标签：innovation

Gathering All the Books in the World—Can the Library of Alexandria of the AI Era Endure?

AI & Scholarship2026.04.23
Gathering All the Books in the World—Can the Library of Alexandria of the AI Era Endure?
This article was published in China Science Daily (2026-04-23, p. 3, General), with the title changed to AI Can Now Read “All the Books in the World”; Do Humans Still Need to Read Books?. It was edited down and divided into sections at publication; the original draft is posted here: Around 295 BCE, Ptolemy I commissioned the Greek scholar Demetrius to build a magnificent library and Mouseion (an academic institution) in the city of Alexandria. Demetrius proposed the grand vision of “collecting all the books in the world,” and it received the continuing support of the Ptolemaic royal house. The first three Ptolemies carried the project forward one after another,…
scholarship commentary internet knowledge
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2026年4月23日
How Science Museums in China Can Innovate by Bringing Forth the New

Culture & Public Commentary2025.09.12
How Science Museums in China Can Innovate by Bringing Forth the New
Published in Science Times (2025-08-28, p. 3, general), with the title changed to “The first users of science museums should not be teenagers, but scholars” In this summer vacation, which is about to end, science museums have joined the ranks of the many must-check-in tourist destinations. For parents, if they want their children to take part in some edutainment-oriented activities, science museums are obviously one of the best choices. In recent years, our country has continuously increased investment in science museum construction. According to Xinhua News Agency, the number of science museums open free of charge in China increased from 92 in 2015 to 409 in 2024, with an average…
China history of science science scholarship
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2025年9月12日
Cultivating a Cultural Atmosphere That Pursues Novelty and Interest — A Review of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned

AI & the Future of Technology2023.11.16
Cultivating a Cultural Atmosphere That Pursues Novelty and Interest — A Review of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned
This article was published in China Economic Times (Yujian Sixiang, September 18, 2023) Recently, two scientists from OpenAI published a book called Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, attempting to argue that great technological innovations are often not the result of prior planning. In fact, Chinese tradition also has similar wisdom. For example, Daoism says, “do nothing, and yet nothing will remain undone”; Buddhism speaks of “no attachment, no form”; and there is the common saying, “If you set your heart on planting flowers, the flowers may not bloom; but if you casually stick a willow branch in the ground, it may grow into shade.” All of these mean something similar….
technology China history of science book reading
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2023年11月16日
What Is Technology? (Transcript of the 25th Session of the Jishi Lecture Series)

AI & the Future of Technology2023.08.17
What Is Technology? (Transcript of the 25th Session of the Jishi Lecture Series)
In June I gave a long lecture for Ji-shi Capital, and recently they finished the transcription and released it in three installments. The text was transcribed by them; I went through it, but there may still be a few scattered errors. I’m posting the complete collected version here for the record. The original texts of the three installments can be found here: Why is our education devoted to producing copies?; Where does technology come from? Looking at Watt’s steam engine to see our misunderstanding of technology; If the AI revolution is similar to the Industrial Revolution, we will face a very terrifying situation. In fact, the three installments correspond to…
technology history of science history of technology AI
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2023年8月17日
Full-Sensory Games vs. Fully On-Chain Games—Two Directions for the Metaverse Revolution

Culture & Public Commentary2023.08.08
Full-Sensory Games vs. Fully On-Chain Games—Two Directions for the Metaverse Revolution
This article was originally the topic of a talk I gave when I took part in a PTADAO sharing session as a friend. After the talk, I organized the text myself, and it was almost as if I reworked the whole line of thought from scratch, forming a more complete article. After it was published on “Yuaibo Sanguan,” it was retitled On Fully On-Chain Games: Reality Is Not Unreal, Virtuality Is Not False, Greatness Does Not Rely on Planning. This article can be counted as a “small synthesis” of my recent thinking. I’m posting the original here. 1 The game of innovation: the only way to achieve great innovation is…
culture freedom media history of technology
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2023年8月8日
Summary of the Course “A General History of Technology” (Fall 2022 Semester)

