Society 5.0: Japan Returns to the Jomon Era

Society 5.0 is the fifth society following the hunting society (1.0), agricultural society (2.0), industrial society (3.0), and information society (4.0). It refers to the ultra-smart society brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including IoT, AI, and 5G.

Visualizations of the IoT society depict IoT devices deeply integrated into daily life, providing various conveniences tailored to people's situations.

For example, an AI refrigerator might suggest optimal menus based on the ingredients inside and the user's health condition, or drones could deliver packages to your exact location using location data...

What would someone from the Jomon period—a time without electricity, let alone the internet—think if they witnessed such a life? Would they be utterly dumbfounded by a talking cylinder (smart speaker)? Perhaps not so much.

What is the fundamental difference between salmon swimming upstream every autumn and meals optimized for health printed from a food printer?

On one hand, nature itself; on the other, ICT (information and communication technology) based on IoT, AI, 5G, and more. While the underlying principles differ, in terms of being "blessings" brought to people from the invisible realm, wouldn't Jomon people accept meals from food printers just as readily as they accepted salmon?

Modern society has developed through agricultural and industrial societies, driven by human-generated value production and accumulation. In contrast, hunter-gatherer societies like the Jomon era did not engage in large-scale agriculture (production and accumulation), instead sustaining life by utilizing the natural products around them.

People living in such societies wished for nature's "blessings" to be continuously provided as the foundation of their lives.

People born and raised in an IoT society are likely to have a greater interest in the sustainability of the IoT environment itself—which generates "blessings" for them—rather than in the production and accumulation of value as we currently seek.

An unexpected similarity may emerge between the mindset of "IoT natives" born into cutting-edge technological environments and that of people living in the Jomon period approximately 15,000 years ago.

In the Society 5.0 era, we must explore service models that allow people to experience "blessings," such as automatically delivered seasonal ingredients.

Future Prediction Support Lab: http://dentsu-fsl.jp/