Year: 2022

Will AI’s “Xiaowuxianggong” Go Berserk? — “Review of AI 3.0”

AI & Scholarship2022.01.28
Will AI’s “Xiaowuxianggong” Go Berserk? — “Review of AI 3.0”
I was invited to write two annual recommended books for the China Science Daily. I had originally meant to recommend The Technology Trap, but since it came out too late to count as a 2021 title, I ended up choosing these two instead: AI 3.0, by Melanie Mitchell; translated by Wang Feiyue, Li Yuke, Wang Xiao, and Zhang Hui; Sichuan Science and Technology Press, February 2021 Breaking the Code: The Amazing Power of Gene Editing, by Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg; translated by Fu He; Hunan Science and Technology Press, December 2020 The following is a repost of my recommendation written for China Science Daily (2022-01-28, page 3, Books). First…
book reading book review AI science communication
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2022年1月28日
From the Altar to the Forum: The Practical Significance of the History of Science (A Review of Modern History of Science)

Culture & Public Commentary2022.01.27
From the Altar to the Forum: The Practical Significance of the History of Science (A Review of Modern History of Science)
This article was published in the April 2021 issue of Book City Magazine. It was a review from last year, but I forgot to repost it then. Since the magazine allows me to republish my own articles on my blog, I might as well put it here too. Making Science—An Over-the-Syllabus Title When Chinese publishers introduce foreign academic works, they often have the habit of changing the title. For example, A Short History of Modern Science: From the Steam Engine to Grebe Courtship, published by the Electronics Industry Press in 2018, had the original title “The Making of Modern Science: The Making of Modern Science: Science, Technology, Medicine and Modernity:…
book reading science history of science philosophy of science
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2022年1月27日
Historical Significance or Practical Significance? — “Science: The Endless Frontier”

History of Science & Scholarship2022.01.26
Historical Significance or Practical Significance? — “Science: The Endless Frontier”
This article was first published in the January 2022 issue of Book Town https://read.douban.com/ebook/337719818/?&dcs=provider-63699269-%E3%80%8A%E4%B9%A6%E5%9F%8E%E3%80%8B%E6%9D%82%E5%BF%97 with slight revisions; the original manuscript is posted here. Is the Bush Report Outdated? Vannevar Bush’s Science: The Endless Frontier was originally a report Bush submitted to Roosevelt in 1945. That report laid the tone for U.S. science and technology policy after World War II and had a far-reaching influence. In 2021, CITIC Press published yet another new edition, with the cover and contents adorned with many commendations and comments, including a joint recommendation from more than twenty scholars and entrepreneurs at home and abroad, led by Ren Zhengfei and Shi Yigong. In its online promotion,…
book reading China technology science
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2022年1月26日
On VR (IV): If Houses Are Square, What’s So Strange About People Who See Squares? — On the Sensory Style of the Metaverse

AI & the Future of Technology2022.01.25
On VR (IV): If Houses Are Square, What’s So Strange About People Who See Squares? — On the Sensory Style of the Metaverse
In the earlier articles about the metaverse, I already said that the metaverse is not “virtual reality”—one path runs above reality, the other below it; these are two opposite roads. But just how different these two roads are, I still haven’t made sufficiently clear. Some people divide the development of the metaverse into two relatively independent dimensions: on the sensory dimension, simulation, realism, immersion; on the social dimension, openness, co-creation, decentralization. I basically agree with this division. Of course, first of all, I think the development of the metaverse places more emphasis on the social side, especially power relations and economic relations. But the path opposite to “virtual reality” that…
technology Aristotle Web3 environment
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2022年1月25日
Course Summary for A General History of Technology, Fall 2021 (Questionnaire Summary)

Teaching & Courses2022.01.22
Course Summary for A General History of Technology, Fall 2021 (Questionnaire Summary)
Last time I already wrote the final-exam commentary and presentation of excellent papers. In fact, there was another component: the reading notes. This time the reading notes were reduced from more than 6,000 characters in previous years to around 3,000 characters, but there was nothing particularly new in the basic requirements or in my grading impressions, so I won’t say much more about that. The rough grading standards were: 1. plagiarism, 0 points; 2. anything clearly not meeting the course requirements is a fail (for example, not a reading note at all, too few characters, obviously borrowed from an assignment for another course, and so on); 3. anything very perfunctory,…
history of science course General History of Technology
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2022年1月22日
The Cost of Innovation: Another Kind of Lesson from the History of Technology — A Review of The Technology Trap

