Lucie Tullet - The Island Of Shikoku

The Island Of Shikoku

History And Background Japan is known to have had huge population decrease and aging population throughout the 21st century. In 2070, Japan drove to huge economic crisis, the government spent all its money on healthcare, and not enough young people were here to take care of the elderly. Japan decided to open its doors to populations suffering from from the irreversible effects of climate change. It set a plan focusing mainly on East Africa and during the next 100 years population from Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, … settled throughout Japan.

When I wrote this, California hadn’t received rain in three hundred and forty-six days. As you know, Miyazaki’s Foundation had been harvesting crops for 70 years and contributed to feeding over 200 millions people each year in California. But this number has only decreased in the last 15 years and if something didn’t change, the American population would soon have started suffering from the effects. We’ve already seen the effects of not responding to a crisis fast enough with climate change and our population almost didn’t survive it.

As I was writing, something need to change. There’s an island in particular that resists to the unavoidable problems of climate change.

The people of Shikoku have been able to thrive as a society. Being on an island, they can grow plant and fish in the surroundings water.

Most importantly, they have “found a balance between nature and technology, through respect and peace”. The government recycles

93% of its wastes leaving the island with the purest air on earth. The population is far more advanced in terms of AI and robots. They have robots taking care of plants that can enter the mind of a plant to understand its needs. It is not completely understood how this can be done, how their technique is so successful but we think, at the Foundation, that their technologies could be extremely beneficial to the American population. I would particularly like to go there and invest on how the population adapted their environment.

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From 2070 to 2170, 12 million people moved to Japan, only 1 million live in Shikoku

Ecology And Technology

Water is very important in Shikoku because 100% of the food is grown here, on the island. Due to climate change, water quality is low. It needs to be taken from the sea and our technologies eliminate the salt from it.

Every villager gets one liter of water a day, if this liter isn’t drank throughout the day, it can be added to the liter of the next day.

A a really good water management system is necessary in order to feed the whole population The plants quality are beyond greatness, with hundreds of types of crops, making Shikoku a very colorful island.

Some plants, are called power plants, they suck carbon dioxide and contaminants from the air leaving the island with the purest air on the planet.

Some other plants are used for rituals or medicine.

The different level of temperatures and humidity allows the growth of mushrooms, tropical fruits, flowers, ‌ The community’s science intertwines with their ecology making ecology itself, a science.

The people of Shikoku have developed a technology that is able to communicate with nature, making the human-nature bond extremely strong and beyond most people’s understanding.

A​ Yorishiro​ is an object into which a god can reside in consequences, all around Shikoku there is sacred trees, sacred animals (although very rare), and sacred places (those with higher energies, will be used for rituals)

Spirituality Spirituality is a important part of the Shikoku community. Churches inspired from 13th century Ethiopia have been built, but the nature of Shikoku has definitely influenced the way the population thinks about spirituality. When someone from the community passes away, they are washed and wrapped around with a type of creeper plant that conserves and solidifies the soul and to prepare it for the next step. The force of the nature is palpable because the population has obtained an intense level of understanding towards plants minds.

Artificial intelligence made them understand that plants have feelings and when well taken care of, result with amazing properties.

Furthermore, plants are also used in spiritual practices: sage burning, infusion, mixtures…

The Shinto culture is very present in Shikoku. Shinto is the belief that we share our world with a variety of gods and spirits

Ethiopian Churches reproduced in Shikoku

Interview I met this family at the park, the parents are scientists, and had their own greenhouse and AI. I would see them very Sunday, having picnics own their lawn. I started by saying hello, and eventually they invited me to their “table”. The daughter, Avi, studied english in college and granted me this interview.

L: How was growing up in Shikoku?

A: It was great ! growing up you learn a lot about who you are and work on accepting yourself. School is particular because for 3 years you are allowed to do anything you want, but you have to do something. I was interested in english and philosophy so this what I ended up studying. Also at the end of each days we would just reflect on what we’ve done throughout the day with our groups, and meditate.

L: How do you think Shikoku succeeds in producing all this amazing products?

A: The technology we developed allows us to understand crops on a deeper level, that’s why we’re able to produce all those flavorful products.Give respect to nature and it will reward you.

L: What do you mean ? Can you develop that idea?

A: The people of Shikoku don’t believe in a manifest destiny, we take what we are given, what we need, and thank the earth for it.

Americans think the whole world should look up to them, but in reality, all this pride is what’s leading to America’s downfall.

Humans and nature are connected, we don’t believe that humans and nature are separate. they’re cohesive, people only believe what they can see and hear and that’s why america’s delayed because the capitalists mindset doesn’t coincide with the connection with nature L: So how can Americans succeed in their production?

A: We’re giving you what you need, the technology is half of it. If you’re unable to change your mindset, then we can’t do nothing for you. The power plants we produce, the healing plants we produce, you’ll never be able to produce them if you don’t acknowledge our connection to nature and the force of it.

Annotations Y. Hashimoto, ​Recent Strategies of Optimal Growth Regulation by the Speaking Plant Concept, ​1989, Acta Hortic books The optimal conditions of plants vary depending on the temperature, humidity, altitude, season, and other… All these things are inconsistent, which means that a constant routine won’t bring a successful plant growth. In order to provide better products to local farms there is a need to grow plants in the best condition possible.

Thanks to greenhouses, we have the possibility to control the temperature and different types of fruits and vegetables can be produced anywhere in the world: “Furthermore, as a result of the evolution for long years, plant growth is related to seasonal change affected by the altitude in the earth. Plant have the adaptability to daily environmental change existing in anywhere. All those show that the optimal environmental condition can not be a constant.” We are trying to get the best quality crops possible and for that we need constant attention that the human brain can’t produce. Artificial Intelligence technologies have been developed in order to understand the need of the plants precisely: “To develop the greenhouse industry into a more effective industry, at first, it can be pointed out that cold resistant variety and more effective heating system should be developed. The development of nutrient uptake system is also necessary. To satisfy the needs, many computer have already been

introduced into production. The heating system, soil-less cultivating system such as NFT and Rockwool are controlled by the computer properly at some extend. The next target is to control the cultivation by adding various stresses with easy to the plant by means regulating environment necessary for the improvement of quality.”

Annotations H.J Tantu, ​Optimal Control for Plant Production in Greenhouses IFAAC Production Volumes A problem in Shikoku is the water. Potable water is very limited, therefore, a very good water management system is required in order to be be able to feed an entire community as well as provide with potable water. This maintain peace and stability: “Microcomputers give the possibilities to save labor. But also to raise the plant productivity to maximum by applying optimal environmental control for the individual cultivation.” The goal is to have optimal control over the water, that is why our AI are very useful for that. in order to get optimal control, there is a few things that need to oversee: “Optimal environmental control includes regulation of temperature and humidity, control of CO2-concentration, pH- and EC-values to an optimal level, and

supply of artificial lighting.� Our robots are able to enter the mind of our plants to understand their exact needs. this has lead to the production of hundreds different types of crops and plants. This has allowed us to minimize expenses while maximizing the quality and production of our plants. the fruits and vegetables are harvested at perfect timing.

What can I take from this ?

For decades, our society has been ignoring something. We are not the engineer of Earth, Earth is our mother. America needs to open its mind to the forces of nature otherwise, it is heading straight for disaster. America needs to understand that humans are connected to nature before it’s too late. Shikoku shared their ways of making their AI but without understanding the higher power of nature first, those are useless.