标签：technology

Accelerationism Is Not Liberatory Enough; Only by Combining It with Web3 Can AI’s Potential Be Unleashed

AI & Scholarship2024.04.21
Accelerationism Is Not Liberatory Enough; Only by Combining It with Web3 Can AI’s Potential Be Unleashed
Thanks to Wanxiang Blockchain, I was invited to attend the 2024 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, and on April 6 I gave two talks, respectively at Sub-venue 2 and on the OpenAI Stage. Their titles were “Accelerationism Is Not Liberating Enough; Only by Combining It with Web3 Can AI’s Potential Be Released” and “The Possibility of Reviving Traditional Chinese Culture in Web3.” Since the lecture time was limited, I’ll expand a little here and organize the relevant content into an essay. Who Is Alignment Alignment to? My title, “Accelerationism Is Not Liberating Enough,” is aimed at “accelerationism.” But I am not trying to endorse “decelerationism” or “alignmentism,” so let me begin…
technology freedom Introduction to Philosophy of Technology blockchain
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2024年4月21日
A Few Rambling Thoughts on “How to Lead One Billion People into Web3”

Culture & Public Commentary2024.02.05
A Few Rambling Thoughts on “How to Lead One Billion People into Web3”
Yesterday, in my capacity as the initiator of Huawendao, I took part in a roundtable discussion titled “How to Lead One Billion People into Web3.” Recently, whenever I’m invited to participate in a program in the name of Huawendao, I’m willing to join for free. That said, I actually don’t much like the so-called roundtable format, especially when the participants aren’t very familiar with one another and there are more than three people. In practice, everyone is basically just talking past one another, and the time is so tight that the topics can’t really be unfolded in depth. Of course, there are indeed times when some sparks of thought do…
technology China freedom Web3
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2024年2月5日
Memory Replacing Computation—A Review of Stiegler’s Technics and Time

Phenomenology & Heidegger2024.02.02
Memory Replacing Computation—A Review of Stiegler’s Technics and Time
This article was published in Science and Technology Daily (2024-02-02, p. 3, Book Reviews), and retitled “Memory Is More Important Than Function; Richness Is More Important Than Efficiency” Bernard Stiegler was one of the most important philosophers of technology from the late twentieth century to the early twenty-first; in my view, one could even dispense with both “technology” and “one of.” His magnum opus is the three-volume Technics and Time, which has long been translated into Chinese, and Yilin Press has recently published a collected edition. The collected edition improves upon the old translation, especially by resolving inconsistent renderings of individual terms and by providing a unified index, making it…
philosophy technology book reading history of technology
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2024年2月2日
Accelerationism vs. Alignmentism, Socialism(?)

AI & Scholarship2023.11.22
Accelerationism vs. Alignmentism, Socialism(?)
The big internal-drama spectacle at OpenAI has once again brought into sharp relief the debate about artificial intelligence, “effective accelerationism vs. super ‘alignment’.” I also posted two comments on Weibo, which I record here: I support neither side. Accelerationism believes that whenever new technology disrupts society, the result is always good. But the problem is that in history, good outcomes are also the result of positive social change; if society merely passively accepts the push of new technology, there may not necessarily be good results. The problem with alignmentism is that it is fanciful: human values have never been aligned, so how could machines be? I support checks and balances…
technology culture freedom Web3
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2023年11月22日
Cultivating a Cultural Atmosphere That Pursues Novelty and Interest — A Review of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned

AI & the Future of Technology2023.11.16
Cultivating a Cultural Atmosphere That Pursues Novelty and Interest — A Review of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned
This article was published in China Economic Times (Yujian Sixiang, September 18, 2023) Recently, two scientists from OpenAI published a book called Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, attempting to argue that great technological innovations are often not the result of prior planning. In fact, Chinese tradition also has similar wisdom. For example, Daoism says, “do nothing, and yet nothing will remain undone”; Buddhism speaks of “no attachment, no form”; and there is the common saying, “If you set your heart on planting flowers, the flowers may not bloom; but if you casually stick a willow branch in the ground, it may grow into shade.” All of these mean something similar….
technology China book reading science
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2023年11月16日
What Is Technology? (Transcript of the 25th Session of the Jishi Lecture Series)

