标签：God’s-eye view

Accelerationism vs. Alignmentism, Socialism(?)

AI & Scholarship2023.11.22
Accelerationism vs. Alignmentism, Socialism(?)
The big internal-drama spectacle at OpenAI has once again brought into sharp relief the debate about artificial intelligence, “effective accelerationism vs. super ‘alignment’.” I also posted two comments on Weibo, which I record here: I support neither side. Accelerationism believes that whenever new technology disrupts society, the result is always good. But the problem is that in history, good outcomes are also the result of positive social change; if society merely passively accepts the push of new technology, there may not necessarily be good results. The problem with alignmentism is that it is fanciful: human values have never been aligned, so how could machines be? I support checks and balances…
culture technology freedom Web3
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2023年11月22日
Immortality: The Intrinsic Connection Between Transhumanism and Web3

Culture & Public Commentary2023.06.08
Immortality: The Intrinsic Connection Between Transhumanism and Web3
This piece was submitted to the article by the new media outlet “歪脖三观,” founded and hosted by Jiang Gungun, and I was honored that it became the inaugural founding text of that media platform. When it was published, it was shortened and polished, and the title was changed to “The Ambition of Blockchain: Anti-Keynesianism, Public Life, and Transhumanism.” Everyone is welcome to repost and follow it. I am posting here the unedited original draft: EDCON2023 in Montenegro has come to a close. In addition to the usual topics of the crypto community, this year’s grand gathering also had a substantial block of topics related to transhumanism/longevity. The earlier “A Conversation…
technology Bitcoin blockchain modernity
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2023年6月8日
Basic Skills in Studying Philosophy: Avoid Reifying Abstract Entities, Resist the Universalization of Holism

History of Science & Scholarship2021.10.30
Basic Skills in Studying Philosophy: Avoid Reifying Abstract Entities, Resist the Universalization of Holism
Recently I have been supervising students’ thesis proposals, and I have had a lot of thoughts. In fact, I have always hoped that students would do history rather than philosophy, because then my supervision would be a bit easier. Doing history requires inspiration and thought, but more important is steady, painstaking labor: I give some broad conceptual inspiration and advice, and then the student just buries their head in the books. But if students want to do philosophy, then I get a headache, because philosophy is the easiest thing to fake and the hardest thing to fool. If you run into a teacher who is happy to look the other…
philosophy scholarship Marx God's-eye view
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2021年10月30日
Kant on “Not Lying”

Philosophy & Thought2019.08.27
Kant on “Not Lying”
I’ve mostly read Kant through the *Critique of Pure Reason* and other parts related to metaphysics; I haven’t read much of the ethics. Of course, when studying general ethics, one does read some secondhand introductions, but they usually just give a brief account of the so-called “categorical imperative” and broadly classify Kant as a representative of so-called “deontology.” I don’t have a deep grasp of it, but it feels to me that these tedious summaries hardly show the force one senses in Kant’s texts. Kant’s “categorical imperative” is not really some ready-made fixed absolute dogma; rather, it points to a way of thinking, and in fact serves as a constraint…
philosophy freedom Kant responsibility
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2019年8月27日
Don’t Universities for the Elderly Teach You How to Play Games?

AI & the Future of Technology2019.02.16
Don’t Universities for the Elderly Teach You How to Play Games?
This Spring Festival, my wife and I, as usual, went home to keep our parents company. This year was a bit special: on the one hand, we finally finished our wedding ceremony last year (we had already been legally married long ago, but the ritual was only just completed), which put our parents’ minds at ease; on the other hand, they were also, one after another, just entering retirement. My parents had been retired in name for a long time, but in practice they had been running their own storefront all along. Last year they finally rented the shop out and let go of it to enjoy life for themselves….
technology education value game
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2019年2月16日
AR Glasses and the “Brain in a Vat”

AI & the Future of Technology2018.10.26
AR Glasses and the “Brain in a Vat”
My doctoral student Yao Yu recently gave a presentation in the reading seminar, discussing a phenomenological reconstruction of Putnam’s “brain in a vat” thought experiment. He chose the topic himself, and I thought it could be done, but I was very dissatisfied with what he actually produced. I won’t repeat my criticisms here; I’ll just briefly note here my own understanding of the “brain in a vat.” First of all, the reason Putnam proposed the thought experiment of the “brain in a vat” was absolutely not to reintroduce some new version of “external-world skepticism.” In the skeptical sense, there is nothing novel about a brain in a vat. I think…
technology phenomenology analytic philosophy VR
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2018年10月26日
The Ontological Basis of ‘Scarcity Makes Things Valuable’—With a Discussion of Why Bitcoin Is Valuable

Philosophy & Thought2018.01.22
The Ontological Basis of ‘Scarcity Makes Things Valuable’—With a Discussion of Why Bitcoin Is Valuable
This was originally meant to be a short piece about Bitcoin. On a whim I gave it a flashy title, but as I wrote it, it turned into a philosophical essay. In fact, the title is not all that outrageous. From the very beginning, what drew my attention to Bitcoin was that I saw it as an application of my own philosophical ideas. Over the following years, I have continued to use my philosophy of technology or media philosophy to interpret the significance of Bitcoin. By setting a fixed cap of 21 million, Bitcoin guarantees scarcity. As the saying goes, “what is rare is precious”; Bitcoin is so scarce, so…
philosophy Web3 value Bitcoin
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2018年1月22日
On Political Correctness (I): Political Correctness and the God’s-Eye View

Culture & Public Commentary2017.02.10
On Political Correctness (I): Political Correctness and the God’s-Eye View
Trump, from the campaign to the inauguration, has been a hot topic in Chinese cultural circles, sparking countless polemics and splits. From the standpoint of enjoying a good spectacle, I actually quite welcome Trump taking office; after all, he has set off several fires just a few days into his term, and it’s been lively enough. Of course, I only want to watch the show; I do not want to take sides. If I had to say so, then from a personal standpoint I certainly look down on Trump as a person. The key issue is not so much his opposition to political correctness as his anti-intellectual tendency. But as…
culture freedom commentary value
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2017年2月10日
A General History of Science 16: The Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics

History of Science & Technology2015.06.18
A General History of Science 16: The Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics
Today is the final class, and we are talking about twentieth-century science. By “the twentieth century,” our main focus is on the scientific revolution in physics in the early twentieth century—that is, the rise of relativity and quantum mechanics. As for the scientific frontiers of the second half of the twentieth century and even the twenty-first century, we will not be dealing with them in this course. History can never be exhausted; any narrative strategy is, in the phrase, “to miss much while touching on little” (挂一漏万). The issue is not how to avoid omissions, but rather what manner of omission one adopts. The choices I have made in this…
course causality quantum mechanics Einstein
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2015年6月18日
Three Meta-Disagreements with Analytic Philosophy

Philosophy & Thought2011.05.13
Three Meta-Disagreements with Analytic Philosophy
Dialoguing with analytic philosophy is difficult, because what analytic philosophy does best is precise argument over fine details, and it is all too easy to get drawn into the minutiae of a specific problem. We can hold the opposite view from certain analytic philosophers, but by then we have often already walked into their trap. Just as there are surely all kinds of opposing views within analytic philosophy itself, endlessly debated with great fervor, they especially welcome opposing views; then you present your rigorous argument, accept refutation one point by one point, and still have to consider countless possible counterexamples not yet raised. In this way, once you have won…
philosophy phenomenology logic analytic philosophy
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2011年5月13日