Year: 2013

Nandu Media’s “Bitcoin” Special Feature Interview Questionnaire

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.12.23
Nandu Media’s “Bitcoin” Special Feature Interview Questionnaire
This interview came to me on November 21, and I finished writing it that very day. After that, Nandu.com spent a month putting together this special feature. Overall, they did a pretty good job; the altcoin list at the very bottom is a bit of an unnecessary embellishment. According to the reporter’s request, I waited a few days before reposting it. But in fact, back then I had never agreed to any copyright arrangement with them, nor had I received any fee or the like, so one might say the copyright to this piece still remains in my own hands~ 1、How did Bitcoin enter your world? Do you think…
China Web3 Bitcoin decentralization
阅读全文

2013年12月23日
Why Won’t Bitcoin Fall to Zero? — Random Thoughts on Bitcoin Market Trends

Web3 & Cypherpunks2013.12.12
Why Won’t Bitcoin Fall to Zero? — Random Thoughts on Bitcoin Market Trends
Recently the Bitcoin market had another fit of madness: from 1242 it plunged all the way to well below half, then rebounded to 1000 and fell again. A lot of newcomers could no longer sit still, and one after another quite a few people also came to ask me what I made of it. What can I make of it? Obviously, I am not a candlestick expert, and I can’t analyze the market; such a frenzied market is even less something I can get a grip on. I myself tried taking one coin and flipping it high and low, but it failed as well, and instead I lost some…… My…
Web3 Bitcoin value innovation
阅读全文

2013年12月12日
On the Question of the Scientificity of Traditional Chinese Medicine

History of Science & Scholarship2013.12.11
On the Question of the Scientificity of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Yesterday, Senior Brother Shengli came back to the discussion group to take our brickbats, and the result turned into Senior Brother Shengli holding the floor against the assembled scholars, arguing from class all the way through dinner in unflagging high spirits. After graduating, Senior Brother Shengli’s research focus shifted entirely to the question of Chinese medicine, and he tried to vindicate the “scientificity” of Chinese medicine on the basis of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology. Senior Brother Shengli extended Merleau-Ponty’s distinction between the “phenomenal body” and the “objective body” into a distinction between “phenomenal science” and “objective science,” and argued that the scientificity of Chinese medicine could be supported under the category of…
science media phenomenology Scientific Revolution
阅读全文

2013年12月11日
Why Should Young People Publish Books?—Starting from Sounding the West, Striking the East

History of Science & Scholarship2013.11.25
Why Should Young People Publish Books?—Starting from Sounding the West, Striking the East
Recently, Teacher He Huaihong wrote a book review of a work by a sophomore student, which sparked a lively discussion. Teacher He affirmed the philosophical vision and concern for reality displayed in *Sounding West, Striking East*, but he was by no means uncritically flattering; rather, he offered some well-founded criticism. He pointed out some problems in Han Qian’s use of academic concepts, and also offered his views on the book’s style: “As an academic paper, it could still have contained more detailed analytic argumentation and stricter formal requirements than the existing articles; and if it is a commentary, then it could be sharper and more vivid and forceful. If the…
book reading scholarship blog book review
阅读全文

2013年11月25日
Why Doesn’t Bitcoin Fit Gresham’s Law (Bad Money Drives Out Good)?

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.11.06
Why Doesn’t Bitcoin Fit Gresham’s Law (Bad Money Drives Out Good)?
Many people who question Bitcoin focus on its so-called “deflationary” character: because the total supply of bitcoins is limited and tends to appreciate, people are inclined to hoard them rather than spend them, so liquidity is poor and Bitcoin cannot become a mainstream currency. There are also two dimensions to this issue: one is temporal, the other spatial. First, considering the prospect of future appreciation, we may use money as conservatively as possible and engage less in speculation and investment. In this sense, the weakening of so-called “liquidity” by Bitcoin is inevitable, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. In a series of earlier articles of mine (such as…
Web3 Bitcoin money economy
阅读全文

2013年11月6日
Is Bitcoin Environmentally Friendly?

