The Japanese “I” Is Never Alone
When you soak in a hot bath, close your eyes, and stop moving,
there’s a moment when you can no longer feel the boundaries of your own body.
You can’t quite tell —
where do I end, and where does the world begin?
Have you ever felt that?
Good morning.
It’s getting chilly these days, isn’t it?
Today, I asked ChatGPT a simple but deeply human question:
“Where does I end?”
The answer I got was stunningly logical —
and yet, it revealed something essential:
that the “I” spoken by AI and the “I” I experience as a human
exist on completely different planes.
So, let’s explore what I really means in the age of AI.
The Japanese “I” Is Never Alone
Modern culture celebrates individuality.
But in Japan, the self has never been a solitary island.
It has always existed in between —
