Philosopher Tatsuru Uchida, interviewed earlier this month by the Asahi Shimbun, merely confirms what we all know, or sense, when he says: "This is an age of transition. We're going through the confusion characteristic of bedrock change."
Transition, confusion — yes indeed. "Global capitalism," he continues, "has reached its limit. Unlimited growth is no longer possible." It's a feeling, spoken or unspoken, that must lurk in the back of many minds.
Shukan Shincho magazine does an amusing take on it in a piece titled "Guide to Super-High-Class Japan" — "super-high-class" meaning super-high-priced, as in ¥300,000 tea, ¥50,000 strawberries, ¥80,000-per-hour fortune-telling, and so on. The consumer is the arbiter of whether the quality justifies the cost, but the overriding impression, among those of us unable to afford the experiment, is of excess to the point of pointlessness. Isn't there an analogy here to Uchida's point about growth? How much smarter can smartphones get? How much easier can robots, driverless cars, the "Internet of Things" and so on make life? "A lot," is the correct answer to both questions, but it's an answer that begs another question: "What for?"