标签：civilization

Lectures on the General History of Science 3: The Classical Greek Period [Classroom Changed Starting Next Week]

History of Science & Technology2015.03.18
Lectures on the General History of Science 3: The Classical Greek Period [Classroom Changed Starting Next Week]
下 week starting next week, the “History of Science” class will move to Jiao Ba 306 In the last class, we went from primitive humans to the four great ancient civilizations. We mentioned that human history is, in a sense, the history of technology; no human culture is cut off from technology. Where there is technology, there is also “knowledge,” and every culture passes on its own knowledge. By the time we get to the ancient civilizations of Babylonia and Egypt, people’s knowledge and skills had already reached a very high level. But I still regard ancient Greece as the origin of “science.” That is to say, the “science”…
culture scholarship freedom history
阅读全文

2015年3月18日
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 2: The Prehistory of Science

History of Science & Technology2015.03.12
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 2: The Prehistory of Science
In the last class we mentioned the historiography of the history of science, including different historiographical strategies such as intellectual history and social history. We cannot take science as a ready-made, fixed standard and sit in judgment on history from the lofty vantage point of modern people. We need historical consciousness, and we should try to return to historical contexts in order to understand how things developed. The concept of “science” itself is not ready-made and fixed either; in different perspectives and different contexts, it has different meanings. Every historiographical strategy for the history of science embodies some understanding of what science is. For example, intellectual history tends to see…
history of science philosophy of science course civilization
阅读全文

2015年3月12日
The Dark Forest and the Law of Evolution, Thought and Expression — Some Complaints about The Three-Body Problem

History of Science & Scholarship2014.01.30
The Dark Forest and the Law of Evolution, Thought and Expression — Some Complaints about The Three-Body Problem
《The Three-Body Problem》is indeed a pretty good science-fiction novel: the conception is very ingenious, and it also contains many elements that invite deep reflection. But given Teacher Jiang Xiaoyuan’s excessive elevation of it, I actually found myself becoming rather resistant. As an ordinary fantasy novel, whether it is Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics or Liu Cixin’s cosmic sociology, these are all clever designs; but if one wants to elevate them to the level of genuine social science or philosophy and discuss their profound significance, that is going too far. I had already made sarcastic remarks about cosmic sociology back then. Of course, at that time I had not yet read…
book reading book review civilization evolution
阅读全文

2014年1月30日
The Economic History of Media—From Marx to Innis

AI & the Future of Technology2013.06.03
The Economic History of Media—From Marx to Innis
Innis (Harold Adams Innis, 1894–1952), together with McLuhan, is recognized as one of the founders of the media ecology school. McLuhan highly praised Innis’s contributions, wrote prefaces to his two major works in communication studies, and even regarded his own breakthrough book *The Gutenberg Galaxy* as “a footnote to Innis’s viewpoint”[1]. But later, as McLuhan rose to fame, Innis instead became a footnote in McLuhan studies, a preliminary step in explaining the origins of McLuhan’s thought. In the academic context of media ecology, Innis is usually presented as McLuhan’s background or foil. Of course, some scholars have noticed Innis’s distinctive value, especially James Carey, who placed Innis above McLuhan. Entering…
technology McLuhan Marx civilization
阅读全文

2013年6月3日
A Civilizational History of Technology—Using Mumford as an Example

History of Science & Scholarship2013.03.10
A Civilizational History of Technology—Using Mumford as an Example
Discussion section note: Good spring to Professor Wu and to all the students: I’m terribly sorry to have fallen back into my habitual procrastination again…… Mumford is the first figure I plan to deal with in the body of my doctoral dissertation, after the introduction. Because there is an overall writing plan in the background, some basic introduction to media ecology should already have been laid out in the introduction, while other parts will have to wait until later, when I discuss McLuhan and others in more detail. As a result, this section ended up being quite short after I trimmed away the beginning and the ending; of course, that…
technology media history of technology environment
阅读全文