AI & the Future of Technology2023.08.17
What Is Technology? (Transcript of the 25th Session of the Jishi Lecture Series)
In June I gave a long lecture for Ji-shi Capital, and recently they finished the transcription and released it in three installments. The text was transcribed by them; I went through it, but there may still be a few scattered errors. I’m posting the complete collected version here for the record. The original texts of the three installments can be found here: Why is our education devoted to producing copies?; Where does technology come from? Looking at Watt’s steam engine to see our misunderstanding of technology; If the AI revolution is similar to the Industrial Revolution, we will face a very terrifying situation. In fact, the three installments correspond to…
technology history of science history of technology AI
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2023年8月17日
Immortality: The Intrinsic Connection Between Transhumanism and Web3

Culture & Public Commentary2023.06.08
Immortality: The Intrinsic Connection Between Transhumanism and Web3
This piece was submitted to the article by the new media outlet “歪脖三观,” founded and hosted by Jiang Gungun, and I was honored that it became the inaugural founding text of that media platform. When it was published, it was shortened and polished, and the title was changed to “The Ambition of Blockchain: Anti-Keynesianism, Public Life, and Transhumanism.” Everyone is welcome to repost and follow it. I am posting here the unedited original draft: EDCON2023 in Montenegro has come to a close. In addition to the usual topics of the crypto community, this year’s grand gathering also had a substantial block of topics related to transhumanism/longevity. The earlier “A Conversation…
technology Bitcoin blockchain modernity
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2023年6月8日
Summary of the Course “A General History of Technology” (Fall 2022 Semester)

Teaching & Courses2023.04.17
Summary of the Course “A General History of Technology” (Fall 2022 Semester)
The allergy season hasn’t even passed before the dust season arrives, my whole state has been low, and the course summary isn’t especially urgent anyway, so I kept dragging my feet and finally finished writing the second course from last semester. (If you want to jump straight to the exam analysis, go to the second half.) General History of Technology is the course I have taught the most; last semester was already the sixth round, and I also wrote summaries for the first five rounds. Of course, every year there are more or less some new additions. This time, taking last semester’s experience into account, I compressed the first few…
technology China course blockchain
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2023年4月17日
Summary of the Introduction to Philosophy of Technology Course (Fall Semester 2022–23)

Teaching & Courses2023.04.05
Summary of the Introduction to Philosophy of Technology Course (Fall Semester 2022–23)
Because last semester’s final assignment was not due until the beginning of this semester, and after the term started I was, on the one hand, busy with all sorts of pointless odds and ends, while on the other hand I ran straight into allergy season. Every spring my allergies torment me half to death, and this year was no exception; when my rhinitis flares up I can do absolutely nothing. In short, I dawdled and dawdled until now before finally writing this summary. “Introduction to Philosophy of Technology” is an old course. I taught two rounds of it in the autumn of 2018 and the autumn of 2019 (see the…
philosophy technology course Heidegger
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2023年4月5日
Can General Education Outmaneuver the Majors? — A Loose Talk from Course Assessment Methods to ChatGPT

AI & Scholarship2023.03.19
Can General Education Outmaneuver the Majors? — A Loose Talk from Course Assessment Methods to ChatGPT
Note: I originally just wanted to vent a bit about the feelings stirred up by a wave of severely plagiarized assignments, but as it turned out the discussion naturally drifted into AI, and things got a bit loose. Let’s leave it at that for now. The two courses I taught last semester—A General History of Technology and Introduction to Philosophy of Technology—have only just now finally been brought to a close. Normally, my courses use in-class exams during the last week of the term, but because of the outbreak of the pandemic at the end of last semester, the university suggested changing the final-exam process and arranging two exam sessions,…
technology scholarship freedom education
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2023年3月19日