分类：Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom

From the China Zun Incident to AI Governance: Hu Yilin on New Technologies, Safety, and Social Mobility

AI & Scholarship2026.06.29
From the China Zun Incident to AI Governance: Hu Yilin on New Technologies, Safety, and Social Mobility
IntroductionAfter the Beijing CITIC Tower, “China Zun,” was struck by a small aircraft, low-altitude flight safety once again became a public issue. But in the view of technology philosophy researcher Hu Yilin, this accident should not be understood only as a low-altitude economy risk; it should be discussed within a much larger problem: whenever a new technology moves into mass use, society always tightens control in the name of safety, but whether that control is effective, who bears its costs, and who enjoys its benefits are often far more worth asking than the question of “whether we need safety” itself. After the China Zun accident, low-altitude safety was pushed into…
technology freedom Introduction to Philosophy of Technology public sphere
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2026年6月29日
Freedom is the root, plurality is the end; one cannot sacrifice freedom in order to protect plurality

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2026.06.24
Freedom is the root, plurality is the end; one cannot sacrifice freedom in order to protect plurality
The Singapore government recently required YouTube, Facebook, and X to block 14 pieces of online content targeting the Indian community. Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs said these posts attacked the Indian community and undermined Singapore’s multiracial social model, and that the relevant content may have originated on Chinese platforms. The police issued directives to the platforms under the Online Criminal Harms Act, requiring them to bar Singapore users from accessing the relevant content. This incident has drawn attention not only because it involves racial issues, but also because it touches the core of Singapore’s mode of governance: in a modern city-state that places a high value on social harmony, multiracial…
freedom politics pluralism state
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2026年6月24日
AI Regulation Must Not Become a New Despotism in the Technological Age

AI & Scholarship2026.06.24
AI Regulation Must Not Become a New Despotism in the Technological Age
Recently, the U.S. government, citing national security, asked Anthropic to suspend foreign nationals’ access to its frontier large models Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Anthropic then announced that, in order to ensure compliance, it would take both models offline for all users. This incident quickly sent shockwaves through the AI industry: if one country can, on security grounds, suddenly cut off global users’ access to frontier AI, then what exactly is AI—a commercial service, a piece of public infrastructure, or a new kind of strategic weapon? In the public discussion surrounding this incident, opinion quickly split into two camps. One side believes that frontier large models may be used for…
freedom history of technology public sphere AI
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2026年6月24日
Universities that prohibit students from using AI to write papers should be dissolved immediately

AI & Scholarship2026.05.27
Universities that prohibit students from using AI to write papers should be dissolved immediately
It’s graduation season again, and recently many universities in China have acquired a new task: checking AI-generation rates. Rules like “if AI-generated content (AIGC rate) exceeds 40%, you cannot graduate” are simply hilarious; they show how helpless some universities are in the age of AI. I believe that any university that stipulates that using AI means you cannot graduate can be dissolved on the spot; that is the best thing it can do for this era. Stop misleading the young. Checking the AIGC rate is a joke Checking the AIGC rate is in the same vein as the earlier thesis plagiarism check. I criticized the absurdity of plagiarism checks in…
China scholarship freedom education
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2026年5月27日
Talking About Trump

Culture & Public Commentary2025.03.05
Talking About Trump
When Was America at Its Greatest? So-called “Make America Great Again” — but at exactly which period in history was America the greatest? This historical question actually determines how one judges present policy and the respective international situation. One standard answer is the post–Cold War period. At that time, the United States stood alone in glory, unrivaled, becoming the sole hegemon, the world’s policeman, imperious and overbearing. But in terms of industrial capacity and total GDP, America during this period was only about one quarter of the world. The highest share of GDP should have been at the end of World War II. By then, the whole world had been…
commentary value democracy civilization
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2025年3月5日
On the Left’s Self-dug Grave

Culture & Public Commentary2025.02.24
On the Left’s Self-dug Grave
https://x.com/epr510/status/1893851683534643208 (Reflections on watching the right rise in the German election) What’s funny is that many left-wing intellectuals earlier all thought the enemy was Trump, and that once this oddity had run its course, everything would be fine. But the facts have shown that the left’s collapse is global; Trump’s rise is not an exception but a trend. I think many people still haven’t figured this out even now. Of course, the left’s collapse has something to do with the general spirit of the age, but fundamentally it is still an internal problem. In short, left-wing parties themselves abandoned left-wing positions. So the essence of the left’s defeat is not…
culture politics equality the masses
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2025年2月24日
Freedom of Speech and Social Media

Culture & Public Commentary2021.01.11
Freedom of Speech and Social Media
This article was written spontaneously, as a stream-of-consciousness piece prompted by my own feelings; it is shared only on Suixuan, and please do not reprint it. Trump’s social media accounts being banned set off a discussion about freedom of speech. Aside from the arguments that have never reached consensus, today’s discussions of freedom of speech do in fact involve some new conditions that have only emerged in the past decade or so. This is the rise of large social media websites. They have carved out an autonomous space in the network world, and in many cases have replaced what used to be understood as public space. Whether, and how, the…
culture freedom media commentary
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2021年1月11日
“Leisure” as “Responsibility” — Why Must We Critique Capitalism?

Culture & Public Commentary2021.01.05
“Leisure” as “Responsibility” — Why Must We Critique Capitalism?
Recently Pinduoduo has once again made the topic of 996 hot, and I said: “Whether overtime is reasonable, whether it is legal, how it should be compensated, how it should be punished—let those questions be set aside for the moment. In any case, we should first make one thing clear: whether or not one works overtime has nothing to do with ‘personal striving.’ Because after I get off work I can study like mad, I can take on side jobs like mad, I can devote myself to public welfare… There are plenty of worthwhile causes to struggle for. To limit a person to struggling only for one boss is not…
culture freedom commentary civilization
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2021年1月5日
Who Is the Worst in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”?

Culture & Public Commentary2020.11.26
Who Is the Worst in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”?
This piece is just for fun, and is published only in encrypted form on Suixuan. Please do not repost. When I was little, I actually didn’t have much of an impression of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”; only when I grew up and thought back on it each time did I begin to feel that it held some meaning. Who is the worst person in this story? Clearly the tailors are bad: they deceived the emperor and his ministers. The ministers, who lied one after another about seeing the clothes in order to save face, are also bad. But the emperor, who deceives himself and others, is probably the worst of…
culture freedom sociology faith
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2020年11月26日
The Responsibility of Intellectuals

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2019.08.22
The Responsibility of Intellectuals
Note: This article may not be reproduced; it is for Suixuan readers only. This article was written out of a sudden impulse. I had originally meant to dash off two paragraphs in one go, but the more I wrote, the more awkward it felt; in the end, I not only wrecked the thing, I couldn’t keep going either. But since, before I knew it, I had written more than seven thousand characters, I might as well post it. For archive purposes only. Emotions or attitudes, like thoughts and speech, are part of each person’s “freedom.” I have the right to worry myself sick, and I also have the right…
philosophy culture autobiography public sphere
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2019年8月22日