标签：nature

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
Should We Defy Gaia? — A Review of The Medea Hypothesis

History of Science & Scholarship2020.04.16
Should We Defy Gaia? — A Review of The Medea Hypothesis
Published in Chinese Science Bulletin (2020-04-16, Book Review, p. 7). The title was mine, but now I’m tempted to change it again and call it: “Will Gaia Die?” The “Gaia hypothesis” was proposed by the British atmospheric scientist James Lovelock in the 1970s, and, together with the biologist Lynn Margulis, it exerted a huge influence both in science and in the environmental movement; it has remained a matter of controversy to this day. The inspiration for the Gaia hypothesis came from Lovelock’s participation in the 1965 Mars life-detection project. Lovelock held that the existence of life would be a planetary phenomenon: life would transform an entire planet’s environment, especially its…
history of science book reading science book review
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2020年4月16日
Viruses: Nature’s Temper?

Culture & Public Commentary2020.02.04
Viruses: Nature’s Temper?
This is the second essay in my epidemic reflections; with tensions high these days, please be cautious in sharing it with friends. During the epidemic, every day I have seen many things that make one feel awful. What grieved me most, in fact, was the study on Shuanghuanglian released by the Shanghai branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Of course, as Teacher Tiansong says, one must “beware of scientists,” because scientists, like people in any trade, can be just as good or just as bad; but they wield powers greater than those of many other trades, while people in other trades are less…
technology culture science commentary
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2020年2月4日
On the Amazon Fire and the Amazon Outage

Culture & Public Commentary2019.08.24
On the Amazon Fire and the Amazon Outage
Published in Jiemian Review, retitled “From the Amazon Fire to Amazon Cloud Service Failure: Human Fragility and Vanity” The fires in the Amazon rainforest have been burning for three weeks. The Brazilian government says they are beyond control. As for the cause of the fires, that is still unclear, and when they will finally go out will probably depend on the whim of Heaven; human beings say they are powerless. In the past two days, this fire has drawn widespread attention on Chinese social media, along with a great deal of alarmist talk. But many people have also learned for the first time how important the Amazon rainforest is—the so-called…
technology commentary environment nature
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2019年8月24日
Natural History or Natural Records?

History of Science & Scholarship2015.09.23
Natural History or Natural Records?
Last Friday, Professor Wu gave a lecture titled “What Is Natural History?” As for the Chinese translation of natural history, Professor Wu and I had been debating it long ago. I argued that it should be translated as “ziran shi” (“natural history”). This dispute over terminology later opened out into more layers of meaning, especially our understanding of the origins of modern science. In this lecture, Professor Wu formally expressed a willingness to yield: he no longer insisted that “bowuxue” was the only correct translation, acknowledged that my view had merit, and ultimately supported using “ziran zhi” in academic contexts, while continuing to use “bowuxue” in popular contexts. Of course,…
China history of science science Wu Guosheng
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2015年9月23日
Stock Market Musings: Freedom and Stability

Culture & Public Commentary2015.07.26
Stock Market Musings: Freedom and Stability
Recently China’s stock market has been wildly up and down. After an unprecedented “stock-market crash,” the central authorities have again stepped in with unprecedented force to maintain stability. The reason I thought of writing this article is not to play the prophet and predict market movements. On the one hand, I want to gather together some of my previous statements and thoughts; on the other hand, the stock market also has relations to political philosophy and natural philosophy. Besides, I believe this stock-market crash will have very far-reaching historical significance; in any case, it will become a landmark event. Although I have all along been promoting Bitcoin, and have always…
China culture freedom commentary
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2015年7月26日
Lectures on the General History of Science 11: Alchemy and the Scientific Revolution [Next Week’s Class Discussion]

History of Science & Technology2015.05.14
Lectures on the General History of Science 11: Alchemy and the Scientific Revolution [Next Week’s Class Discussion]
Last class, we finished the mechanical revolution all the way up to Newton. The problems in physics provoked by Copernicus’s astronomical revolution were ultimately solved by Newtonian mechanics, but Newtonian mechanics itself implied a certain conceptual transformation amounting to sleight of hand: the distinction between nature and artifice, the distinction between inwardness and outwardness, and the boundary between physics and mechanics were all finally broken through, and the introduction of the concept of “force” ultimately substituted itself for people’s search for “cause.” We said that Newtonian mechanics is accidental in name; of course we could equally have had something like Empedology or Zhang San Dology, and F=ma could be replaced…
history of science course Scientific Revolution nature
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2015年5月14日
On Genetically Modified Organisms

History of Science & Scholarship2015.02.08
On Genetically Modified Organisms
Thanks to Xiao Cui’s efforts, the issue of genetically modified organisms has increasingly become a public topic, and the related controversies have increasingly been brought into the open—for example, the recent discussion forum held by Phoenix University Questions, which looked pretty good. Genetically modified organisms and traditional Chinese medicine have basically become a kind of litmus test for aligning with one camp or another; it seems that those strongly in favor of GMOs and against traditional Chinese medicine are the “scientific camp,” while those against GMOs or in favor of traditional Chinese medicine are the “mystical camp.” I have also been asked similar questions to “state my position,” but my…
technology science philosophy of science environment
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2015年2月8日
Postdoctoral Research Plan (A History of “Trash” from the Perspective of Media Ecology)

AI & the Future of Technology2014.04.17
Postdoctoral Research Plan (A History of “Trash” from the Perspective of Media Ecology)
I am currently applying to do a postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Tian Song at Beijing Normal University. This is a rather rare opportunity, and I very much hope it will come to fruition. As early as the beginning of my undergraduate years, I was already reading Professor Tian’s books, such as The Perpetual Motion Machine and the Goldbach Conjecture, Don Quixote’s Spear. Professor Tian can also be regarded as one of the people who first led me into philosophy of science. Of course, in terms of viewpoints and style, I differ with Professor Tian on many points, so later on my writings were basically more critical than supportive. Even so,…
technology media phenomenology nature
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2014年4月17日
Is Bitcoin Environmentally Friendly?

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.10.20
Is Bitcoin Environmentally Friendly?
This article is an original entry in the 2013 essay contest organized by Bitren and was first published on the Bitren forum, so it did not debut on my blog. At first I thought I stood no chance of winning any prize, so last night I casually posted it on the blog; unexpectedly, it still won the second-place grand prize. Because I reposted it half a day early (to Babbitt), I have voluntarily deducted 10% of the prize money as punishment, and here I would like to apologize to and thank the Bitren website. 1. Does Bitcoin waste resources? Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mechanism, that is, the so-called “mining,” is often criticized:…
technology Web3 Bitcoin value
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2013年10月20日