Year: 2018

The Spirit of Science: Struggle or Harmony?

History of Science & Scholarship2018.06.20
The Spirit of Science: Struggle or Harmony?
This one was also commissioned, but it seems it was never published. It began because an editor at a newspaper or magazine wanted to put together a special issue on the scientific spirit and hoped to commission some related articles. The various keywords she gave included: tireless effort, fearless before power, daring to question, breaking through old prejudices, indifferent to fame and fortune, content with loneliness, even sacrifice of one’s life…… I disliked every single one of those words, so I proposed that these ideas were too cliché and too naïve. If we were going to talk about “the scientific spirit,” why not turn things around and talk about chasing…
science history of science scholarship scientific spirit
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2018年6月20日
Final Exam Paper for General History of Technology

Teaching & Courses2018.06.12
Final Exam Paper for General History of Technology
Notes As I said before, the final exam is “completely open-book,” and you may bring electronic devices to search the internet. The “attendance questions” are also my own new idea, something I wanted to try while the class size was still small. Why set attendance questions? I think students who take a course can roughly be divided into three broad types: first, those who are habitually diligent and honest, who will keep coming no matter whether the teacher’s lectures are good or bad; second, those who are habitually coasting, who will almost never come no matter whether the teacher’s lectures are good or bad; and third, those who are free-spirited…
scholarship course paper writing
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2018年6月12日
What Kind of Assignment Does the Teacher Hope to See? — Reflections on Assigning the “General History of Technology” Assignment

History of Science & Scholarship2018.05.29
What Kind of Assignment Does the Teacher Hope to See? — Reflections on Assigning the “General History of Technology” Assignment
After this article was posted, the blog inexplicably crashed, and had to be restored several times… The course “A General History of Technology” is about to end. Next week I will write a brief summary; for now, let me talk about the homework issue. The assessment format for this course is rather innovative, consisting of 40% midterm assignments + 60% final exam. As for the midterm assignment, I do not want to see students plagiarizing, or cobbling together a lousy paper and handing it in, so I proposed a flexible either-or scheme: students who are interested in, or capable of, writing a paper may still write a short essay of…
history of science scholarship course Scientific Revolution
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2018年5月29日
On VR (I): The Meaning of “Immersion”

AI & the Future of Technology2018.05.03
On VR (I): The Meaning of “Immersion”
Our reading group hasn’t read any books for several weeks now. Apart from the pause, for the past two weeks it has turned into a gaming activity; if this goes on any longer, the reading group is going to become a gaming group…… Last week I finally got the VR set up. Only three little friends came to the reading group, so it just happened to turn into a VR experience session. Of course, when we play games it is not only for amusement and pastime, but also a necessary practice for the history of science and philosophy of technology; this is by no means perfunctory or a joke. I…
technology media history of technology McLuhan
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2018年5月3日
On VR (I): The Meaning of “Immersion”

AI & the Future of Technology2018.05.03
On VR (I): The Meaning of “Immersion”
Our reading group hasn’t read for several weeks now; apart from being put on hold, for the past two weeks it has turned into a gaming activity. If this goes on, the reading group is going to turn into a game group… Last week I finally set up the VR, and since only three little comrades came to the reading group, it just happened to turn into a VR体验活动. Of course, when we play games it’s not just for amusement or pastime; it is also a necessary practice for the history of science and the philosophy of technology. This is by no means a pretext or a joke. I can,…
technology media history of technology McLuhan
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2018年5月3日
At what “time” do we need to “check the time”?

AI & the Future of Technology2018.04.30
At what “time” do we need to “check the time”?
This short essay is made up of some fragments from the fifth lecture of my course “A General History of Technology.” The full handout has not yet been整理出来, but today there happens to be a filming session that will deal with the relevant topic, so I’m extracting these parts first and jotting down a few lines at will. What is a clock? It is a kind of, or rather a class of, technical artifact. As a technical object, it of course has a specific function; so what is a clock for? The answer seems very simple: a clock is for “looking at time.” But on closer thought, this act of…
technology Industrial Revolution General History of Technology time
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2018年4月30日
History of Science as a Nature Reserve—A Darwinian View of Science

History of Science & Scholarship2018.04.05
History of Science as a Nature Reserve—A Darwinian View of Science
Last Friday (March 30), I was invited to Shanghai Natural History Museum to take part in a “reading session,” where I introduced my own Outdated Wisdom. Although it was an internal event, there were quite a few listeners—more than 50 friends from museums and publishing houses took part. The title I set for my talk was “Outdated Wisdom and Its Contemporary Significance.” I heard that Liu Su was going as well, so I especially strengthened the Darwinian evolutionary logic in it, and won myself a remark: “Thought-provoking; I hadn’t expected it could be used that way.” I was pretty satisfied with that~ This talk was rather unusual for me, because…
science history of science philosophy of science Scientific Revolution
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2018年4月5日
The First Reading Group of This Semester

Life & Notes2018.03.17
The First Reading Group of This Semester
Today we kicked off this semester’s first reading group. This semester we’re still continuing with Foucault’s *The Order of Things*; newcomers joining in midway should not be a problem either. After a few rounds of Foucault, we may consider switching books. Possible candidates include Kant’s *Critique of Judgment*, *Critique of Pure Reason*, and Hegel’s *Phenomenology of Spirit*, or we might recommend some other books instead. This year’s reading group is set for Saturday afternoons. Today we started at 5 p.m.; from next time on, it may switch to 3 p.m. The plan is to read first, then eat, and then have some entertainment (board games or tabletop RPGs). Happy news:…
everyday life book reading Kant Hegel
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2018年3月17日
Further Supplement to PhD Admissions Requirements (Actionable Questionnaire Version) [Expired]

Teaching & Courses2018.03.16
Further Supplement to PhD Admissions Requirements (Actionable Questionnaire Version) [Expired]
Tsinghua University has suddenly changed its policy again and taken back all the admissions rights of its pre-tenure professors, so this admissions notice is temporarily invalid. Let’s wait until I’ve struggled my way to tenure before saying more…… Since last year I have been eligible at Tsinghua to recruit doctoral students. I had already written an admissions notice and its supplementary explanation; now that I think about it, there’s no need to scrap them and rewrite everything, and interested students can still refer to them. But I wrote those pieces in a rather long-winded way, which may not make it easy for impatient or careless students to grasp at once…
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2018年3月16日
Undergraduate General Education Course: “A General History of Technology”

Teaching & Courses2018.02.24
Undergraduate General Education Course: “A General History of Technology”
This semester (Spring 2018), I will be offering an undergraduate elective at Tsinghua: *General History of Technology*. Basic Course Information Course number: 00691572 Time: Every Tuesday, period 4 (15:20–16:55) Note: Classes start on February 27 Location: Building 4, Room 4202 Assessment: Reading notes / short paper + open-book final exam Note: I hope every student can write a relatively complete paper (more than 6,000 Chinese characters), but past experience shows that many students still lack adequate academic training, and the papers handed in are often a miserable patchwork. So this time I am considering allowing reading notes, with a more flexible format, to substitute for the paper; but students who…
China technology history of science course
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2018年2月24日