标签：computer

Treating People as People: An Introduction to Wiener’s The Human Use of Human Beings

AI & Scholarship2023.05.05
Treating People as People: An Introduction to Wiener’s The Human Use of Human Beings
This is the introductory reading I prepared for the Mediasphere Alliance. The transcript was roughly organized by Feng Guangneng and then polished by me, though I tried to preserve the conversational style as much as possible. It has already been posted on the Mediasphere Alliance WeChat public account; here I am reposting the original draft. 1.1 Opening Wu Jingwei: Hello to all our friends online, and to all the book lovers who have long followed the Mediasphere Alliance reading group! Today we are very honored to have Teacher Hu Yilin from our Department of History of Science join us to lead us through Wiener’s very important classic, The Human Use…
book reading history of science history of technology book review
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2023年5月5日
Introduction to “Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile”

AI & Scholarship2023.04.29
Introduction to “Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile”
This article was published in issue 87 of Xinrui Weekly (it came out last year, but I forgot to repost it), under the title A “Failed” Social Experiment in Cybernetics—A Review of The Cybernetic Revolutionaries. It was slightly abridged at the time of publication (mainly the parts about involution were cut); here is the original text. Allende was elected president of Chile by a large margin in 1970. After taking office, he immediately launched a series of socialist reforms, including banning foreign enterprises, striking at landlords, and establishing a state-owned economy, among other measures. During this period, in order to effectively manage the nationalized economic system, Allende invited the British…
China book reading history of technology politics
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2023年4月29日
Unemployment or Liberation? Artificial Intelligence’s Dual Revolution

AI & Scholarship2023.02.07
Unemployment or Liberation? Artificial Intelligence’s Dual Revolution
This article was published in China Business Journal (2023-02-07). The final section of social critique in this article is written extremely tersely, but it can be read together with the previous article, “Play to Action—On Human Liberation in the Digital Age.” In 1948, Norbert Wiener published Cybernetics, one of the foundational texts of information science. In the preface to Cybernetics, Wiener wrote: “The first industrial revolution, in depreciating human hand because of its competition with the machine…the present industrial revolution is likewise to depreciate the human brain, at least in its simpler and more routine decisions.” (Hao Jiren translation) This was not an optimistic prophecy. In fact, Wiener noted that…
technology Web3 value AI
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2023年2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
Getting It Done in Advance — The Common Logic of Napier’s Bones and Logarithms

AI & the Future of Technology2020.11.05
Getting It Done in Advance — The Common Logic of Napier’s Bones and Logarithms
This is still written for the Science and Technology Museum, and the piece “Xiang: Made in Advance — Napier’s Rods and the Common Logic of Logarithms.” John Napier (1550–1617) was born into a prominent Scottish noble family. He inherited the family fortune and managed his own castle and estate. He ran his lands with a researcher’s attitude, conducting experiments and analyses on matters such as fertilizer. He was also a devout Protestant, and in order to push back against Catholicism he took an active part in the religious controversies of the time and wrote influential theological works. He was also a wizard: he carefully fed a magical black rooster, and…
technology history of science history mathematics
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2020年11月5日
Who Is the “Computer”? — Starting from the Relationship Between Computer and Calculator.

AI & the Future of Technology2020.10.22
Who Is the “Computer”? — Starting from the Relationship Between Computer and Calculator.
This was a commissioned piece for our museum, Read the Exhibition | Hu Yilin: “The Name of ‘Computer’”—Starting from the Relationship between Computer and Calculator. The title I originally gave when I submitted it was later changed by me to “Who Is the Computer?”, but when it was published the original title remained. That’s basically the same thing. Nowadays we distinguish between “computer” and “calculator”: the former corresponds to the English Computer, meaning a general-purpose electronic computer, while the latter corresponds to the English Calculator, usually meaning a small tool designed specifically for arithmetic. Looking further back, we also call Pascal’s adding machine and similar calculating machines “calculators.” But in…
technology computer women
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2020年10月22日
Must Anti-Discrimination Be Scientific? — On the “Google Ideological Echo Chamber” Incident

Culture & Public Commentary2017.08.14
Must Anti-Discrimination Be Scientific? — On the “Google Ideological Echo Chamber” Incident
Recently, a memo circulating internally at Google was exposed. The author argued that the company’s gender imbalance was not a problem at all, because women are naturally unsuited to being programmers; and if one really wanted to promote diversity, one should promote “ideological diversity” rather than gender or ethnic diversity, because conservative ideology is currently suffering from discrimination. After the memo was exposed, public opinion exploded, everyone turned on the employee, and Google decisively fired him. At first I didn’t think much of it. Of course I do not agree with this male employee’s remarks, and Google had nothing to say for firing him. But then I read some rebuttal…
freedom philosophy of science commentary sociology
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2017年8月14日
A Loose Phenomenological Discussion of “Artificial Intelligence”

AI & Scholarship2016.08.02
A Loose Phenomenological Discussion of “Artificial Intelligence”
This essay was prepared for this year’s conference on phenomenological philosophy of technology. It had been brewing for several months, but in the end I still failed to turn it into a complete paper, and handed in some essay-like prose instead. There were too many people attending this time, and Teacher Wu was not planning to have every participant present a paper; some papers would be included in the conference proceedings but not assigned a presentation, so I was even more willing to make do. The main reason I could not write the paper, of course, was that I simply did not have enough time; I had read the literature…
technology Heidegger phenomenology AI
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2016年8月2日
Why Fear Artificial Intelligence? — Some Musings on AlphaGo

AI & Scholarship2016.03.13
Why Fear Artificial Intelligence? — Some Musings on AlphaGo
AlphaGo’s Go battle with Lee Sedol is now underway, and artificial intelligence has won 3:0; two honor matches remain, but the outcome is basically beyond doubt already. Whatever the final score may be, the historical significance of this match is beyond question. The significance of this match is mainly symbolic. In fact, since AlphaGo already defeated the European Go champion last year, proving that its Go-playing strength had reached the level of a professional player, its total victory over humans was only a matter of time. Of course, we might also say that ever since Deep Blue dominated chess, the AI conquest of Go had only been a “matter of…
philosophy technology history of science commentary
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2016年3月13日
Bitcoin: The Nature of Money

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.04.19
Bitcoin: The Nature of Money
Recently Bitcoin has risen and fallen wildly, and a great deal of discussion has sprung up as well. Of course there are those who strongly support it and those who predict its doom; in any case, this peculiar electronic currency has officially entered public view. In fact, I heard about this thing a few years ago, and at the time I also thought about joining the ranks of the “miners.” Unfortunately I was still too wary of trouble to pursue it in depth. More crucially, my insights in media philosophy were not yet mature enough then, so I failed to seize the opportunity. And these past few days, gritting my…
media Web3 Bitcoin internet
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2013年4月19日