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Round Table: Dialogue among Civilizations United Nations, New York, 5 September 2000 Provisional verbatim transcription

Address by Masanori Aoyagi (Japan)

Mr. Aoyagi: I want us to remember that in Alexandria about 2300 years ago the Greeks, Socrates and Plato and Aristotle and [indecipherable] had already been born. So in the Hellenistic period to keep creativity and to have a say in maintaining innovation the Kings, especially the [indecipherable] Kings established a museum together to collect all the information throughout the world of Greeks, [oecumeni]. That was a time of some claustrophobia in the world. We now feel that claustrophobia very much. A few centuries ago everyone felt agoraphobia but that has changed now. [Because of that claustrophobia we are enlarging and widening the world with information.] But we are only concerned about enlarging the quantity and not the quality. So how do we change from information to cognition of knowledge. That is a most important information technology regulation but we are [liable to be disappointed].

Mr. Picco: Ms. Lewis, does information technology help the dialogue in your view?

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