标签：AI

In the Age of AI, What Is Philosophy For?

AI & Scholarship2025.02.21
In the Age of AI, What Is Philosophy For?
Published in Science Daily of China (2025-02-21, p. 4, Culture). This should be the longest article I have ever published in a newspaper; they gave me a full page. My original text was basically not changed much, except that the section headings were altered a bit and the prose was lightly polished. What I am posting here is my original draft; anyone who wants to reprint it can go find the version posted by Science Net. Welcoming the AI Era In the courses on history of science and philosophy of technology that I had been teaching at Tsinghua, I had already run into the shock of AI. Back then I…
philosophy technology freedom education
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2025年2月21日
Accelerationism Is Not Liberatory Enough; Only by Combining It with Web3 Can AI’s Potential Be Unleashed

AI & Scholarship2024.04.21
Accelerationism Is Not Liberatory Enough; Only by Combining It with Web3 Can AI’s Potential Be Unleashed
Thanks to Wanxiang Blockchain, I was invited to attend the 2024 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, and on April 6 I gave two talks, respectively at Sub-venue 2 and on the OpenAI Stage. Their titles were “Accelerationism Is Not Liberating Enough; Only by Combining It with Web3 Can AI’s Potential Be Released” and “The Possibility of Reviving Traditional Chinese Culture in Web3.” Since the lecture time was limited, I’ll expand a little here and organize the relevant content into an essay. Who Is Alignment Alignment to? My title, “Accelerationism Is Not Liberating Enough,” is aimed at “accelerationism.” But I am not trying to endorse “decelerationism” or “alignmentism,” so let me begin…
technology freedom Introduction to Philosophy of Technology blockchain
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2024年4月21日
Accelerationism vs. Alignmentism, Socialism(?)

AI & Scholarship2023.11.22
Accelerationism vs. Alignmentism, Socialism(?)
The big internal-drama spectacle at OpenAI has once again brought into sharp relief the debate about artificial intelligence, “effective accelerationism vs. super ‘alignment’.” I also posted two comments on Weibo, which I record here: I support neither side. Accelerationism believes that whenever new technology disrupts society, the result is always good. But the problem is that in history, good outcomes are also the result of positive social change; if society merely passively accepts the push of new technology, there may not necessarily be good results. The problem with alignmentism is that it is fanciful: human values have never been aligned, so how could machines be? I support checks and balances…
technology culture freedom Web3
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2023年11月22日
Cultivating a Cultural Atmosphere That Pursues Novelty and Interest — A Review of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned

AI & the Future of Technology2023.11.16
Cultivating a Cultural Atmosphere That Pursues Novelty and Interest — A Review of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned
This article was published in China Economic Times (Yujian Sixiang, September 18, 2023) Recently, two scientists from OpenAI published a book called Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, attempting to argue that great technological innovations are often not the result of prior planning. In fact, Chinese tradition also has similar wisdom. For example, Daoism says, “do nothing, and yet nothing will remain undone”; Buddhism speaks of “no attachment, no form”; and there is the common saying, “If you set your heart on planting flowers, the flowers may not bloom; but if you casually stick a willow branch in the ground, it may grow into shade.” All of these mean something similar….
technology China book reading science
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2023年11月16日
AI Is Sick; Web3 Is the Cure

AI & Scholarship2023.10.27
AI Is Sick; Web3 Is the Cure
Published on Wai Bo San Guan; the original text is posted here. Earlier, I gave the keynote address at the main session of the Ninth Global Blockchain Summit, entitled “Web3 Has the Cure—AI, Dao, and Games.” Because time was limited, I could not really go into it in depth; this article (and the next one) may be taken as an expansion of that talk. Many people believe that AI technology is leading the next industrial revolution, and that we are facing an era-defining transformation that comes once in several centuries, so entrepreneurs will encounter many opportunities and challenges. I fully agree with this judgment, but unlike many optimists, I think…
internet Scientific Revolution blockchain AI
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2023年10月27日
What Is Technology? (Transcript of the 25th Session of the Jishi Lecture Series)

AI & the Future of Technology2023.08.17
What Is Technology? (Transcript of the 25th Session of the Jishi Lecture Series)
In June I gave a long lecture for Ji-shi Capital, and recently they finished the transcription and released it in three installments. The text was transcribed by them; I went through it, but there may still be a few scattered errors. I’m posting the complete collected version here for the record. The original texts of the three installments can be found here: Why is our education devoted to producing copies?; Where does technology come from? Looking at Watt’s steam engine to see our misunderstanding of technology; If the AI revolution is similar to the Industrial Revolution, we will face a very terrifying situation. In fact, the three installments correspond to…
technology history of science history of technology AI
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2023年8月17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
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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
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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
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2023年4月21日
Can General Education Outmaneuver the Majors? — A Loose Talk from Course Assessment Methods to ChatGPT

AI & Scholarship2023.03.19
Can General Education Outmaneuver the Majors? — A Loose Talk from Course Assessment Methods to ChatGPT
Note: I originally just wanted to vent a bit about the feelings stirred up by a wave of severely plagiarized assignments, but as it turned out the discussion naturally drifted into AI, and things got a bit loose. Let’s leave it at that for now. The two courses I taught last semester—A General History of Technology and Introduction to Philosophy of Technology—have only just now finally been brought to a close. Normally, my courses use in-class exams during the last week of the term, but because of the outbreak of the pandemic at the end of last semester, the university suggested changing the final-exam process and arranging two exam sessions,…
technology scholarship freedom education
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2023年3月19日