AI & the Future of Technology2022.01.21
The Cost of Innovation: Another Kind of Lesson from the History of Technology — A Review of The Technology Trap
This article was published in China Science Daily (2022-01-21, page 3, Reading); the title was changed to “A Different Kind of Inspiration: Seeing the Suffering of Ordinary People in the History of Technology.” It was also posted on their WeChat public account, under the title “Let’s Talk This Time About the Suffering Brought to Humanity by Technological Progress!” I’m reposting it here. I teach a general history of technology course at Tsinghua, and over the past few years I have also given quite a few public lectures on special topics in the history of technology. One question such courses or lectures often face is this: what guiding significance does the…
book reading technology book review history of technology
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2022年1月21日
Commentary on the Autumn 2021 Final Exam for A General History of Technology and Showcase of Outstanding Answer Papers

Teaching & Courses2022.01.18
Commentary on the Autumn 2021 Final Exam for A General History of Technology and Showcase of Outstanding Answer Papers
As usual, every course needs a closing summary. This time, the summary of A General History of Technology will be in two parts: for now I’m posting the commentary on the final exam, and in the next post I’ll summarize the student questionnaire and think through possible plans for improving the course in the future. Note: This was an online open-book exam, two hours long, with books and computers allowed, and with internet access for searching materials. The exam consisted of 7 open-ended essay questions. Each examinee chose any 3 to answer, with 100 points for each question, and the final exam score was the average of the three questions….
philosophy technology course Aristotle
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2022年1月18日
A Guide to Understanding Media: Means Are the Measure

AI & the Future of Technology2022.01.17
A Guide to Understanding Media: Means Are the Measure
This was a lecture program I recorded at Super Star half a year ago; a cut version can be found here https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1W34y1z7QD?from=search&seid=5300241720853418317&spm_id_from=333.337.0.0. The full version is probably on Super Star. The transcript of this lecture was handed to Li Shi for revision and enrichment, and was rewritten into a book review published in issue 10 of Chinese Media Technology in 2021, titled “Embracing McLuhan in Fragments—A New Perspective on Reading Understanding Media.” Here I’m posting the original spoken version of the script. McLuhan is an oddity in the history of scholarship: it is hard to categorize what sort of “-ist” he actually was. Naturally, when that happens, we generally just…
philosophy book reading technology media
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2022年1月17日
“The World of Ideas,” “Lyceum”: An NFT Project I Imagined, 2 and 3

Web3 & Cypherpunks2022.01.14
“The World of Ideas,” “Lyceum”: An NFT Project I Imagined, 2 and 3
What did I say? Why have I “not kept up closely with the new things in the crypto world in recent years”? Because it takes too much mental energy: there are too many opportunities, and before you know it you’re getting fomo. I played with NFT for a few days recently, and I felt that familiar sensation again. You really can’t linger in this circle for long; I’d better pull out early and get back to writing papers…… But I’ll still write down the second idea I came up with that night when I couldn’t sleep. At the time I actually mainly thought of three projects: one was 《Pantheon》, the…
scholarship Web3 blockchain Plato
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2022年1月14日
“Investiture of the Gods”: An NFT Project I Envisioned

Web3 & Cypherpunks2022.01.10
“Investiture of the Gods”: An NFT Project I Envisioned
After spending a few days exploring the NFT market, I’ve really felt that it is still just getting started, with far too much room for imagination. One night, when I couldn’t sleep, I did a bit of self-brainstorming and came up with a way to play with NFTs. Actually, it was several ways of playing with them, though several of the others are still not very mature. I recorded the idea here. I’ve also already made the NFT and frozen the metadata: Opensea link If any big names or teams want to draw on it, you’re welcome to contact me. As for NFT development, apart from the specific design below,…
China faith Web3 value
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2022年1月10日