标签：history

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
Hindsight in the Face of Technology—A Review of The Dark Side of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2020.07.09
Hindsight in the Face of Technology—A Review of The Dark Side of Technology
I owe quite a few book reviews; the books are all rather good, and I’ll be writing them out in succession in the near future. Of course, as long as a book is good overall, my reviews will still tend to praise it, while using the review as an occasion to talk about my own thoughts; in fact, that does not amount to a particularly strong recommendation of the book itself. This article was published in China Science Daily (July 9, 2020, page 7, Book Review) Everything has two sides, and even the best technology is a “double-edged sword”: it can strike down the enemy, but it can also wound…
technology book reading history book review
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2020年7月9日
Elevating the Enemy, or a Narrative Bigger Than the Grand

Culture & Public Commentary2020.02.17
Elevating the Enemy, or a Narrative Bigger Than the Grand
Forcibly rushing to exonerate Nurse Liu Fan has stirred anger. The so-called rumor enraged some people; they furiously denounced how terrifying rumors can be, and then produced the so-called refutation. Yet this “forceful, well-grounded” refutation seemed instead to confirm that she was indeed a nurse, that she was indeed fighting the epidemic, that she indeed died of the disease, and that her whole family indeed fell ill as well… So what exactly was wrong? The rumor-refuters emphasized that protective suits were not in short supply. The implication was that she had ample protective conditions, and was not infected because resources were tight; she could only have been infected because she…
philosophy history of science history Aristotle
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2020年2月17日
Was There Confucianism in the Ancient West?

Culture & Public Commentary2019.08.25
Was There Confucianism in the Ancient West?
The recent atmosphere has me a little like a startled bird, so I’m continuing to use encrypted mode. This article really isn’t worth encrypting; in a couple of days I may quietly decrypt it. A teacher has recently been disciplined over remarks about the Four Great Inventions, and that is truly shocking. I don’t want to reopen here the warning against a culture of informing on others; I only want to talk about the academic question. What makes this incident even more frightening than before is that the remarks that led to the punishment were not a political issue, but an academic one. Even the official media could not stomach…
technology China culture science
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2019年8月25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…
technology China history commentary
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2019年7月6日
The Abdication of Royal Power and the Reform of the International System of Units

History of Science & Scholarship2018.12.07
The Abdication of Royal Power and the Reform of the International System of Units
Published in the *Chang’e* supplement of *Science and Technology Daily*; it has now also been turned into a WeChat public account article, with only minor changes made at publication. In fact, the piece had been commissioned back then, but I caught a cold and it was delayed for a while; only now have I remembered to make it up. On November 13, the 26th General Conference on Weights and Measures, held in Versailles, France, passed a resolution revising the International System of Units and redefined four units, including the kilogram, in terms of physical constants. With that, all seven base units of the International System of Units will have been…
science history of science history decentralization
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2018年12月7日
Viète and the Transformation of Mathematics from Antiquity to Modernity

History of Science & Scholarship2018.11.09
Viète and the Transformation of Mathematics from Antiquity to Modernity
Published in the Chang’e supplement of Science and Technology Daily on November 9; I cobbled this piece together from a general invitation for submissions. Science and Technology Daily has launched a new column, “Stories from the History of Science,” which is rather good. If any students want to submit something, I can make the connection. Of course, the mentality of the traditional media is still rather old-fashioned—for example, they always hope to draw out some kind of scientific spirit… Viète (François Viète, 1540–1603) was a famous mathematician of the Renaissance. Contemporary middle school students are probably not unfamiliar with his name, because the “formula for finding the roots” of the…
science history of science history mathematics
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2018年11月9日
The “King of Invention” wasn’t called that for nothing—he was the one who invented “invention” itself

History of Science & Scholarship2017.11.24
The “King of Invention” wasn’t called that for nothing—he was the one who invented “invention” itself
This article was published in the November 24, 2017 issue of the *Science and Technology Daily* on the “Chang’e Supplement.” The original title was “Edison: The Invention of Invention”; the editor’s revised title is also quite good, so I am reposting it according to the edited version. What was Edison’s greatest invention? People usually think of the light bulb. But many people do not realize that, in fact, Edison was only an improver of the light bulb; decades before him there had already been light bulbs, and even in terms of commercial popularization, he was not the first. But Edison was still undeniably the king of invention. His contribution…
technology science history innovation
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2017年11月24日
How Technology Has Shaped Our Daily Lives: Attending Class

Teaching & Courses2017.08.30
How Technology Has Shaped Our Daily Lives: Attending Class
Getting upeatingusing the toilet, and then the next steps should be getting dressed, going downstairs, riding a bicycle, and so on. This time, since a reader requested it, I’ll first jump ahead to “going to class” and talk about that. Another key point is that I was not in good shape before this class, so “going to class” happened to be something I could talk about fairly casually without much preparation. This part is relatively rambling; it is only a record, and not recommended reading. Next time will be the last class, and I may jump back and talk about riding a bicycle, but it will mainly be free exchange….
history course education Aristotle
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2017年8月30日
How Technology Has Shaped Our Daily Lives: Using the Toilet

Teaching & Courses2017.08.25
How Technology Has Shaped Our Daily Lives: Using the Toilet
The summer course series has finally reached the halfway point. After talking about getting up and eating, I’ve now moved into a more vulgar domain: this time, defecation. 1. Cross-section The scene this time is something everyone knows all too well: going to the toilet. Why do people go to the toilet? — So-called “three urgent needs” of human beings; excretion can be said to be one of the most basic natural needs of humankind, so there’s no need to say much more. But just like the example of eating breakfast, the ways and concepts of going to the toilet are also historical. In addition, besides meeting basic needs, going…
technology culture history course
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2017年8月25日