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.10.20
Is Bitcoin Environmentally Friendly?
This article is an original entry in the 2013 essay contest organized by Bitren and was first published on the Bitren forum, so it did not debut on my blog. At first I thought I stood no chance of winning any prize, so last night I casually posted it on the blog; unexpectedly, it still won the second-place grand prize. Because I reposted it half a day early (to Babbitt), I have voluntarily deducted 10% of the prize money as punishment, and here I would like to apologize to and thank the Bitren website. 1. Does Bitcoin waste resources? Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mechanism, that is, the so-called “mining,” is often criticized:…
technology Web3 Bitcoin value
阅读全文

2013年10月20日
Art: The Margin of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2013.10.19
Art: The Margin of Technology
**Art: The Margin of Technology** **Explanation:** This was a philosophy of technology talk I was invited to give to the young artists at the West Five Arts Center. The original title was “Toys and Art: The Margin of Technology,” but in the actual talk I still mainly talked about technology and art; toys were only mentioned in passing. So now I’ve changed the title a bit. What I call “margin” could also be called “defect.” To speak of art as technology’s defect sounds somewhat offensive, so “margin” sounds more positive. A defect always means something that can be supplemented; hitting a wall always means there is room to turn back….
philosophy technology Heidegger Aristotle
阅读全文

2013年10月19日
Toys, Mirrors, and Art (Reflections on a Seminar and a Preview)

AI & the Future of Technology2013.09.24
Toys, Mirrors, and Art (Reflections on a Seminar and a Preview)
Today’s seminar featured, in addition to the originally scheduled report by Zhe Ran, another report volunteered by Jing Qi, who commented on Wu Ningning’s “Hansen’s Mirror.” Since I had also, in my Lushan Conference Travelogue, offered some elaborations on Wu Ningning’s research, I brought my own elaborations into the seminar as well for discussion. Jing Qi’s presentations have been improving more and more. I used to criticize him all the time for using too much jargon, but that has gradually changed quite a bit. This time I criticized him for presenting “Hansen’s Mirror” in an overly mystical way; that was aimed at the specific point being made. Overall, as for…
technology phenomenology Introduction to Philosophy of Technology self
阅读全文

2013年9月24日
Some Thoughts on Teaching Assistants for Small-Group Discussion Sessions in General Education Elective Courses

Teaching & Courses2013.09.23
Some Thoughts on Teaching Assistants for Small-Group Discussion Sessions in General Education Elective Courses
I was very honored to be invited to participate in the training and exchange activities for small-class discussion-course TAs, and to talk about my experiences and views. I once served as the discussion-section TA for the course “What Is Science.” This course was jointly offered by many distinguished professors from the science and engineering departments, and the lecture + discussion-section format ran for only one round. At the time, the course consisted of 2 class-hours per week of lectures by teachers from various departments, plus 1 class-hour of small-group discussion; it carried 3 credits, and the grade was based on a final paper worth 40 points plus discussion-section performance worth…
scholarship course education discussion
阅读全文

2013年9月23日
The Rationality of Whig History and the Possibility of an Anti-Whig Approach

Culture & Public Commentary2013.09.18
The Rationality of Whig History and the Possibility of an Anti-Whig Approach
In the first week of the Wendao seminar at Wu, junior brother Liu Renxiang, a promising new talent, took the initiative to give a talk on “The Poverty of Anti-Whiggish Historiography.” There were many discussions in class at the time, and I even went up to the podium to draw a diagram, but afterward I kept busy writing my travel notes on Mount Lu and preparing my own seminar report, so I never got around to writing anything down. Still, this topic is quite important, so I’m taking a little time now to add some thoughts. Just from the title of Liu Renxiang’s article, you can tell that the junior…
history of science science history philosophy of science
阅读全文

2013年9月18日