Year: 2023

Why PoS Ethereum Cannot Become a Base Currency

Culture & Public Commentary2023.06.10
Why PoS Ethereum Cannot Become a Base Currency
On the struggle between PoW and PoS in cryptocurrency, I often state my views, but it seems I have never set them out fully on the blog. Yesterday, just as a netizen wrote in asking about this, I wrote a few paragraphs, and I’m posting them here as well. Asked whether Ethereum might replace Bitcoin as the value-preserving currency of future society, my view is as follows: Of course Ethereum can preserve value, but I oppose POS currencies as the standard value-preserving currency, and this is for political reasons. POS provides a mechanism for risk-free interest-bearing accumulation, so value preservers can keep earning interest continuously. Even fiat currency does not…
Bitcoin politics blockchain Huawendao
阅读全文

2023年6月10日
Review of Radical Markets: Also on Why the Crypto Movement Should Be Radical

Culture & Public Commentary2023.06.10
Review of Radical Markets: Also on Why the Crypto Movement Should Be Radical
This piece, along with the earlier The Liberation of People in the Digital Age, was written as copy for PTADAO. The final text was excerpted to form A One-Page Clear White; if you’re interested, you can go take a look there. Here I’m posting the original version of the book review. Lately I’ve joined some Web3 chat groups and occasionally put out a few views. For example, a few days ago I was discussing the significance of stablecoins with someone, and I said that cryptocurrency was from the very beginning meant to upend the old system of central banks and fiat money. If the entire blockchain market turns around and…
book reading freedom Web3 Bitcoin
阅读全文

2023年6月10日
Immortality: The Intrinsic Connection Between Transhumanism and Web3

Culture & Public Commentary2023.06.08
Immortality: The Intrinsic Connection Between Transhumanism and Web3
This piece was submitted to the article by the new media outlet “歪脖三观,” founded and hosted by Jiang Gungun, and I was honored that it became the inaugural founding text of that media platform. When it was published, it was shortened and polished, and the title was changed to “The Ambition of Blockchain: Anti-Keynesianism, Public Life, and Transhumanism.” Everyone is welcome to repost and follow it. I am posting here the unedited original draft: EDCON2023 in Montenegro has come to a close. In addition to the usual topics of the crypto community, this year’s grand gathering also had a substantial block of topics related to transhumanism/longevity. The earlier “A Conversation…
technology Bitcoin blockchain modernity
阅读全文

2023年6月8日
How Is a History of Technological Thought Possible? — Mumford’s Historiographical Method as Seen in Technics and Civilization

History of Science & Scholarship2023.06.06
How Is a History of Technological Thought Possible? — Mumford’s Historiographical Method as Seen in Technics and Civilization
Published in Journal of Guangxi Minzu University, 2023, v.29;No.107(01) 46-52 Abstract: Mumford was a pioneer in the discipline of history of technology, and his representative work Technics and Civilization has profound significance as an inspiration for historiographical method. His historiographical method can be developed as a “history of technical thought,” which, like the “history of scientific thought,” aims to sort out the “inner logic” of technological development, that is, a certain thread at the level of thought or spirit. A history of technical thought requires the introduction of the following four features: first, spirituality (no longer regarding technology merely as neutral material artifacts, but revealing the spiritual connotations of technology);…
book reading history of technology book review paper
阅读全文

2023年6月6日
On the “Pattern” of the Digital City-State

Culture & Public Commentary2023.05.12
On the “Pattern” of the Digital City-State
Today I chatted again for a while with baiyu from SeeDAO, and in the process I laid out my thoughts on building digital city-states. What I chiefly want to promote is Arendt's thought, and to rebuild the “public sphere” in the digital age. SeeDAO’s ideal is to become a “digital city-state for 1 million Web3 nomads.” My quip is: this number, one million, is too big to be big, yet too small to be small. Too big in the sense that if Web3 is truly the general trend, then in the future there cannot possibly be only 1 million “Web3 nomads”; just the Chinese-speaking population alone would have to be…
Web3 politics blockchain public sphere
阅读全文

