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标签：book reading

Confronting “Complexity” — A Review of Big Science

History of Science & Scholarship2022.09.16
Confronting “Complexity” — A Review of Big Science
This article was published in China Science Daily (2022-09-16, Section 3, Books), with the title changed to “Confronting the ‘Complex’ Head-On — A Compound of Science, Capital, and Politics in the Age of Big Science, Scientists Can No Longer ‘Cultivate Themselves Alone’” When we speak of America’s research environment or science policy, the first thing that usually comes to mind is Vannevar Bush’s Science: The Endless Frontier, a report Bush submitted to then-President Roosevelt in 1945. The report emphasized the importance of basic research, arguing that the government should provide funding support for basic scientific research, but must also respect scientists’ independence and autonomy. Bush’s report was indeed far-reaching in…
book reading science freedom Scientific Revolution
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2022年9月16日
The “Nonsense” that Scientifically Combats Scientific Nonsense — Preface to Recommending Exposing Data Nonsense

History of Science & Scholarship2022.04.07
The “Nonsense” that Scientifically Combats Scientific Nonsense — Preface to Recommending Exposing Data Nonsense
In the past I always wrote book reviews for newspapers; this time, for the first time, I was invited to write a recommendation foreword, which can be found in CITIC Publishing Group’s newly released Debunking Data Bullshit. Since it’s a recommendation and a bit of promotion, I suppose it can also be reposted here. One thing needs to be explained: when I received the advance copy, the tentative Chinese title was The Signal and the Noise of Science; by the time it was officially published, it had been changed to the current Debunking Data Bullshit. So when I wrote the recommendation, I started from the translated title, and the part…
book reading science philosophy of science book review
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2022年4月7日
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,…
technology China book reading science
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2022年1月26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…
technology book reading history of technology book review
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2022年1月21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 technology book reading media
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2022年1月17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
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 book reading
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2021年8月9日
The Unification of Information Technology and Information Science in the History of Information — A Review of Wu Jun’s Information Transmission

History of Science & Scholarship2020.12.30
The Unification of Information Technology and Information Science in the History of Information — A Review of Wu Jun’s Information Transmission
Published in Science News of China (2020-12-10, p. 7, Book Review), with the title changed to “Seeing Information from the Perspective of an Entrepreneur” “We happen to live in an information society, and we need to understand information,” Wu Jun says at the beginning of Information Biography: “Although we all live in the information age, very few people can clearly say what information is, or how it determines and affects our lives. That is the reason I wrote Information Biography.” Wu Jun believes that information can be approached from the following three dimensions: 1. What information is; 2. The essence of information technology; 3. The history of information. The first…
book reading history of technology book review information
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2020年12月30日