2013年3月10日
The Flush Toilet: City, Civilization, Modernity

AI & the Future of Technology2012.05.26
The Flush Toilet: City, Civilization, Modernity
Yesterday, Professor Jiang Jinsong came to Chengze Garden to give a talk titled “Observations and Reflections on the Flush Toilet,” and Professor Tian Song offered comments. Professor Jiang did not say very much, and Professor Tian’s comments were also rather hurried, but the discussion was still very lively. Indeed, the flush toilet can be counted as one of the greatest achievements of modern civilization. It is not only a device that makes “going to the bathroom” more convenient, but also a hub that helped assemble the whole modern urban way of life and the entire urban system. Professor Wu commented that Professor Jiang’s presentation should be divided into the issue…
technology value modernity human nature
阅读全文

2012年5月26日
On Communicating with Extraterrestrial Civilizations—A Snarky Commentary on Jiang Xiaoyuan’s Report

Culture & Public Commentary2011.12.04
On Communicating with Extraterrestrial Civilizations—A Snarky Commentary on Jiang Xiaoyuan’s Report
Forum on the History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy, Lecture 82: Jiang Xiaoyuan: Should We Talk to Strangers? — A Debate in the History of Science about the Search for Extraterrestrial Civilization This afternoon I went to listen to the Keke Forum. Quite a few people showed up this time; even the classroom was full. It seems that everyone still has high expectations for Teacher Jiang’s talk. Before this talk, when Teacher Wu mentioned it to us, he said that this time he especially wanted Teacher Jiang to say something “substantive.” In the past, whenever Teacher Jiang had been invited to speak, it was all rather “media-like,” or to put…
culture value modernity human nature
阅读全文

2011年12月4日
This Issue’s Music: “Baba Yetu”

Life & Notes2011.02.15
This Issue’s Music: “Baba Yetu”
The theme song of *Civilization IV*—of course, I had already posted it long ago—but since this piece has just won a Grammy Award (Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals), it’s worth posting again~ Besides appearing with the release of *Civilization IV*, it seems to have been issued later as the first track on the crossover album Calling All Dawns, which also won this year’s Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album. The pieces on this album are a little different from the game version; I found an MP3 on eMule, so let me upload it and repost it here:
everyday life music civilization
阅读全文

2011年2月15日
Music for This Issue: TiawTang (Thailand’s Music in Civilization V)

Life & Notes2011.01.22
Music for This Issue: TiawTang (Thailand’s Music in Civilization V)
Now that I’ve got 1G of space, more bandwidth than I could ever use, and free WordPress plugins, it’s much easier to upload and post my own MP3s. Let’s start by posting a track to test things out and celebrate~ /XD/ This is one of the incidental themes from Civilization V for an Asian nation, said to be Thai. Its style is quite different from the ornate Chinese pieces in the same category, and opinions about it online are mixed—some say it’s their favorite track, while others find it unbearably annoying. In any case, I quite like it myself. I haven’t yet posted any music with a Southeast Asian flavor…
everyday life culture music civilization
阅读全文

2011年1月22日
JOKER! — The Clown, the One Who Tells Jokes, the Wild Card, the Big Joker, the King.

Life & Notes2009.01.16
JOKER! — The Clown, the One Who Tells Jokes, the Wild Card, the Big Joker, the King.
I am merely an unclaimed street performer, roaming the noisy, clamorous streets of the city, using the crudest props I happened to pick up to ply the cheapest tricks before passersby hurrying past, only hoping that busy modern people might stop for a moment now and then. —— Gu Cha He is neither arrogant nor deferential to others; he is simply striving to pursue true wisdom. A true joker is very different from the other cards. —— Sophie So, Sophie, now you must make a choice. Are you a child whose curiosity has not yet been worn away by the world? Or a philosopher who can never be such a…
philosophy culture autobiography civilization
阅读全文

2009年1月16日