标签：technology

Mathematics, Education, and Machines

AI & the Future of Technology2011.11.02
Mathematics, Education, and Machines
Today in discussion section, I listened to Brother Donglin’s report, and it felt wonderfully intriguing; some of my earlier scattered thoughts have become much clearer. What Brother Donglin discussed was the concept of “diagramming” in ancient Greek geometry. He pointed out that the geometrical constructions of the ancient Greeks cannot be understood as “construction” in the Kantian sense: the meaning of diagramming is not to provide some kind of “ontological proof.” Diagramming is undertaken for pedagogical and instructional purposes; the original meaning of “proof” is also a kind of showing, a process by which the teacher displays something to the student. “Geometrical diagramming, geometrical knowledge, and phronesis (practical knowledge, that…
philosophy technology science media
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2011年11月2日
What Is an “Eduroam-Free Address”?

Site Matters2011.11.01
What Is an “Eduroam-Free Address”?
Since the readers of my blog are mainly university teachers and students, I wanted to buy a domestic host. A host on a dedicated Education Network line is hard to find and not really necessary, but at the very least it must be a “free Education Network IP”; otherwise it’s no different from a foreign host. But based on my experience over this past year communicating with various IDC service providers, whether before-sales consultation or after-sales service, whether front-desk support or back-end technicians, whether IDC customer service or Taobao shop owners—after contacting maybe twenty or thirty people all told—not a single one actually knew what a free Education Network address…
technology education internet website
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2011年11月1日
Was Heidegger a Technological Pessimist?

History of Science & Scholarship2011.08.19
Was Heidegger a Technological Pessimist?
This article is a rewriting based on the earlier Heidegger’s Thinking on Technology. In fact, very little was changed, but after changing the title it suddenly became much more to the point and more complete. What I presented at this year’s Yangma Island conference was this very article, so before posting the conference record, let me post this article first. Is Heidegger a Technological Pessimist? Hu Yilin, Department of Philosophy, Peking University Abstract: Heidegger’s philosophy of technology is often described as a typical kind of pessimism. Starting from the question of whether Heidegger is in fact a technological pessimist, this article selectively expounds Heidegger’s analysis of modern…
philosophy technology Heidegger Introduction to Philosophy of Technology
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2011年8月19日
Is High Speed a Good Thing?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.07.29
Is High Speed a Good Thing?
I’ve taken the EMU back to Shanghai, the same D31 as before. But the schedule has changed: instead of leaving a little after 11 a.m., it now leaves a little after 8 a.m.; the speed has also been raised somewhat; the dwell times at each station have become much longer; and the stations served have all changed too, basically shifted to the new high-speed-rail stations. If someone hadn’t remembered to check yesterday, I still wouldn’t have noticed these changes, and I would have nearly missed the train. As for the EMU rear-end collision, I don’t want to say much. Of course, if one says that because of this incident one…
China technology commentary Introduction to Philosophy of Technology
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2011年7月29日
The Internet Needs Scholarship; Scholarship Needs the Internet

Site Matters2011.07.22
The Internet Needs Scholarship; Scholarship Needs the Internet
The previous article mentioned that scholarship should actively confront the web; on the other hand, the web also needs scholarship. Through scholars’ active intervention in network media, on the one hand the possibilities for the development of scholarship will be expanded; on the other hand, distinctive elements will also be brought into the development of network technology. In an even earlier essay on the web, I cited Newell Castells’s historical review—“Internet culture” contains four layers: a technical elite culture that pursues knowledge and esteems excellence; a hacker culture that yearns for “freedom” and play; “virtual communists” who advocate sharing and practicality; and entrepreneurs in search of business opportunities. Of course,…
China technology scholarship value
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2011年7月22日
On Heidegger’s Thought on Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2011.06.29
On Heidegger’s Thought on Technology
The previous article was another piece written by hastily asking for reinforcements. On the one hand, that was indeed because I have not been diligent enough lately; on the other hand, I was also busy planning the proposal for my doctoral dissertation, eager to design the overall line of thought, and as a result I could not settle down to concentrate first on some specific issue. The earlier “experience report” was like this too, and so is this set of reading notes on Heidegger’s later thought. Although they are all written rather superficially and in a somewhat scattered way, they really do have to do with a certain strategy for…
technology media Heidegger environment
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2011年6月29日
Heidegger’s Thought on Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2011.06.27
Heidegger’s Thought on Technology
As everyone knows, “technology” is a core concept in Heidegger’s later thought. Heidegger’s meditation on technology exerted a major influence on both the critique of modernity and the unfolding of postmodern currents, and it pointed the way for the “philosophy of technology” that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century; Heidegger has even been retrospectively canonized as a model “philosopher of technology.” Yet this emblematic image of Heidegger is often painted as that of a reactionary resister, pessimistic or romantic: it is said that he denied “the exaltation of human subjectivity”[1], ignored the “promoting role”[2] of modern technology, and was a “romantic” afflicted with “nostalgia”[3]. These judgments are…
philosophy technology media Aristotle
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2011年6月27日
Why Is the Three Gorges Dam Said to Be the Culprit Behind the Drought?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.06.06
Why Is the Three Gorges Dam Said to Be the Culprit Behind the Drought?
(Note: the image comes from Jandan’s Boring Pictures/original link, for amusement only~) The recent drought has once again made the much-controversial Three Gorges Dam the target of everyone’s criticism: some say the Three Gorges is the culprit behind the drought, earthquakes, and even all sorts of anomalies, while the pundits say that without the Three Gorges the drought would be even worse. So which is it? Obviously, the most “scientific” answer is: we don’t know! This is not like a hypothesis in physics, where we can design an experiment with controlled variables—holding all the other variables constant and looking separately at how things develop with and without the Three Gorges….
culture China technology environment
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2011年6月6日
Utensils and Ritual Vessels

AI & the Future of Technology2011.05.25
Utensils and Ritual Vessels
A few days ago I attended a lecture by Li Meng. To be honest, the lecture was rather like scratching an itch through one’s boot, or rather, he merely pointed out where the itch was, and then it was entirely up to us to do the scratching ourselves. The lecture’s inspiration is wholly concentrated in its title; for those of us doing phenomenology of technology, there’s no need to attend the lecture at all—just recite this title a few times over. “Utensils and Ritual Vessels—A Chinese Appraisal of Metaphysics” First of all, we know that Western philosophers of technology, with Heidegger as their leader, carried out a kind of “appraisal”…
China technology media Aristotle
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2011年5月25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
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2011年5月19日