Year: 2021

Biography of Things (Continued) — Educational Significance, Secondary-School Science and Technology Innovation, and the Bottleneck Problem

AI & the Future of Technology2021.11.04
Biography of Things (Continued) — Educational Significance, Secondary-School Science and Technology Innovation, and the Bottleneck Problem
Yesterday’s comments still weren’t finished. What I wrote yesterday was that research in the history of scientific instruments can be positioned as “artifact biographies,” in which meaning is formed around the artifact itself. But that does not mean that, beyond this intrinsic meaning, research in the history of instruments has no other benefits. We can also make an analogy with biographical research. Unlike general academic research, biographical works as the outcome of research on individuals often lie somewhere between scholarship and popularization. Apart from non-academic biographical literature, research-based biographies also tend to have a popularizing dimension, making them easier for general readers to read. Between intervening in academic issues and…
technology history of science history education
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2021年11月4日
The Biography of Objects: Methods and Significance in the History of Scientific Instruments

AI & the Future of Technology2021.11.03
The Biography of Objects: Methods and Significance in the History of Scientific Instruments
At today’s regular meeting we discussed the question of paradigms in the history of scientific instruments, and I offered some views. Here I’ll spell them out a bit more fully. At present, the history of scientific instruments does not seem to have formed a relatively unified and distinctive research paradigm. On this point, Teacher Wu seems inclined to think that studies of individual instruments belong to the “initial stage” of scholarship in the history of science and technology: instruments, like manuscripts, artifacts, and other primary historical sources, are the foundation of historical research. But through further study, the results we obtain from these basic materials still ultimately have to crystallize…
technology history of science scholarship history
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2021年11月3日
Basic Skills in Studying Philosophy: Avoid Reifying Abstract Entities, Resist the Universalization of Holism

History of Science & Scholarship2021.10.30
Basic Skills in Studying Philosophy: Avoid Reifying Abstract Entities, Resist the Universalization of Holism
Recently I have been supervising students’ thesis proposals, and I have had a lot of thoughts. In fact, I have always hoped that students would do history rather than philosophy, because then my supervision would be a bit easier. Doing history requires inspiration and thought, but more important is steady, painstaking labor: I give some broad conceptual inspiration and advice, and then the student just buries their head in the books. But if students want to do philosophy, then I get a headache, because philosophy is the easiest thing to fake and the hardest thing to fool. If you run into a teacher who is happy to look the other…
philosophy scholarship Marx God's-eye view
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2021年10月30日
In an increasingly impossible-to-take-seriously world, an earnest run-in with JD.com customer service

Life & Notes2021.09.16
In an increasingly impossible-to-take-seriously world, an earnest run-in with JD.com customer service
My most recent after-sales experience on JD was extremely poor. In fact, the matter was very simple: I returned the item, but they still shipped it; when it came time to refund me, they also wanted me to bear the shipping fee. After I filed a transaction dispute, JD did nothing, and the merchant impersonated JD customer service and called to say that a refund was possible. Right up until the end, JD still refused to give me a simple ruling, and instead defined my behavior as “refusal without reason.” To be a bit more detailed: I bought something, and when the expected delivery time had passed I saw that…
philosophy everyday life modernity responsibility
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2021年9月16日
NFTs and Tulip Mania

Culture & Public Commentary2021.09.09
NFTs and Tulip Mania
This article was commissioned by China Business Journal; see http://www.cb.com.cn/index/show/zl/cv/cv13456431853 NFT is the full name of Non-Fungible Token. A literal translation would be “non-fungible token.” The so-called token, also translated as “coin” or “token,” refers to some kind of rights certificate: coupons, prize-redemption slips, game coins, and so on all count as tokens. Of course, in the blockchain context it generally refers to a unit of account in a digital ledger. The various digital currencies that were wildly hyped a few years ago were basically “fungible tokens.” Recently, however, NFT has exploded overnight and rapidly gone mainstream. Speculators these days do not care at all whether the object of speculation…
culture history Web3 history of technology
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2021年9月9日
“People Are Ends, Not Means” — A Critical Review of China on the Cloud

AI & the Future of Technology2021.08.18
“People Are Ends, Not Means” — A Critical Review of China on the Cloud
This is also a commissioned book review, but because I took an explicitly critical stance, the piece apparently was not used (if it does get used, I will revise and repost it here). I am criticizing Alibaba, but not only Alibaba. In fact, many so-called internet companies that have achieved success do not necessarily really represent new thinking or new paradigms; they are nothing more than old capital and industrial logic dressed up in internet clothes. Some other so-called “successes” are nothing more than using the power of capital to carve up territory and seize the initiative, using rapid expansion driven by capital investment to squeeze out competitors prematurely and…
technology book reading book review human nature
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2021年8月18日
Games and Its Mission

Culture & Public Commentary2021.08.16
Games and Its Mission
This piece was originally published as the cover article in The Intellectual Weekly, and was slightly revised at the time of publication; here I am posting the original draft. It was written before the “opium theory,” so its appearance now is actually rather apt. But by the time I was writing it, I had already consciously trimmed back many of the directions the discussion might have taken, and it felt like I hadn’t written it with enough freedom. I had originally planned to revise it again and submit it for the phenomenology and philosophy of technology conference, but the conference was postponed because of the pandemic, so I never went…
culture freedom modernity game
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2021年8月16日
On VR (3): Some VR Game Experiences and the “Auditory-Tactile Space”

AI & the Future of Technology2021.08.16
On VR (3): Some VR Game Experiences and the “Auditory-Tactile Space”
A few days ago, while having a meal with students and talking about papers, we got onto VR-related questions again. I suddenly remembered that essays in a similar “series” usually stop at part one or two, and I felt rather ashamed of myself, so here I am continuing the previous post. I previously wrote Talking VR (II). After that there were actually three more pieces related to VR: On the Backboard — The Phenomenology of Beat Saber, AR Glasses and the “Brain in a Vat”, and Can VR Save Us from Our Smartphone Addiction? But the first two are mainly about philosophical questions, while the last one is a rewriting…
technology media McLuhan game
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2021年8月16日
An Interview Transcript about Zhang Xiaoyu’s Technics and Civilization

Culture & Public Commentary2021.08.09
An Interview Transcript about Zhang Xiaoyu’s Technics and Civilization
Earlier, China Science Daily recommended Zhang Xiaoyu’s book Technology and Civilization, and interviewed me for a few comments. Today I suddenly remembered this, looked it up, and found that the interview had already been used. See China Science Daily (2021-06-17, Section 5, Culture Weekly). The published piece was assembled from excerpts of my written interview responses, integrated with the introduction to Zhang Xiaoyu’s book. Overall it was organized fairly well, but from the standpoint of my own expression, it was chopped up too much. Below I am posting my original answers, which are much richer in content and also more complete. Zhang Xiaoyu’s book is of course a good one,…
philosophy technology China history of science
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2021年8月9日
A Course Summary on Media History and Media Philosophy (Spring 2021)

Teaching & Courses2021.07.16
A Course Summary on Media History and Media Philosophy (Spring 2021)
This is a new course, though not all of its content is actually new; some of it has “overflowed” from my two other courses, “A General History of Technology” and “Introduction to the Philosophy of Technology.” Since I keep adding content to both of those courses, I plan to transfer the sections on media technologies in “A General History of Technology” (including writing, printing, the telegraph, and so on) to this course. Of course, in the new course I will give more prominence to the relevant philosophical reflections, with both history and philosophy in view. As usual, I am writing up a course summary. I’ll make this first one a…
philosophy media course history of technology
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2021年7月16日