Passing It Forward

When I asked my parents if I could study abroad at an overseas university, I promised them: "Let me go, and in 10 years I'll return everything you've given me, doubled."

The words my father said in response have stayed with me ever since.

"I'm in my 50s now, financially stable, and my kids are grown, so I finally have time. I thought I could finally give back to my father, but he died a few years ago, and I never got to return anything.

But what my father always told me was this: what parents give isn't meant to be returned—it's meant to be passed on to the children. So don't think about repaying us. Pass it forward."

I thought those words captured the essence of how the world works. My grandfather's father must have said something similar, and this has been going on since time immemorial.

At that moment, I understood for the first time that what's being passed down isn't tangible things like assets or knowledge, but the philosophy itself.

Of course, I still want to give back to my parents and all the people who've given me things throughout my life.

But what matters most is that I don't stop the flow of this river, and that I make it even greater and pass it forward.

It exists within an endless, grand scale—if you trace it back, from the Big Bang onward, living things have died and matter has eroded. Yet the universe continues to exist.

Even looking at human history alone, the knowledge we learn in school, along with culture, social systems, and products—everything has been passed down through generations.

For those of us living now, passing it forward in any form is an act that saves not only those who directly gave us something, like our parents, but also those who gave to them, those who left something behind, and the entire environment. That's the ultimate way to give back.

The inheritance I want to pursue includes both biological inheritance and cultural inheritance.

Biological inheritance means passing on my genes to the next generation—having biological children.

This is straightforward, and I simply hope they live reasonably well and pass it on to the next generation.

Cultural inheritance means spreading my information and philosophy to more people. As I mentioned earlier, philosophies can be passed down for thousands or tens of thousands of years.

Looking back at history, things that take tangible form—organizations, power structures—easily perish across generations. This is inevitable and necessary.

But philosophies, like Confucianism or Greek philosophy, continue to exist deeply in modern society even if their direct power has weakened.

This is because they directly affect people's values and principles of action. More recently, manga like ONE PIECE should have such power as well.

What I'm thinking is that the power of cultural inheritance can far surpass that of biological inheritance.

The invention of writing, the printing press, and the internet made this possible. For most people, I think they're already more influenced by books and the internet than by their parents or adults they've met in real life.

From here on, this is completely my ego, but I want to properly spread the values and worldview I hold dear.

Most people in the world act according to common sense and social norms, but those are usually wrong. The fact that the majority is that way probably won't change and maybe shouldn't be changed, but I think it's okay if I at least slightly change the thinking of people around me.

I probably want to do this because those misalignments and dissonances have made me suffer, and I've seen people around me suffer from being misaligned.

Let me say it again: this isn't about being right—it's my ego. I have the desire to spread my cultural genes according to my own ego.

Now, what to do specifically? I think my approach will evolve as I grow older.

In principle, it's important to increase the number of people I meet and to be honest with the people I meet.

As for the number of encounters, I'll maximize them both in the real world and by creating copies of myself through books, products, culture, the internet, AI, and so on.

Being honest is more of a mindset within myself, so it's realized simply by having a strong intention to spread my philosophy.

This blog and these writings are ultimately about that. If 100 people read this and even one of them develops the intention to "pass it forward," that's enough.

I also want to do adoption on a large scale. When it comes down to it, I think it's all about family, so I want to adopt many children and create a large family of 100² = 10,000 people.

What I'm thinking is that I can always create children through adoption. With general adoption, I could even adopt a 30-year-old when I'm 40.

It might sound a bit cult-like, but officially making everyone family together is very Whitebeard-like and incredibly fun, right?

Communities are popular now, but I think family is where it all leads. Well, and there's also embedding these things into art and culture, I suppose.

This is like a game, or rather, I think it's the responsibility of a thinking human being.

I feel like someone is telling me, "You've been given the leisure and ability to think, so properly convey that to the world," and I can't help but do it.

Even though people like me exist, the world maintains its inertia and doesn't move easily, staying in a good balance—that's the kind of feeling I have.

In summary, "inheritance" is a major theme in my life, and I wanted to talk about how I'll value and pursue it.