Create your future, Japan National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation

How should humans apply and evolve sustainable prosperity? This zone welcomes you to first imagine a future society and lifestyle that you want, and then think on how you can make your dream future a reality.

Lab
Nobel Q — Questions from Nobel Laureates. How would you answer questions from Nobel laureates?
The Nobel Prize was established by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. The prize is awarded to “the person who has contributed the most to the happiness of mankind”. In this exhibit, Miraikan presents messages it has received from Nobel Laureates that have visited the museum. The messages are in the form of questions. Please, take time to think about how you would answer these unique questions.

Miraikan conveys respect and recognition through awarding the Honorary Member title to Nobel Laureates who visited Miraikan and support its mission and activities.

Innovation
Backward from the Future
What will be the condition of Earth 50 years from now ? Imagine the ideal future, and what you can do now to achieve it.

In this exhibit you experience in an interactive game on what kind of Earth you can leave to your descendants 50 years from now. What should we do to preserve our current Earth for the next-generation? Think about the lifestyle and scientific technology needed to make the ideal Earth a reality by overcoming numerous challenges to reach that ideal. By envisioning an ideal future and thinking backwards, we can realize what we are supposed to do at present.

Robot

Robots in Your Life.
Imagine a future in which you live with a variety of robots.

Robots already exist with us. They will become smarter and even more prevalent in our everyday life. What will it take for humans to live in comfortable harmony with robots? What future will we build with robots? Think about living in the future built by robot technology while interacting with robots through exhibits and performances.

Android: What is Human?
Here you can reflect on human existence by meeting the world’s most advanced androids.

The research on Androids (human-like robots) is advancing with unprecedented speed, and the day when they become indistinguishable from humans may arrive soon. How will our perception of being human change? What will then separate us from these robots? As you talk to and watch the movements of some of the most advanced Androids, consider a future where humans share their environment with robots, and reflect upon what it means to be human.

Information

A Hands-On Model of the Internet
The Internet has been adopted worldwide, and is part of daily life. This exhibit expresses the flow of binary information.

The “Hands-On Model of the Internet” exhibit uses white and black balls to visualize how information is delivered over the Internet. A message can be sent from one terminal to another using information packets consisting of 16 white and black balls. Watch how your message moves through the network spinning around in towers that are mechanical equivalents of electronic routers before it reaches its destination terminal.

By sending messages, sounds, or even movements, and actually seeing them delivered to a person on the other side of the network, you can directly experience that the Internet is within understanding, and see it as a communication tool that connects the world.

Songs of ANAGURA
At this interactive exhibit, you can experience spatial information science set in a world 1000 years in the future.

Spatial information science digitizes data from our surroundings, and uses it as a resource shared by society as a whole. As this technology advances, a future where computers use the movements of people and objects to predict events and avoid problems may become reality. If spatial information science is adopted by society, and people trust each other and use information effectively, it will seem like the world knows, watches out for, and supports you.

Art

Tearoom of Zero/One
The tearoom of Zero/One uses the medium of art to explore how human consciousness and society are continuously changing along with the development of science and technology.

GANGU
Artist: AI + Party
GANGU is an artwork based on the concept of toy cars, created together by a human artist and an AI that has intelligence equivalent to a 5-year old child. There are concerns that AI may be a threat to people in the near future, however we may be able to create a future where AI learn more human-like ideas, where we can become friends and play together, and where humans and AI create together as artists.

“GANGU,” on display here, is an adorable presence for humans that shows fresh, child-like ideas. The process of creating “GANGU,” in collaboration with AI, is also introduced using graphics recording techniques via illustrations drawn on the entire wall.

Innovation

Digitally Natural – Naturally Digital
In the future, when we will be unable to distinguish between the real world and the simulated world, what will be our view of nature and the world, and what questions will we find?

The computers that we created are now overflowing in the world, and the resolution and processing power of the world they create is exceeding the limits of human perception and intelligence. In the near future, the difference between original nature and computer-created nature will fade away, a “new nature” will appear for us in the future, and we will be unaware of the differences.

Imagine that the vast natures both inside and outside the computer are integrated, then think about how our view of nature and the world will change, and what questions we will find.

Miraikan – Japan National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation
Miraikan is a place where we can understand the things happening in our world today from a scientific point of view, and have discussions while considering the future that awaits us. In addition to exhibitions that provide people with a chance to enjoy hands-on contact with science and technology, Miraikan’s colorful line-up of offerings includes experienced based classes, and talks. Visitors can experience the technological progress of today, from simple day-to-day questions, to the latest technologies, the global environment, space exploration and life science.

Miraikan considers science and technology to be one of many cultures in human society, each of which develops wisdom. Miraikan opened in 2001 based on this philosophy as a place for open discussion. Each permanent exhibition in Miraikan has been created and overseen with leading researchers so that all who visit may consider the role and potential for science and technology, and together design a society of the future. Furthermore, the museum cooperates and collaborates with organizations worldwide in creation of special exhibitions to promote a deeper understanding and appreciation of science and technology as a part of culture.

Another focus Miraikan emphasizes is the cultivation of Science Communicators (SCs) who connect all people to science so that, together they can build a sustainable future. We continuously train and produce SCs through our daily science communication activities that, include creating opportunities for dialogue on science and technology, and encouraging cooperation in numerous roles both inside and outside the museum.

Miraikan is also a research center, a unique initiative for a science museum. Across the corridor from the exhibit hall, the research area allows visitors to observe scientists up close as they conduct advanced experiments in countless areas of research. The researchers proactively host events, workshops, and science communication activities in cooperation with museum staff in order to promote better understanding of their research.

Miraikan will continue to serve as a venue for science communications open to the world, to consider its role in science and technology, and to incorporate the wisdom of numerous domains in order to contribute to the future society for all of humanity.