Teaching & Courses2023.04.17
Summary of the Course “A General History of Technology” (Fall 2022 Semester)
The allergy season hasn’t even passed before the dust season arrives, my whole state has been low, and the course summary isn’t especially urgent anyway, so I kept dragging my feet and finally finished writing the second course from last semester. (If you want to jump straight to the exam analysis, go to the second half.) General History of Technology is the course I have taught the most; last semester was already the sixth round, and I also wrote summaries for the first five rounds. Of course, every year there are more or less some new additions. This time, taking last semester’s experience into account, I compressed the first few…
technology China course blockchain
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2023年4月17日
Creating Something Out of Nothing — How the Metaverse Inflates Big Bubbles

Web3 & Bitcoin2022.03.20
Creating Something Out of Nothing — How the Metaverse Inflates Big Bubbles
Recently there has been a milestone event in the NFT world, all initiated by the team behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs. First it acquired the IP of Cyberpunks and Meetbits—Cyberpunks was a pioneer of the NFT market, even one of its creators, while Meetbits was a derivative project of Cyberpunks. Then Yuga Labs launched Apecoin, part of which was airdropped to the holders of all ape-related NFTs (BAYC, MAYC, BAKC). One BAYC could receive a little over 10,000 apecoins. Apecoin is said to play a role in the metaverse project the team will build next. What exactly that role will be is still unclear, but the market…
technology Web3 Bitcoin blockchain
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2022年3月20日
An Interview Transcript on Research Failure

History of Science & Scholarship2022.03.04
An Interview Transcript on Research Failure
In an earlier interview with China Science Daily, I answered quite a lot of questions, but when they compiled it into an article, they actually only quoted two of my sentences. Here I’m posting my original answers. 1. Someone once proposed that “failure refers to an action’s result deviating from the expected goal, or to the termination (interruption) of an action that has not achieved its intended value.” How do you understand “research failure”? The relationship between failure and success is dialectical. In your view, what kind of research counts as ‘failure’? Can “research failure” be divided into several types? How we define failure of course depends on how we…
science paper innovation scientific spirit
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2022年3月4日
The Metaverse: the “New Continent” of the Information World

Culture & Public Commentary2022.02.24
The Metaverse: the “New Continent” of the Information World
“Cyberspace is not a lawless place; cyberspace also has sovereignty”—of course, I am not going to discuss this sentence itself; let us assume it is valid. If cyberspace also has sovereignty, then what lies between sovereignties, and beyond the borders of sovereignty? In physical space, the border of sovereignty is the national border. Within a country’s boundaries, that country can legislate and enforce the law, can exercise jurisdiction and governance. Beyond the border, it may be another country exercising sovereignty. But is there a territory that lies outside the sovereign boundaries of any country? Of course, excluding disputed and contested territories. In ancient times, such territories certainly existed: they were…
Web3 internet blockchain Huawendao
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2022年2月24日
Historical Significance or Practical Significance? — “Science: The Endless Frontier”

History of Science & Scholarship2022.01.26
Historical Significance or Practical Significance? — “Science: The Endless Frontier”
This article was first published in the January 2022 issue of Book Town https://read.douban.com/ebook/337719818/?&dcs=provider-63699269-%E3%80%8A%E4%B9%A6%E5%9F%8E%E3%80%8B%E6%9D%82%E5%BF%97 with slight revisions; the original manuscript is posted here. Is the Bush Report Outdated? Vannevar Bush’s Science: The Endless Frontier was originally a report Bush submitted to Roosevelt in 1945. That report laid the tone for U.S. science and technology policy after World War II and had a far-reaching influence. In 2021, CITIC Press published yet another new edition, with the cover and contents adorned with many commendations and comments, including a joint recommendation from more than twenty scholars and entrepreneurs at home and abroad, led by Ren Zhengfei and Shi Yigong. In its online promotion,…
technology China book reading science
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2022年1月26日