标签：capital

The Future Did Not Attend the Project-Approval Meeting: From Unpaid Wastewater Plant Fees to Pre-Sold Apartment Buildings, Hu Yilin Discusses the Monetary Roots of “Afford to Build, but Not to Maintain”

AI & the Future of Technology2026.06.25
The Future Did Not Attend the Project-Approval Meeting: From Unpaid Wastewater Plant Fees to Pre-Sold Apartment Buildings, Hu Yilin Discusses the Monetary Roots of “Afford to Build, but Not to Maintain”
Introductory noteRecently, the operator of the wastewater treatment plant in Gongping Town, Haifeng County, Guangdong, took the Gongping Town government and the Haifeng County Finance Bureau to court, demanding payment of more than 70 million yuan in wastewater treatment fees and late charges accrued through the end of 2025. Caixin reported that this wastewater plant has been in continuous operation for nearly seven years and has treated a cumulative total of more than 38 million tons of wastewater, yet the operator has never received the service fees paid by the local government; because it had long been advancing the costs on its own, the company once applied to suspend operations,…
technology China value public sphere
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2026年6月25日
Memory Replacing Computation—A Review of Stiegler’s Technics and Time

Phenomenology & Heidegger2024.02.02
Memory Replacing Computation—A Review of Stiegler’s Technics and Time
This article was published in Science and Technology Daily (2024-02-02, p. 3, Book Reviews), and retitled “Memory Is More Important Than Function; Richness Is More Important Than Efficiency” Bernard Stiegler was one of the most important philosophers of technology from the late twentieth century to the early twenty-first; in my view, one could even dispense with both “technology” and “one of.” His magnum opus is the three-volume Technics and Time, which has long been translated into Chinese, and Yilin Press has recently published a collected edition. The collected edition improves upon the old translation, especially by resolving inconsistent renderings of individual terms and by providing a unified index, making it…
philosophy technology book reading history of technology
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2024年2月2日
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 book review
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2022年9月16日
NFTs and Tulip Mania

Culture & Public Commentary2021.09.09
NFTs and Tulip Mania
This article was commissioned by China Business Journal; see http://www.cb.com.cn/index/show/zl/cv/cv13456431853 NFT is the full name of Non-Fungible Token. A literal translation would be “non-fungible token.” The so-called token, also translated as “coin” or “token,” refers to some kind of rights certificate: coupons, prize-redemption slips, game coins, and so on all count as tokens. Of course, in the blockchain context it generally refers to a unit of account in a digital ledger. The various digital currencies that were wildly hyped a few years ago were basically “fungible tokens.” Recently, however, NFT has exploded overnight and rapidly gone mainstream. Speculators these days do not care at all whether the object of speculation…
culture history Web3 history of technology
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2021年9月9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
“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
Salute to the Strivers! — Striving for the Capitalist or Striving for All Humanity? (Comments on 996)

Culture & Public Commentary2019.04.15
Salute to the Strivers! — Striving for the Capitalist or Striving for All Humanity? (Comments on 996)
Recently I’ve posted someremarks on Weibo about the 996 issue, and there’s already quite a bit of text; I’ve excerpted it here and will also fill it out further What I was first responding to was Jack Ma’s representative statement: Last night I had a conversation with my colleagues at Alibaba about the hot-button issue of 996 at work. Today many young people are facing this problem. I think that if you choose to win your own happiness and success through struggle and effort, you may want to seriously reflect on what I’m about to say; but if you want your future to be happier and more joyful than ordinary…
China freedom commentary sociology
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2019年4月15日
On ICOs: The Future of Stocks

Web3 & Bitcoin2017.09.14
On ICOs: The Future of Stocks
This year ICO has exploded. Many big names and veterans from the Bitcoin world have gradually become unable to sit still, and have taken up ICO, raising enormous amounts of money, only to finally dig their own graves. First, ICO was deemed illegal fundraising; now the entire domestic Bitcoin trading platform ecosystem is facing shutdown. How exactly will these big names end up? We shall wait and see. As for ICO, I have always kept a respectful distance from it. Although this may well have caused me to miss out on a chance to get rich dozens of times over, I have always adhered to an investment philosophy of safety…
Web3 Bitcoin blockchain decentralization
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2017年9月14日
Freedom vs. Equality — I Am a Right-Wing Socialist

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2012.01.17
Freedom vs. Equality — I Am a Right-Wing Socialist
Last month I posted an article talking about my impressions of the two Wu teachers’ gathering, and as a result a commenter who was criticizing Professor Wu Tong showed up and we exchanged several rounds in the thread below. It’s not that I absolutely had to defend Professor Wu Tong; after all, my dealings with him have mostly been public and not much private, and I wouldn’t dare pound my chest and guarantee that he himself is beyond reproach. But taking the matter strictly on its merits, and judging only from the circumstances presented by the accuser, I still couldn’t help wanting to defend him: not only Professor Wu Tong,…
freedom politics autobiography value
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2012年1月17日
The Capitalization of Technology — Reflections on Han Qide’s Lecture

Culture & Public Commentary2010.12.02
The Capitalization of Technology — Reflections on Han Qide’s Lecture
Today we invited Professor Han Qide to give a lecture on “Reflections on the Value of Medical Technology Development.” This series of lectures in the course seems to have rather a lot of topics related to medicine, but there is a reason for having more rather than fewer: after all, the medical field is the place where the complex relations among science, technology, the humanities, ethics, society, politics, and so on are most concentrated and clearly embodied. Although many of the related issues had already been heard in previous lectures, Professor Han still brought quite a few fresh examples and viewpoints. What Professor Han focused on was the development of…
technology culture value capital
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2010年12月2日