标签：McLuhan

Can VR Save Us from Our Smartphone Addiction?

AI & the Future of Technology2018.11.12
Can VR Save Us from Our Smartphone Addiction?
This article was commissioned by Jiemian (for reprints, please contact Jiemian) and was adapted from an earlier article. Jiemian is a very good new media outlet that I have long followed, so being able to contribute was an honor; it feels much better than publishing in traditional newspapers or magazines. The original title at submission was “Could Being Addicted to VR Be a Kind of Salvation?” When it was published, it was changed to “Can VR Save Us from Our Smartphone Addiction?,” which is a bit more precise, so I will use that title here as well. The content was slightly altered in publication, so I am posting the original…
technology media McLuhan VR
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2018年11月12日
On VR (II): A Stage-by-Stage Summary of the Gaming Experience

AI & the Future of Technology2018.08.25
On VR (II): A Stage-by-Stage Summary of the Gaming Experience
I’ve already bought VR for several months now. Overall, it was money well spent. Aside from occasionally letting classmates experience it at reading groups, I myself use it quite a lot; in fact, several days a week I even go to Tsinghua specifically to play VR, with the aim of exercising. The amount of exercise really is huge, and the immersion is very strong. I can do high-intensity exercise in there for more than an hour straight. Of course, I have also not forgotten that playing VR has at least some academic significance, so after playing it for a while, it’s time to write a little summary. I. The Body…
everyday life technology McLuhan game
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2018年8月25日
On VR (I): The Meaning of “Immersion”

AI & the Future of Technology2018.05.03
On VR (I): The Meaning of “Immersion”
Our reading group hasn’t read any books for several weeks now. Apart from the pause, for the past two weeks it has turned into a gaming activity; if this goes on any longer, the reading group is going to become a gaming group…… Last week I finally got the VR set up. Only three little friends came to the reading group, so it just happened to turn into a VR experience session. Of course, when we play games it is not only for amusement and pastime, but also a necessary practice for the history of science and philosophy of technology; this is by no means perfunctory or a joke. I…
technology media history of technology McLuhan
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2018年5月3日
On VR (I): The Meaning of “Immersion”

AI & the Future of Technology2018.05.03
On VR (I): The Meaning of “Immersion”
Our reading group hasn’t read for several weeks now; apart from being put on hold, for the past two weeks it has turned into a gaming activity. If this goes on, the reading group is going to turn into a game group… Last week I finally set up the VR, and since only three little comrades came to the reading group, it just happened to turn into a VR体验活动. Of course, when we play games it’s not just for amusement or pastime; it is also a necessary practice for the history of science and the philosophy of technology. This is by no means a pretext or a joke. I can,…
technology media history of technology McLuhan
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2018年5月3日
The knife really is about to fly up and cut people: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Technical Intentionality

AI & Scholarship2016.08.07
The knife really is about to fly up and cut people: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Technical Intentionality
This is a supplement to the previous article. I had originally wanted to make “technical intentionality” the core concept of this piece, but in the end I backed away from it, knowing the difficulty. Still, because the idea had been brewing for so long, I always wanted to say a few words about it. Seven years ago, in Nanning, I attended my first phenomenology and philosophy of technology conference. There was one session that left a deep impression on me, and I also wrote about it in my notes from that year: Professor Wu spoke about “the intentional structure in technology,” while Professor Jin disagreed with such a use of…
technology media phenomenology human nature
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2016年8月7日
The knives are really starting to fly and cut people: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Technological Intentionality

AI & Scholarship2016.08.07
The knives are really starting to fly and cut people: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Technological Intentionality
This is a supplement to the previous post. I had originally wanted to make “technical intentionality” the core concept of this essay, but in the end I retreated before the difficulty and gave it up; still, because it had been brewing for so long, I feel I ought to say a few things about it. Seven years ago in Nanning, I attended my first phenomenology and philosophy of technology conference. There was one session that left a deep impression on me, and I wrote about it in my notes from that year as well: Professor Wu spoke about “the intentional structure in technology,” but Professor Jin disagreed with using the…
technology media phenomenology human nature
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2016年8月7日
Media as Environment — A Rough Philosophical Reading of Media Ecology

History of Science & Scholarship2014.09.25
Media as Environment — A Rough Philosophical Reading of Media Ecology
This is the draft of the talk I’m preparing to give tomorrow at Tsinghua; by then I’ll basically plan to read straight from the script, of course after finishing I’ll probably also expand on certain parts extemporaneously depending on how things go… This talk aims to offer a brief and accessible overview of the basic claims of my dissertation. My dissertation involves many problems, and the relationships among its chapters are originally rather loose, so it is not very easy to distill. Here I can only focus on a few core concepts. Since I have avoided the most abstruse parts (ontology and transcendental philosophy) and the most concrete parts…
philosophy technology history of science media
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2014年9月25日
The Revolutionary History of Media

AI & the Future of Technology2013.09.16
The Revolutionary History of Media
Pre-seminar note: The paper isn’t finished yet, but I’ll say a few things first anyway. I’ve run into some difficulties with this paper, which have stalled its progress. In fact, this section is quite an important part of my doctoral dissertation plan. Here I am trying to establish a connection between the history of technology and the history of science, linking philosophy of technology → history of technology → history of science → philosophy of science into a single chain. But the ambition of the framework is rather large, and so I ended up letting the conclusion come first, while the material has not kept up. Relying mainly on Walter…
technology history of science media phenomenology
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2013年9月16日
A Natural History of Media—McLuhan’s Method

History of Science & Scholarship2013.08.10
A Natural History of Media—McLuhan’s Method
1. Introduction: Literary Style or Research Method? Marshall McLuhan (1911–1982) was the most influential and at the same time the most controversial media thinker of the twentieth century. As a pioneer or founding figure of the media ecology school, his reputation rose and fell dramatically: he was once elevated to the altar, and then quickly neglected and forgotten. With the dawn of the network age, he came once again to be widely known in academic circles and indeed throughout the cultural world as a “prophet-sage,” yet some still regard him as a mountebank who merely uses gibberish to hoodwink the public. These two images are not really contradictory. So-called prophets…
media Heidegger paper McLuhan
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2013年8月10日
The Economic History of Media—From Marx to Innis

AI & the Future of Technology2013.06.03
The Economic History of Media—From Marx to Innis
Innis (Harold Adams Innis, 1894–1952), together with McLuhan, is recognized as one of the founders of the media ecology school. McLuhan highly praised Innis’s contributions, wrote prefaces to his two major works in communication studies, and even regarded his own breakthrough book *The Gutenberg Galaxy* as “a footnote to Innis’s viewpoint”[1]. But later, as McLuhan rose to fame, Innis instead became a footnote in McLuhan studies, a preliminary step in explaining the origins of McLuhan’s thought. In the academic context of media ecology, Innis is usually presented as McLuhan’s background or foil. Of course, some scholars have noticed Innis’s distinctive value, especially James Carey, who placed Innis above McLuhan. Entering…
technology McLuhan Marx civilization
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2013年6月3日