2023年5月12日
On Transhumanism, the Logic of Blockchain, and Huawendao: A Dialogue at SeeDAO

Chinese Civilization & the Way of Chinese2023.05.08
On Transhumanism, the Logic of Blockchain, and Huawendao: A Dialogue at SeeDAO
Many thanks to the SeeDAO friends for organizing this conversation, which helped me revisit the core ideas of Huawen DAO (Huawendao) in a new context. I hope it can generate even greater influence. Guest Introduction 丨Speaker: Hu Yilin Hu Yilin is an associate professor in the Department of History of Science at Tsinghua University. He received his PhD in philosophy from Peking University. His research focuses on the history of technology, philosophy of technology, and media ecology. He is the author of A Strong Program for Media History, What Is Technology, Introduction to the Philosophy of Technology, and others. 丨Host: baiyu Prelude When Nietzsche cried out “God is dead, the…
China culture Peking University tradition
阅读全文

2023年5月8日
Treating People as People: An Introduction to Wiener’s The Human Use of Human Beings

AI & Scholarship2023.05.05
Treating People as People: An Introduction to Wiener’s The Human Use of Human Beings
This is the introductory reading I prepared for the Mediasphere Alliance. The transcript was roughly organized by Feng Guangneng and then polished by me, though I tried to preserve the conversational style as much as possible. It has already been posted on the Mediasphere Alliance WeChat public account; here I am reposting the original draft. 1.1 Opening Wu Jingwei: Hello to all our friends online, and to all the book lovers who have long followed the Mediasphere Alliance reading group! Today we are very honored to have Teacher Hu Yilin from our Department of History of Science join us to lead us through Wiener’s very important classic, The Human Use…
book reading history of science history of technology book review
阅读全文

2023年5月5日
Introduction to “Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile”

AI & Scholarship2023.04.29
Introduction to “Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile”
This article was published in issue 87 of Xinrui Weekly (it came out last year, but I forgot to repost it), under the title A “Failed” Social Experiment in Cybernetics—A Review of The Cybernetic Revolutionaries. It was slightly abridged at the time of publication (mainly the parts about involution were cut); here is the original text. Allende was elected president of Chile by a large margin in 1970. After taking office, he immediately launched a series of socialist reforms, including banning foreign enterprises, striking at landlords, and establishing a state-owned economy, among other measures. During this period, in order to effectively manage the nationalized economic system, Allende invited the British…
China book reading history of technology politics
阅读全文

2023年4月29日
Do We Still Need to “Read” in the Age of “Swiping”?

AI & Scholarship2023.04.21
Do We Still Need to “Read” in the Age of “Swiping”?
The original title of this article was “Does the Age of Artificial Intelligence Still Need Reading?”, published in China Science Daily (2023-04-21, p. 1, News, the title was changed to “Do We Still Need to ‘Read’ in the Age of ‘Scrolling’?”》, and on the WeChat public account the title was changed again to Just for This Reason, in the Age of “Scrolling” We Still Need to “Read”. I myself think the newspaper title is better, so I use it here. What follows is the original draft; it was lightly polished for publication, and when citing it, please use the newspaper version. World Book Day is coming again soon. Books are…
culture scholarship freedom AI
阅读全文

2023年4月21日
Summary of the Course “A General History of Technology” (Fall 2022 Semester)

Teaching & Courses2023.04.17
Summary of the Course “A General History of Technology” (Fall 2022 Semester)
The allergy season hasn’t even passed before the dust season arrives, my whole state has been low, and the course summary isn’t especially urgent anyway, so I kept dragging my feet and finally finished writing the second course from last semester. (If you want to jump straight to the exam analysis, go to the second half.) General History of Technology is the course I have taught the most; last semester was already the sixth round, and I also wrote summaries for the first five rounds. Of course, every year there are more or less some new additions. This time, taking last semester’s experience into account, I compressed the first few…
technology China course blockchain
阅读全文

2023年4月17日