This blog post explores the prediction techniques and design processes used by designers to safely engineer marine plants even under extreme natural conditions. Can we predict the next 1000 years? Of course, accurately predicting all the changes and events that will occur over a thousand years is extremely difficult, bordering on impossible. Often, it’s even hard to anticipate events...
This blog post explores how the connectome—the network of connections among 86 billion neurons—shapes our thoughts and emotions. Our bodies are made of cells. We have approximately 37.2 trillion cells, and about 86 billion of these make up the brain. These brain cells are called neurons. A single neuron is broadly divided into three parts: the dendrite, the cell body, and the axon...
This blog post examines whether the debate over the size and nature of the universe during the 1920 ‘Great Debate’ served as the starting point for modern cosmology, and reflects on its historical significance. On April 26, 1920, approximately 300 scientists were invited to a National Academy of Sciences debate held in the Baird Auditorium of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural...
This blog post calmly examines why the investment craze failed to build personal wealth, exploring the structure of financial capitalism and the reality of a bank-centric investment system. It also questions the nature of the risks individuals have come to bear. The Beginnings of Financial Capitalism In a capitalist society where money functions as the supreme value, we all dream of...
This blog post calmly examines the background behind why savings-centered thinking no longer guarantees personal happiness, through three axes: financial literacy, family education, and changes in social structure. Financial Literacy Survey of Elementary Students Some people may find that the more they learn about financial products, the more confused they become, and the less confident...
This blog post examines how capitalism mobilizes marketing and surveillance technology to create unnecessary desires in order to absorb surplus production, exploring this structure through everyday consumer experiences. Marketing that manipulates us In capitalist society, consumer marketing grows increasingly sophisticated over time, sparing no effort to develop new marketing techniques...
This blog post examines why the specialty coffee shop market operates as monopolistic competition rather than perfect competition, using the Starbucks case study, and unpacks the logic of the market structure created by price, differentiation, and narrative. The Reality of the Coffee Market That Perfect Competition Cannot Explain Starbucks is the undisputed leader in Korea’s coffee...
This blog post examines why logo production costs vary so widely, exploring whether design skill or brand value dictates pricing, focusing on Pentagram case studies. We literally live in a flood of brands today. And the very symbol of these countless brands’ identity and essence is the logo. Even for identical products, the price can differ by tens or even hundreds of times depending...
In this blog post, we examine whether universal standards for well-being and healthy eating can truly apply to everyone, and reconsider what well-being means for each individual’s body and environment. Do you remember the catchphrases, “Are you happy, citizens?” and “Has your livelihood improved?” As an elementary school student at the time, it took me several years to fully grasp...
This blog post examines how selfish choices and altruistic behavior evolve under certain conditions through the Prisoner’s Dilemma, and why cooperation becomes a rational strategy in repeated interactions. The question of whether selfish or altruistic behavior is more advantageous for survival has long been a subject of academic and philosophical debate. The concept of the...