标签：environment

Is Bitcoin Environmentally Friendly?

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.10.20
Is Bitcoin Environmentally Friendly?
This article is an original entry in the 2013 essay contest organized by Bitren and was first published on the Bitren forum, so it did not debut on my blog. At first I thought I stood no chance of winning any prize, so last night I casually posted it on the blog; unexpectedly, it still won the second-place grand prize. Because I reposted it half a day early (to Babbitt), I have voluntarily deducted 10% of the prize money as punishment, and here I would like to apologize to and thank the Bitren website. 1. Does Bitcoin waste resources? Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mechanism, that is, the so-called “mining,” is often criticized:…
technology Web3 value Bitcoin
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2013年10月20日
Human-Centricity or Humble Solipsism? — A Discussion of Whether Heidegger’s Philosophy Is a Philosophy of Subjectivity

Phenomenology & Heidegger2013.04.01
Human-Centricity or Humble Solipsism? — A Discussion of Whether Heidegger’s Philosophy Is a Philosophy of Subjectivity
Jing Qi reposted an article by Ran Shi, “Is Heidegger’s Early Philosophy a Philosophy of Subjectivity?,” as well as the related discussion—among the participants were Jing Qi, Ran Shi (who is this, anyway? His blog is rather interesting), Professor Meng Qiang, and Professor Li Zhangyin, among others. I also chimed in. My comments leaned toward Ran Shi, and were also endorsed by him, but as always I was still set in opposition to Jing Qi (which, of course, is a very good thing). For the context of the discussion before and after, you can go look on Jing Qi’s or Ran Shi’s blog; I won’t reproduce it here. I’ll simply…
philosophy Aristotle Heidegger discussion
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2013年4月1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 human nature
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2013年3月10日
The Two Falls of the Concept of “Nature” and Nature as “Anti-Normative” in Its Original Sense

History of Science & Scholarship2012.12.21
The Two Falls of the Concept of “Nature” and Nature as “Anti-Normative” in Its Original Sense
Today Professor Wu gave a talk, “The Discovery of Nature,” at the Friday philosophy forum of the Institute of Foreign Philosophy. Although the topic was something Professor Wu has always thought about, and I am already fairly familiar with it, it is quite rare to hear him speak at the Institute of Foreign Philosophy; especially with Liu Zhe, Wu Zengding, and Wu Fei all taking part in the questions, it was extremely interesting to listen to. Professor Wu mentioned that “the discovery of nature” actually contains two “falls” of the concept of nature: first, nature as “nature, origin”; second, the emergence of “the natural world” as a special domain of…
philosophy technology science media
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2012年12月21日
A Supplement to “Media History as Transcendental Philosophy”: The Relation Between Ontology and Epistemology; Nature Is Naturally the Boundary of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2012.11.20
A Supplement to “Media History as Transcendental Philosophy”: The Relation Between Ontology and Epistemology; Nature Is Naturally the Boundary of Technology
Today’s discussion seminar covered that earlier article, and the result seemed pretty good. Of course, Wu’s comments and those of the students pointed out that while my article reads smoothly overall, a close look reveals many gaps in the logic, especially the final section, which seems overly hurried. This is certainly something that can be improved in part—particularly, the last section ought to have been written in more detail. At the time I probably felt that I was almost done, breathed a sigh of relief, and then slackened off, lacking patience in handling the most crucial part of this section. But in a certain sense logical gaps are impossible to…
philosophy technology media Aristotle
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2012年11月20日
Nature as Raw Meat or Bacon

History of Science & Scholarship2012.05.24
Nature as Raw Meat or Bacon
Today in discussion class, Liu Ping’s paper, which he will be presenting next week, came up. He wants to write on “wilderness and flesh,” attempting an environmental-philosophical reading of Merleau-Ponty’s later philosophy. It sounds very interesting. This important concept in Merleau-Ponty’s later philosophy is usually translated as “flesh,” but Liu Ping said this translation is not good, because it misses a great deal of meaning. But don’t be like Liu Zhe: since we are using Chinese to do phenomenological thinking, rather than working as mere scholars of texts—and foreign scholars of texts at that—to do philological research, of course we should still ultimately translate these concepts. Even if some meaning…
science phenomenology environment nature
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2012年5月24日
Recommended Chinese-Language Bibliography on Environmental Philosophy

History of Science & Scholarship2012.04.20
Recommended Chinese-Language Bibliography on Environmental Philosophy
In discussion class, Liu Ping asked me to recommend books related to environmental ethics or eco-socialist thought, so I整理了一下 and am posting it here. In 2005, when I was a freshman, a number of courses in environmental ethics and environmental philosophy happened to be offered at the same time. I took three or five of them in one go, and then put effort into the papers as a whole too (when I submitted them I explained the situation of “multiple submissions”). The end result was that I skimmed through dozens of books on environmental philosophy then available on the market, and along with other reference works, more than a hundred…
book reading China book review environment
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2012年4月20日
[Weibo] Earth Hour

Life & Notes2012.03.31
[Weibo] Earth Hour
I think the significance of “Earth Hour” lies not at all in whether the event itself can actually save energy or electricity. It is a ritual of awe and reverence toward nature. To question whether a “ritual” has any practical use is meaningless.
everyday life environment ritual life
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2012年3月31日
Notes on “Being and Time” II: “Being and Media”?

Philosophy & Thought2012.03.01
Notes on “Being and Time” II: “Being and Media”?
The portion I read today is, in my view, not especially important; Heidegger lays out the framework of “the book” (including the unfinished second part). To me, this framework is open to question. What I admire most is the first half of *Being and Time*; but once “temporality” is unveiled and the whole thing is repeated on the basis of temporality, I can no longer keep up with Heidegger’s train of thought. Still, broadly speaking, my line of thought remains corresponding to Heidegger’s—only, starting from “time,” perhaps more revisions are needed. Last week I said that what Heidegger calls “that which is asked about” (问之所及), “that which is questioned” (问之所问),…
philosophy book reading technology notes
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2012年3月1日
Black Bear and Virtue Ethics

Culture & Public Commentary2012.02.23
Black Bear and Virtue Ethics
The black bear issue has been blazing hot lately, so I’ll throw in my two cents as well~ Simply put, morally speaking, I oppose live bear bile extraction. As for whether Genuizhang should be allowed to go public, I think that’s another matter; I’m not familiar with the relevant legal framework. Why oppose live bear bile extraction? The usual arguments tend to focus on whether the bears are in pain, but I think that is actually a secondary issue. If the bears were injected with some kind of drug so that they not only felt no pain, but even became addicted to bile extraction, would that make everything okay? Utilitarianism,…
philosophy China freedom commentary
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2012年2月23日