992. Focusing on the infrastructure that crosses urban and suburban areas and the depth of the landscapes associated with it, she primarily creates works using 3DCG animation techniques. In recent years, she has been developing spatial expressions that focus on the dynamism of logistics that unfolds daily on reclaimed land and the emergence of gardens in the city. Recent exhibitions include “Machine Love: Video Games, AI and Contemporary Art” (Mori Art Museum, 2025), “Layered Time: Portraying Our World” (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2025), and “IN-BETWEEN – Generative AI and the Future” (2025), an exhibition at the Japan Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-270d05e2bd5d2bc869e94c3a551aa983-1672×2398.jpg Keigo Kobayashi | KEIGO KOBAYASHI Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University. Ph.D. First-class architect, registered architect in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and founder of NoRA TOKYO Inc. Born in Tokyo in 1978. Graduated from the Department of Architecture, School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University in 2002. After completing a Master’s degree at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2005, he worked at the OMA-AMO Rotterdam office until 2012. He has worked on numerous projects, primarily in North Africa and the Middle East. He then served as an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture, School of Creative Science and Engineering at Waseda University, before becoming an associate professor at the same university in 2016. He is the founder of NoRA TOKYO Inc. His major works include the Japan Pavilion exhibition plan for the 14th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition, the Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition venue plan at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and House O.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-fd9072905cf430b8f2926820695e11e6-3900×2603.jpg Masatake Shinohara | MASATAKE SHINOHARA Associate Professor, Graduate School of Integrated Studies in Human Survivability, Kyoto University. Born in Yokohama in 1975. Graduated from the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies, Kyoto University in 1999. Completed his doctoral studies at the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University in 2007. PhD (Human and Environmental Studies). Specializes in philosophy, architectural philosophy, critical theory, and environmental humanities. Currently, he is an Associate Professor, Graduate School of Integrated Studies in Human Survivability, Kyoto University. His major works include The Ecology of Plurality (Ibunsha, 2016), Philosophy of the Anthropocene (Jinbun Shoin, 2018), and Philosophy of the Post-Human Era (Kodansha, 2020). His major translations include Timothy Morton’s Ecology Without Nature (Ibunsha, 2018) and Timothy Morton’s Humankind (Iwanami Shoten, 2022). Image
URL: https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-d22f1a3dead5389986abfb538a6208b5-1800×2700.jpg TAMI YANAGISAWA Completed her doctoral studies at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. After earning a PhD (in Philosophy) and serving as an associate professor at Nanzan
University, she is now an associate professor at Kwansei Gakuin University’s School of Theology. Her specialty is philosophy and religious studies. Her research focuses on the relationship between cultural backgrounds, such as religion, and mindsets. His translations include “Making Real: How ‘God’ Becomes Real” by Tanya M. Lerman (2024, Keio University Press), and his edited books include
“Disposition: From Philosophy, Ethics, and Ecological Psychology to Art and Architecture: Creating a Cross-disciplinary Approach to Understanding the World” (2008, Gendai Kikakushitsu).
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-e7c1ee6c37abd8c5409df7856bb15586-1802×2700.jpg KAZUYA KAWASAKI Born in 1991. Synflux CEO. Speculative fashion designer. Completed the master’s program (Design) in the Ex-Design Program at the Keio University Graduate School of Media and
Governance, and withdrew from the latter half of the same doctoral program. Specializes in design research and practical research on fashion design. Major awards include Kering Generation Award Japan finalist, 41st Mainichi Fashion Award Newcomer’s Award, Shiseido Encouragement Award, H&M Foundation Global Change Award Special Award, Japan Media Arts Festival Art Section Recommended Work Selection, Wired Creative Hack Award, etc. Selected as Forbes Japan 30 under 30 2019, WWD JAPAN NEXT LEADERS 2020. Member of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s “Fashion Future Study Group, a study group that considers future fashion.” He has supervised and edited the books “SPECULATIONS” (BNN, 2019), co-authored “Critical Words Fashion Studies” (Film Art Publishing, 2022), and co-edited “Sustainable Fashion” (Gakugei Publishing, 2022).
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-3a49d0bce30d4cdb5f5c62c1be739348-1117×1117.jpg KOTARO OKADA Representative director of Desailo General Incorporated Association. Representative director of B-Side Incubator, a general incorporated association. “WIRED” Japanese edition editor. Partner of the creative group “PARTY”. In 2022, he will establish the general incorporated association Desailo, a research studio centered on researchers in the humanities and social sciences, which will create projects and create knowledge bases through collaboration with diverse stakeholders in industry, government, and academia, and produce art festivals through collaboration between researchers and artists. Born in Tokyo in 1994. Selected for “Forbes JAPAN 30 UNDER 30 2023”. ■主催団体
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-faadd1633ba5b4846bfae44381819cf9-200×200.jpg Antikythera A think tank that repositions “planetary scale
computation” as a philosophical, technological, and geopolitical force. It was founded in 2022 and is headed by Benjamin Bratton. We research the past, present, and future of “planetary computation” and develop scenarios through interdisciplinary studios, lectures, salons, and books in collaboration with partners in academia, industry, and civil society. Contributors span a wide range of fields including design, technology, philosophy, engineering, international relations, social sciences, arts, and humanities. The think tank uses design research to develop scenarios and thought experiments that advance the philosophy of technology through collaboration with foundations, think tanks, companies, academic institutions, and civil society
organizations. It is based at the Berggruen Institute.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/109034/15/109034-15-2c2dc63d64b03f5dd3117ad6d1ce763a-642×362.png Desilo General Incorporated Association Desiro General Incorporated Association is a research studio that generates thoughts and ideas that will shape the next society. Centered on researchers in the humanities and social sciences, we support the creation and
distribution of knowledge through the creation of projects that combine research and multidisciplinary fields, such as providing future insights and consulting services based on academic knowledge, creating knowledge bases and places, operating incubation and grant programs for researchers, operating our own labels/media, and producing art festivals.