标签：capitalism

The Network State and Its Technological Foundations

Web3 & Bitcoin2025.09.25
The Network State and Its Technological Foundations
This article is the draft I wrote for a video recording (the very last small section had no draft; it was improvised and then the recording was turned into text), and the video has already been released on Bilibili and YouTube. The video was actually recorded back in April (at the time, Trump had raised tariffs on China to 104%), but my studio took nearly half a year to piece together these five segments one after another before finally finishing everything (though they mostly had other things to do, this level of efficiency really is hard to defend, so I’m now thinking of recruiting some new people to help me…
China technology freedom internet
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2025年9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 book reading technology book review
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2024年2月2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…
book reading technology 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 Marx
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2021年1月5日
A Brief Q&A on Bitcoin Halving

Web3 & Cypherpunks2020.05.11
A Brief Q&A on Bitcoin Halving
Bitcoin is about to undergo its third “halving.” There has already been far too much discussion about Bitcoin halving for me to say anything terribly new, but precisely because there has been so much discussion, it may all seem dizzying to outsiders. So here I’ll try to answer, in a concise way, a few basic questions about Bitcoin halving. If you know nothing at all about Bitcoin, you might start by reading my “Bitcoin: A Popular Introduction.” 1.What——What is halving? “Halving” is a basic part of Bitcoin’s issuance mechanism. Every time Bitcoin produces 210,000 blocks, or roughly every four years, the block reward is “halved” once. Since going online in…
Web3 Bitcoin blockchain money
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2020年5月11日
Why We Don’t Need BitCNY

Web3 & Cypherpunks2015.01.29
Why We Don’t Need BitCNY
1、This Is a Revolution, Not an Upgrade BTS is one of the projects in the so-called “second-generation coins” (the full name is second-generation knockoff coins) that has raised the most money (so far) and has the loudest reputation (mainly in China). Whenever I casually take a swipe at it on Weibo, many enthusiastic netizens inevitably come over to “instruct” me, earnestly teaching me that I need to keep up with the times, need to be open and inclusive, need to keep learning… So I usually can’t be bothered to say much. This time, since I’ve been invited to write for 8BTC, I might as well concentrate my complaints here again,…
freedom faith Web3 Bitcoin
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2015年1月29日
Why Won’t Bitcoin Fall to Zero? — Random Thoughts on Bitcoin Market Trends

Web3 & Cypherpunks2013.12.12
Why Won’t Bitcoin Fall to Zero? — Random Thoughts on Bitcoin Market Trends
Recently the Bitcoin market had another fit of madness: from 1242 it plunged all the way to well below half, then rebounded to 1000 and fell again. A lot of newcomers could no longer sit still, and one after another quite a few people also came to ask me what I made of it. What can I make of it? Obviously, I am not a candlestick expert, and I can’t analyze the market; such a frenzied market is even less something I can get a grip on. I myself tried taking one coin and flipping it high and low, but it failed as well, and instead I lost some…… My…
Web3 value Bitcoin economy
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2013年12月12日
Bitcoin: Common Sense and Dogma

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.06.20
Bitcoin: Common Sense and Dogma
Recently I’ve been following some Weibo accounts and websites related to Bitcoin, watching from the sidelines and even taking part in some of the related debates—for instance, the arguments surrounding this Weibo post were very lively: http://weibo.com/1646744100/zBFt7q7D1 I must admit that paying attention to Bitcoin while I’m anxiously preparing my doctoral dissertation does make me seem a bit off task, but I’d still like to offer myself a defense: after all, this is not completely beside the point. First of all, of course, one buys Bitcoin hoping to make money, or at least hoping to hedge risk. Right now the international and domestic financial and economic environment is facing a…
China media Web3 Bitcoin
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2013年6月20日
Bitcoin: The Disappearance of the State

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.05.09
Bitcoin: The Disappearance of the State
I’ve now written the third consecutive article about Bitcoin, and after this one I’ll more or less be wrapping things up for the time being. My spare cash has basically all been invested already, and I’ve now bid farewell to the infuriating Bitcoin China trading platform. I put one bitcoin into Mt.gox and started groping my way through the game of selling high and buying low; a few days later, one coin had become 0.98 coins… It’s a bit discouraging, really… Of course I’ll keep trying my hand at it, but I no longer dare to make any big moves. For now, the main thing is just to hold the…
media Web3 politics internet
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2013年5月9日