标签：innovation

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
阅读全文

2017年11月24日
Science Popularization Should Stand on the Opposite Side of “Innovation”

History of Science & Scholarship2017.05.22
Science Popularization Should Stand on the Opposite Side of “Innovation”
This piece appeared today in the *China Science Daily*; it is an impromptu essay I dashed off in half a day after being commissioned to write it. The original title was “How to Understand the Relationship Between Science Popularization and Technological Innovation”; when it was published, the title was changed and two paragraphs were cut. The cuts were actually pretty good, so I’ll just post the reprint here directly: http://news.sciencenet.cn/sbhtmlnews/2017/5/323655.shtm Since 2001, the third week of May every year has been designated the National Science and Technology Activity Week; this year is already the 17th edition. Science and Technology Week is positioned as a “mass science and technology activity,” aimed…
science history of science history tradition
阅读全文

2017年5月22日
Technology and Exploiting Loopholes—On Alibaba’s “Mooncake Snatching Incident”

AI & the Future of Technology2016.09.17
Technology and Exploiting Loopholes—On Alibaba’s “Mooncake Snatching Incident”
Alibaba’s decision to fire five employees over the “snatching mooncakes” incident has sparked a great deal of discussion, so I’ll offer a few remarks of my own. First, I think Alibaba’s handling of this affair is utterly baffling. What the programmers did was write a script to replace manual clicking; they accidentally clicked too many times, and then, before any order was actually completed—meaning no actual loss had been caused—they proactively reported the matter, only to be swiftly fired within a few hours. Of course, many people also stood on Alibaba’s side and thought the firing was well deserved. But they were often mistaken about the basic facts. The most…
technology commentary innovation trust
阅读全文

2016年9月17日
Why Won’t Bitcoin Fall to Zero? — Random Thoughts on Bitcoin Market Trends

Web3 & Cypherpunks2013.12.12
Why Won’t Bitcoin Fall to Zero? — Random Thoughts on Bitcoin Market Trends
Recently the Bitcoin market had another fit of madness: from 1242 it plunged all the way to well below half, then rebounded to 1000 and fell again. A lot of newcomers could no longer sit still, and one after another quite a few people also came to ask me what I made of it. What can I make of it? Obviously, I am not a candlestick expert, and I can’t analyze the market; such a frenzied market is even less something I can get a grip on. I myself tried taking one coin and flipping it high and low, but it failed as well, and instead I lost some…… My…
Web3 Bitcoin value innovation
阅读全文

2013年12月12日
On Smartphones and Tablets: The Advanced Nature of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2011.05.19
On Smartphones and Tablets: The Advanced Nature of Technology
During last winter break I got a new smartphone, HTC Desire（A8180/G7）. After buying it, I meant to jot something down, and somehow kept thinking I already had…… Today it occurred to me again, so I’ll just toss off a few casual remarks while I’m at it. I hadn’t actually planned to change phones. It started because my mother wanted a new one, and I helped her choose. At first I wanted to pick something like the classic Nokia 5230, but after seeing my parents buy themselves a brand-new 64-bit laptop, I changed my mind. I asked them why they had bought a 64-bit machine, and they said they had been…
technology Web3 internet innovation
阅读全文

2011年5月19日
[Reprint] One Against a Hundred—Those Internet Companies with Few Employees and Many Users

Life & Notes2011.02.14
[Reprint] One Against a Hundred—Those Internet Companies with Few Employees and Many Users
A Hundred to One — Internet Companies with Few Employees but Many Users by Kage, posted Sunday, 2011/02/13 – 09:33 News and Information Internet The existence of the internet gives small-scale companies the opportunity to reach users around the world. The result of this is that some companies or organizations have users in the tens of millions, while in fact they have only a few hundred employees, or even fewer. It is estimated that the companies below each have more than ten million users. Automattic Employees: 72 Users: more than 32 million WordPress blogs worldwide at present Automattic is known as the company behind the open-source blogging software WordPress (WordPress.org)…
everyday life technology blog internet
阅读全文

2011年2月14日
Tradition as the Condition for Creation—Reflections on Dong Guangbi’s Lecture

Culture & Public Commentary2010.10.22
Tradition as the Condition for Creation—Reflections on Dong Guangbi’s Lecture
Today Professor Dong talked about the relationship between scientific creation and freedom and tradition. Professor Dong believes that “freedom” is the source of creativity, while “tradition” is a necessary condition for creativity. What is tradition? Why must one respect tradition in order to create anything? Professor Dong did not make this clear, and I would like to say a bit more on this point. At the outset, Professor Dong defined tradition mainly as “the classics and their interpretations.” Thus, in China, “tradition” means the Four Books and Five Classics, the canonical texts of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Defined in this way, it is hard to understand why those texts are…
China culture tradition innovation
阅读全文

2010年10月22日
On Patent and Copyright Protection

Culture & Public Commentary2006.09.07
On Patent and Copyright Protection
This was originally a comment in response to the blog http://mistgalaxie.blogspot.com/2006/09/gnu-gnu-gpl.html, but after posting several times I still couldn’t get it through; it kept prompting, “We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request. ” I don’t know why. Since I’ve already written so much, and it would be a waste not to post it, let me put it here for now: An appropriate system of patents and copyrights makes sense both from the standpoint of justice and from the standpoint of practicality. If a new technology developed by an institution through countless hours and immense effort were given no protection at all, and immediately turned into a public…
culture science innovation economy
阅读全文

2006年9月7日