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succeeded in putting the multi-viewpoints (three-dimensional perspective) into a
two-dimensional space. It is a trial for transcending perspective. Through abstrac-
tion, we can see a new dimension in the phenomenal world.
Imamichi stressed abstraction in the beginning of modern technological times as
following:
The revolutionary, extensional abstraction has been opened in the last 200 years, that is to
say, technological abstraction as energetic abstraction. At first, the human being extracts
invisible power from water, coal, oil, etc. The power itself is not visible, but it is supported
by heat in the thermodynamic process. Steam, fire, and electricity are visible, but power
itself is invisible. In this sense, technological abstraction must be called an energetic
abstraction because the object of the abstraction is visible and only the effect is invisible.
This extensional invisibility as energy becomes the object of new science as technology and
as nuclear science. Recently, namely within the last 60 years, technological abstraction has
produced nuclear power, which can be turned into electricity for modern public life and/or
can be used for nuclear weapons. That means that the result of the technological coherence
exists in both senses, namely, for convenience in the good sense and for destruction on a
According to Imamichi, these 60 years of technological abstraction created a
distinction between “visible” and “invisible”. But technological abstraction,
founded on logical abstraction, is seen from the side of creative technologists. At
the final stage, we users find the most convenient tools easily and pretend to
understand the structure. We use smart-phones with thumb/finger to touch the
screen or move the screen by two fingers. But no one knows the technological
structure as such a convenient tool.
10.2.2
Iso-Morphic and Hetero-Function
What is most important for the machine? In other words: What is the essence of
machine? It is function. But, in old days, the idea of the machine came from “form”.
For example, the telephone: at its beginning, the form of the telephone is composed
of the forms of ear and mouth in the idea of speaking with and listening to another
person easily: the machine's form was determined by its original functions: loud-
speaker signifies a large mouth, and the sensor for hearing signifies an ear's
function. By developing the machine's functions, a little black box on the table
shows complicated functions. In the old days, a little black box shows the same
form, and it was not easy to distinguish between a tape recorder or a camera or a
bomb (cf.
Imamichi
vols. 1-24). As times passed, the developed machine grew
smaller and smaller and thinner and thinner: finally, form no longer signifies its
proper function. The machine itself is getting small and thin, as it becomes possible
to put it in a pocket: everything is to be the form of a thin card. Nowadays, we have
many kinds of cards: identity card, credit card, shopping card, a card for opening the
door, key card, etc. The most characteristic feature of cards is that they are full of
information for identification. It is convenient to use these cards. We can use a card,
if I can identify my own number, as invisible money. Finally, we use cards as a core
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