Kokoro is a Japanese word which describes the heart, spirit, soul, mind…etc all together. In Japanese language, the heart is divided into the actual physical organ (shinzou) and that concerned with love and emotions (ha-to). The idea in Japanese culture is that the mind and body are indivisible and intertwined and hence the term ‘Kokoro’. Kokoro can’t be translated into English since its translation would be ‘mind AND body” which implies that they are two different things. This is exactly the opposite of the purpose of the word which is unifying the body and soul. The Japanese claim that this concept enables human to look into spiritual aspects in a way they couldn’t have if the body and soul were treated as separate entities. They believe that looking into the more inclusive picture of humanity helps us understand what makes us humans. Testuya Sato, director of the Earth Simulator at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology says that humans used stored memories to anticipate what may happen and are usually clouded by desires. On the other hand, machines lack creativity. They are methodical and can never cause chaos since they are deterministic. This lack of chaos is what makes us unique and why Sato thinks that we still haven’t given robots a Kokoro. He states that this would never happen unless a robot displays spontaneity for instance if he hits his creator. Then and only then we can say that a robot has a ‘heart’.
The idea of kokoro in other organisms has already helped us in understanding some aspects about human behavior. For instance, through comparing chimpanzees’ drawings with that of young children, we were able to understand human personality traits. This wouldn’t have been possible unless we believed that chimpanzees had a kokoro.
1099 Cyborgs, Avatars, and Everyday life 2019 