标签：Industrial Revolution

Driverless Driving: Transforming the World Like Automobiles Did? — A Review of “The Age of Automation”

AI & Scholarship2020.07.23
Driverless Driving: Transforming the World Like Automobiles Did? — A Review of “The Age of Automation”
This article was published in Sai Xiansheng. The title was “Can driverless cars change the world, just as automobiles once did?” In fact, I did not read this book very closely; the article was mainly written on the basis of inspirations from a cursory reading, and around my own thoughts on the relevant issues. The automobile, invented and popularized from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth, can be said to be one of the most important, or most emblematic, inventions of modern industrial society. The automobile industry brought together a series of the most cutting-edge industrial technologies of the time—steel, materials, petroleum, chemicals, and so on—thus driving the…
technology book reading Introduction to Philosophy of Technology book review
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2020年7月23日
Why Is Innovation an Economic Question? — An Analysis of the Concept of Innovation from the Perspective of the History of Science and Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2019.12.17
Why Is Innovation an Economic Question? — An Analysis of the Concept of Innovation from the Perspective of the History of Science and Technology
This piece was commissioned for Tsinghua University’s internal circle; the subtitle was a suggested theme, and the main title was chosen by me. At the time of publication, it was somewhat abridged (mainly with a few examples cut, which did not affect the overall argument), and some sentences were marked with emphasis, which I have restored here. These days we advocate “mass entrepreneurship and mass innovation,” and “innovation” seems to be everywhere; everyone admires innovation and pursues innovation. Whether at the level of the nation or at the level of industries and enterprises, “innovation” is indeed extremely important and certainly deserves everyone’s attention. But precisely for that reason, we need…
technology China innovation Industrial Revolution
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2019年12月17日
Course Summary for “A General History of Technology” (Student Comments and Summaries of Each Lecture)

AI & the Future of Technology2018.07.09
Course Summary for “A General History of Technology” (Student Comments and Summaries of Each Lecture)
The grades for the course have come out, and the first round of this course is now more or less a complete success. As for grading, I gave about half the students an A- or above, far exceeding the university’s recommended standard of 20%; I added an extra note and hope the university will approve it. At the same time, the number of students who failed because of plagiarism reached five, also beyond the recommended limit. But all of this was according to my own standards: giving high grades was not to curry favor with students, and failing students was not to make things difficult for them. My course also…
philosophy technology history of science scholarship
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2018年7月9日
Final Exam Paper for General History of Technology

Teaching & Courses2018.06.12
Final Exam Paper for General History of Technology
Notes As I said before, the final exam is “completely open-book,” and you may bring electronic devices to search the internet. The “attendance questions” are also my own new idea, something I wanted to try while the class size was still small. Why set attendance questions? I think students who take a course can roughly be divided into three broad types: first, those who are habitually diligent and honest, who will keep coming no matter whether the teacher’s lectures are good or bad; second, those who are habitually coasting, who will almost never come no matter whether the teacher’s lectures are good or bad; and third, those who are free-spirited…
scholarship course paper writing
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2018年6月12日
At what “time” do we need to “check the time”?

AI & the Future of Technology2018.04.30
At what “time” do we need to “check the time”?
This short essay is made up of some fragments from the fifth lecture of my course “A General History of Technology.” The full handout has not yet been整理出来, but today there happens to be a filming session that will deal with the relevant topic, so I’m extracting these parts first and jotting down a few lines at will. What is a clock? It is a kind of, or rather a class of, technical artifact. As a technical object, it of course has a specific function; so what is a clock for? The answer seems very simple: a clock is for “looking at time.” But on closer thought, this act of…
technology Industrial Revolution General History of Technology time
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2018年4月30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: 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
On the Industrial Revolution (I): Watt’s Kettle: Myth and Reality

AI & the Future of Technology2017.08.22
On the Industrial Revolution (I): Watt’s Kettle: Myth and Reality
Gradually turning my attention to research in the history of technology, the Industrial Revolution is of course a matter of the first importance. But just like the Scientific Revolution, this kind of historically crucial period has received very little attention in Chinese scholarship. The concept of the “Industrial Revolution” is, to be sure, quite a hot topic—mainly in the promotion of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, present or future. Roughly speaking, the third refers to the information revolution, and the fourth to big data or artificial intelligence. But the real Industrial Revolution, or rather the two Industrial Revolutions, has been studied only very superficially. There are not many translations of…
technology history of science history of technology Industrial Revolution
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2017年8月22日
On the Industrial Revolution (I): Watt’s Kettle: Myth and Reality

AI & the Future of Technology2017.08.22
On the Industrial Revolution (I): Watt’s Kettle: Myth and Reality
Gradually turning my attention to research in the history of technology, the Industrial Revolution is of course a matter of first importance. But just like the Scientific Revolution, this kind of historically crucial period has received very little attention in Chinese scholarship. The concept of the “Industrial Revolution” is, to be sure, quite a hot topic—mainly in discussions of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, whether present or future. Broadly speaking, the third refers to the information revolution, and the fourth to big data or artificial intelligence. But the real Industrial Revolution, or rather the two Industrial Revolutions, has been studied only very superficially. There are not many translations of Western…
technology history of science history of technology Industrial Revolution
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2017年8月22日
On Garbage (1): From Discarded Things to Useless Things

AI & the Future of Technology2016.01.02
On Garbage (1): From Discarded Things to Useless Things
My postdoctoral research project at the time was to work on a history of garbage. I am ashamed to say that, although I have been collaborating with Professor Tian for more than a year, there has been little real progress under this topic, and whether I will ultimately be able to turn it into my exit report is somewhat worrying. One compromise would be to write the exit report on the history of technology or the philosophy of technology, while inserting discussions of garbage at appropriate points. My intention to study garbage was not a whim, nor did I think of this topic merely because I happened to collaborate with…
technology Heidegger Scientific Revolution value
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2016年1月2日