标签：technology

On Mirrors (I): The Construction of Interfaces

AI & the Future of Technology2016.04.09
On Mirrors (I): The Construction of Interfaces
I previously wrote On Garbage (1) and On the City (1); with that kind of momentum, this was clearly heading toward a series, yet after finishing “(1)” there was no follow-up. Thinking about it myself, I feel rather ashamed. In fact, I had already come up with the titles for Garbage 2 and 3—“Economy and Finance” and “Gestell and Absence”—but I just never got around to writing them (come on, hit me)…… In any case, my procrastination seems to have reached a terminal stage, and I need to find a way to treat it. The key to curing procrastination is to strengthen one’s ability to act, and to try to…
technology media phenomenology Heidegger
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2016年4月9日
Why Fear Artificial Intelligence? — Some Musings on AlphaGo

AI & Scholarship2016.03.13
Why Fear Artificial Intelligence? — Some Musings on AlphaGo
AlphaGo’s Go battle with Lee Sedol is now underway, and artificial intelligence has won 3:0; two honor matches remain, but the outcome is basically beyond doubt already. Whatever the final score may be, the historical significance of this match is beyond question. The significance of this match is mainly symbolic. In fact, since AlphaGo already defeated the European Go champion last year, proving that its Go-playing strength had reached the level of a professional player, its total victory over humans was only a matter of time. Of course, we might also say that ever since Deep Blue dominated chess, the AI conquest of Go had only been a “matter of…
philosophy technology history of science commentary
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2016年3月13日
On Cities (1): What Is a City?

AI & the Future of Technology2016.02.02
On Cities (1): What Is a City?
Mumford’s many specific views on the history of cities and urban planning may perhaps have become outdated, but his insights into the essence of the city and its meaning are something we cannot get around. Mumford has discussed what a city is from two angles. He pointed out that a city is “a special container for storing and transmitting information” and “the theater of social activity.” By way of comparison, we can look at how modern dictionaries explain the word city. The Oxford Dictionary, for example, says that a city is a large and important town; as for town, it refers to a place with many houses, shops/stores, etc. where…
technology modernity Mumford industry
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2016年2月2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 value Scientific Revolution
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2016年1月2日
What Does the Mobile Phone Have to Do with Cooking? — The One and the Many of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2015.11.12
What Does the Mobile Phone Have to Do with Cooking? — The One and the Many of Technology
The previous post mentioned one of Wu’s core objections, namely, his view that science is singular, whereas technology is plural. At the time he gave an example: branches of science such as physics, chemistry, and biology ultimately promise that they can be reduced to a unified foundation, and therefore their historical development is also interconnected. But what about the relations among various technologies, such as between mobile phones and cooking technology? If various concrete technologies are mutually independent, then where does their unity in history come from? My brief reply at the time was this: the reason various technologies can be “unified” is that “life” is unified. And I also…
everyday life technology history of science media
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2015年11月12日
The Structure of the Technological Revolution (Draft)

AI & the Future of Technology2015.11.10
The Structure of the Technological Revolution (Draft)
This is the article I presented at last week’s Wumen seminar. The article itself is very incomplete—not only has it not been finished in form, but the key problem is the lack of basic literature: in academia, the issues related to “technological revolution” seem to lack discussions worth citing. Of course, this gives reason to suspect that there may be problems with the very legitimacy of my topic; Teacher Wu also questioned it quite strongly. But I myself still think this question is legitimate, and that the concept of “technological revolution” is indeed worth probing in depth. My article itself merely makes a superficial correspondence with Kuhn; this correspondence is…
technology history of science philosophy of science Scientific Revolution
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2015年11月10日
Travel Notes from the Shenyang–Benxi Meeting (Benxi篇)

History of Science & Scholarship2015.10.24
Travel Notes from the Shenyang–Benxi Meeting (Benxi篇)
Continuing on from the previous post, there have recently been many things lined up and demanding to be finished, so I didn’t really have the mind to write the travel notes to completion. But in the end I discovered that if I didn’t finish the travel notes, I would always have this one thing hanging over my heart, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything else well either, so I still went ahead and filled them in…… After the first day’s sessions in Shenyang’s Xiaoshicheng, we arrived in Benxi, where the conference’s final two days were held. The morning of the 26th saw the start of Session 4, themed…
philosophy China technology phenomenology
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2015年10月24日
Travel Notes from the Shenyang–Benxi Conference (Shenyang Section)

History of Science & Scholarship2015.10.08
Travel Notes from the Shenyang–Benxi Conference (Shenyang Section)
The annual conference on phenomenology and philosophy of technology has once again come to a successful close. This year it was hosted by Northeastern University and held in Shenyang and Benxi from September 24 to 28. In my travel notes from the Lushan conference in 2013, I wrote: Since going to Nanning in 2009 to attend the Third Conference on Phenomenology and Philosophy of Technology, I have now participated in five consecutive conferences. Apart from Nanning, where I only wrote a little “miscellaneous notes,” I wrote full-on conference takedowns for Hailar, Yangma Island, and Guangzhou. It has already become a case of riding a tiger and finding it hard to…
technology media phenomenology Scientific Revolution
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2015年10月8日
The Definition of “Technology” — A Means to an End, or Something That Can Be Learned?

AI & the Future of Technology2015.08.28
The Definition of “Technology” — A Means to an End, or Something That Can Be Learned?
Recently I have been preparing an article on the historiographical program for a general history of technology to present at this year’s conference on phenomenology and the philosophy of technology. The article has been somewhat hard to bring to term; in fact, I am trying, through this project, to reconsider anew what the essence of “technology” actually is. Here I will first deviate from the paper’s theme and write down some of my recent thoughts. In Heidegger’s mode of approach, we always have to begin by finding an everyday definition, affirming its reasonableness, but questioning its thoroughness, and then, by following the thread, sorting out its more original meaning. Heidegger’s…
technology phenomenology Heidegger General History of Technology
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2015年8月28日
Lectures on the General History of Science 13: Science in the Age of Enlightenment

History of Science & Technology2015.05.28
Lectures on the General History of Science 13: Science in the Age of Enlightenment
Today we are talking about eighteenth-century science. From the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688 to the French Revolution in 1789, the eighteenth century can be said to have been a century of transformation in history. The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution both took place in this century, and the independence of the United States and the rise of Russia also both occurred in this century. But in terms of the history of science, the eighteenth century seems to have been a relatively uneventful period. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries before it were the sweeping and magnificent Scientific Revolution; and the nineteenth century is called the century of science, with…
technology history of science course Kant
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2015年5月28日