标签：commentary

Why Must Philosophy Be Obscure? — Reflections on a Perfect-Score Zhejiang Essay

Culture & Public Commentary2020.08.04
Why Must Philosophy Be Obscure? — Reflections on a Perfect-Score Zhejiang Essay
A recent Zhejiang Gaokao essay that scored full marks has sparked heated discussion, but the target of the criticism is often “obscurity.” The author opened by quoting Heidegger, famous for being obscure, and thereby deepened the stereotype of philosophy = obscurity. In my view, the key to that full-mark essay is not “obscurity,” but “posing,” that is, feigning obscurity. Some philosophers are obscure because they often construct a grand edifice of thought, weaving together a self-consistent conceptual system; if an outsider is not familiar with the basic patterns, then even a few scattered phrases are hard to understand. It is like a mathematical formula: if you are not familiar with…
philosophy scholarship commentary Aristotle
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2020年8月4日
Rumor: Seeking Rationality in an Absurd World

Culture & Public Commentary2020.02.18
Rumor: Seeking Rationality in an Absurd World
Here is another essay on the epidemic; if the previous one also counts as related, then this is the fifth. I still ask friends to circulate it cautiously. The rumors about the Wuhan Virus Institute are still continuing: some claim to be real-name whistleblowers accusing the director of secretly selling animals; others solemnly identify a certain graduate student as “Patient Zero.” These conspiracy theories are, of course, all rather crude and not worth refuting. But the significance of rumors does not lie in their own professionalism or accuracy, but in the public sentiment and popular will they reflect. The cruder a rumor is, the fact that it can still spread…
science commentary public sphere reason
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2020年2月18日
The Meaning of “Conflation”: How the Public Can Participate in Scientific Communication

Culture & Public Commentary2020.02.06
The Meaning of “Conflation”: How the Public Can Participate in Scientific Communication
The third essay written amid the epidemic. I’ll say it again: things are tense, so please be cautious about sharing this among friends. From science popularization to public understanding of science to science communication, people in philosophy of science and technology have been talking about this for at least twenty years. The most traditional “deficit model” has long been widely questioned, but to this day, science communication and its significance still have by no means truly taken root in people’s minds. Simply put, the “deficit model” says that scientists possess scientific knowledge while the public lacks scientific knowledge, so science popularization is nothing more than scientists, from a position of…
science philosophy of science commentary politics
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2020年2月6日
Viruses: Nature’s Temper?

Culture & Public Commentary2020.02.04
Viruses: Nature’s Temper?
This is the second essay in my epidemic reflections; with tensions high these days, please be cautious in sharing it with friends. During the epidemic, every day I have seen many things that make one feel awful. What grieved me most, in fact, was the study on Shuanghuanglian released by the Shanghai branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Of course, as Teacher Tiansong says, one must “beware of scientists,” because scientists, like people in any trade, can be just as good or just as bad; but they wield powers greater than those of many other trades, while people in other trades are less…
culture technology science commentary
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2020年2月4日
“Preventable and Controllable” — the “Flag” of the Technological Age

Culture & Public Commentary2020.01.26
“Preventable and Controllable” — the “Flag” of the Technological Age
The pneumonia epidemic is raging, and I didn’t go home for the New Year this year either. I’m just staying at home in a daze, which is a good excuse to write something. But I’m feeling restless, so before writing on other topics, I might as well first say a few things about this epidemic. Still, I should make it clear from the outset that anything I write here is utterly useless for the practical work on the front lines of epidemic prevention and control. I have neither the standing nor the ability to “offer advice and propose measures” for anyone. Of course, simply shouting a couple of slogans like…
China technology commentary Heidegger
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2020年1月26日
Is an E-cigarette a Cigarette?

AI & the Future of Technology2019.10.05
Is an E-cigarette a Cigarette?
Commissioned by Jiemian, published in Jiemian Commentary, “Is e-cigarette smoke really smoke, yet another race between technology and regulation” Is e-cigarette smoke really smoke? At first glance, this question seems like nothing more than sophistry along the lines of “a white horse is not a horse,” but on closer thought, it is in fact a serious question. First, in terms of appearance, apart from the very early generation of e-cigarettes, which deliberately imitated the shape of cigarettes, today’s popular e-cigarettes are worlds apart from traditional cigarettes in outward form. Some look like USB flash drives, some like fountain pens, some like mice, some like hammers, some like flying saucers; in…
technology commentary Introduction to Philosophy of Technology law
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2019年10月5日
On the Swedish Climate Girl (The Decline of the Enlightenment Spirit)

Culture & Public Commentary2019.09.25
On the Swedish Climate Girl (The Decline of the Enlightenment Spirit)
This was originally just meant to be a casual Weibo post, but it grew longer, and since there were some sensitive words in it, I’m putting it here instead. I have a profound aversion to that Swedish climate girl (Greta Thunberg), not because of her views or position, but because of her age. Some things simply should not be done by minors; no matter how precocious you are, it still won’t do. For example, if you’re a genius girl, you can go to college early, you can publish a book early, but sorry, you cannot get married early, let alone trumpet your wonderful marriage to the whole world, even…
freedom commentary politics children
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2019年9月25日
From Spirit Photography to Face-Swapping Apps: On the Popularization and Abuse of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2019.09.01
From Spirit Photography to Face-Swapping Apps: On the Popularization and Abuse of Technology
Published in Jiemian Commentary: “From Soul Photography to Face-Swapping Apps: The History of Humanity’s Struggle with PS Technology” A face-swapping app called ZAO went viral overnight, triggering heated debate. Many people are worried about the popularization of face-swapping technology. Using AI to swap faces in videos is actually nothing new. In 2017, a user known as deepfakes began sharing pornographic videos that swapped the faces of the actors with those of film stars, drawing widespread attention. Later, the relevant program code was open-sourced and shared, the technology developed rapidly, and some derivative applications have long been easy for ordinary people to use. Face-swapping technology certainly has some legitimate uses….
technology commentary Introduction to Philosophy of Technology knowledge
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2019年9月1日
On the Amazon Fire and the Amazon Outage

Culture & Public Commentary2019.08.24
On the Amazon Fire and the Amazon Outage
Published in Jiemian Review, retitled “From the Amazon Fire to Amazon Cloud Service Failure: Human Fragility and Vanity” The fires in the Amazon rainforest have been burning for three weeks. The Brazilian government says they are beyond control. As for the cause of the fires, that is still unclear, and when they will finally go out will probably depend on the whim of Heaven; human beings say they are powerless. In the past two days, this fire has drawn widespread attention on Chinese social media, along with a great deal of alarmist talk. But many people have also learned for the first time how important the Amazon rainforest is—the so-called…
technology commentary environment nature
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2019年8月24日
Technology and Garbage in a Race

AI & the Future of Technology2019.07.06
Technology and Garbage in a Race
Published in Jiemian Commentary, with the title changed to “A Prehistory of Garbage Sorting: Flush Toilets and the Disaster of Feces”; here I’ll still use the original title. Recently, Shanghai’s push for garbage sorting has attracted the attention of the whole country. Add to that China’s earlier saying no to foreign garbage, and it shows that the national government has finally resolved to tackle the garbage problem with real determination. In response to garbage sorting, some people feel there is no need to spend so much mental energy when throwing out trash: shouldn’t we just let the garbage collectors use their judgment carefully? We know that the trade of collecting…
China technology history commentary
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2019年7月6日