标签：trust

Why Are NFTs Valuable? Rethinking NFTs and Tulips

Culture & Public Commentary2022.01.07
Why Are NFTs Valuable? Rethinking NFTs and Tulips
In the article From BTC to NFT: Wealth to Power I already confessed that my understanding of NFTs has clearly changed. Although in the article NFT and Tulip Mania I agreed with the importance of NFT technology, I still felt that “a pixel image worth tens of millions is, however you look at it, not a price that could possibly last long.” But I have now withdrawn that judgment; now I think that at least some historically significant NFTs are entirely capable of maintaining high prices over the long term. Of course, this judgment of mine does not constitute investment advice. On the one hand, most of the accompanying NFTs…
culture history Web3 Bitcoin
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2022年1月7日
Rumor: Seeking Rationality in an Absurd World

Culture & Public Commentary2020.02.18
Rumor: Seeking Rationality in an Absurd World
Here is another essay on the epidemic; if the previous one also counts as related, then this is the fifth. I still ask friends to circulate it cautiously. The rumors about the Wuhan Virus Institute are still continuing: some claim to be real-name whistleblowers accusing the director of secretly selling animals; others solemnly identify a certain graduate student as “Patient Zero.” These conspiracy theories are, of course, all rather crude and not worth refuting. But the significance of rumors does not lie in their own professionalism or accuracy, but in the public sentiment and popular will they reflect. The cruder a rumor is, the fact that it can still spread…
science commentary public sphere reason
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2020年2月18日
The Meaning of “Conflation”: How the Public Can Participate in Scientific Communication

Culture & Public Commentary2020.02.06
The Meaning of “Conflation”: How the Public Can Participate in Scientific Communication
The third essay written amid the epidemic. I’ll say it again: things are tense, so please be cautious about sharing this among friends. From science popularization to public understanding of science to science communication, people in philosophy of science and technology have been talking about this for at least twenty years. The most traditional “deficit model” has long been widely questioned, but to this day, science communication and its significance still have by no means truly taken root in people’s minds. Simply put, the “deficit model” says that scientists possess scientific knowledge while the public lacks scientific knowledge, so science popularization is nothing more than scientists, from a position of…
science philosophy of science commentary politics
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2020年2月6日
“Preventable and Controllable” — the “Flag” of the Technological Age

Culture & Public Commentary2020.01.26
“Preventable and Controllable” — the “Flag” of the Technological Age
The pneumonia epidemic is raging, and I didn’t go home for the New Year this year either. I’m just staying at home in a daze, which is a good excuse to write something. But I’m feeling restless, so before writing on other topics, I might as well first say a few things about this epidemic. Still, I should make it clear from the outset that anything I write here is utterly useless for the practical work on the front lines of epidemic prevention and control. I have neither the standing nor the ability to “offer advice and propose measures” for anyone. Of course, simply shouting a couple of slogans like…
technology China commentary Heidegger
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2020年1月26日
From “Information Blocks” to “Blockchains”: Blockchain as a Completion of the Internet

Web3 & Bitcoin2019.10.27
From “Information Blocks” to “Blockchains”: Blockchain as a Completion of the Internet
A commissioned piece riding a hot topic for JieMian. I’m currently in Hefei attending the annual conference on Chinese history of science, and I wrote this last night on my bed after a full day of meetings, so it’s a bit rushed. Still, this counts as my first article that departs from Bitcoin and talks specifically about blockchain. In my view, the core application of blockchain is undoubtedly still currency; blockchain technology divorced from currency, or from currency in the broader sense (securities, etc.), is basically just a gimmick. But that does not stop us from indeed being able to seek a place for blockchain technology in the history of…
China Web3 Bitcoin history of technology
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2019年10月27日
Technology and Exploiting Loopholes—On Alibaba’s “Mooncake Snatching Incident”

AI & the Future of Technology2016.09.17
Technology and Exploiting Loopholes—On Alibaba’s “Mooncake Snatching Incident”
Alibaba’s decision to fire five employees over the “snatching mooncakes” incident has sparked a great deal of discussion, so I’ll offer a few remarks of my own. First, I think Alibaba’s handling of this affair is utterly baffling. What the programmers did was write a script to replace manual clicking; they accidentally clicked too many times, and then, before any order was actually completed—meaning no actual loss had been caused—they proactively reported the matter, only to be swiftly fired within a few hours. Of course, many people also stood on Alibaba’s side and thought the firing was well deserved. But they were often mistaken about the basic facts. The most…
technology commentary innovation trust
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2016年9月17日
The Inevitable Path to Decentralization—A Few Thoughts on Bitcoin Hard Forks, and, by the Way, on Central Bank Digital Currency

Web3 & Bitcoin2016.01.21
The Inevitable Path to Decentralization—A Few Thoughts on Bitcoin Hard Forks, and, by the Way, on Central Bank Digital Currency
Bitcoin is facing the situation that the 1M block size limit is about to become insufficient; a major upgrade is needed. But how should it be upgraded? Different people propose different schemes. If a backward-incompatible scheme is rolled out without reaching consensus, then some people choose the new scheme while others do not update or choose yet another scheme, and the result is what is called a “hard fork.” There was XT a while ago, and more recently there was classic, but in the end a hard fork seems to have been avoided. Many people were probably relieved, but I, for one, feel a certain regret. In my view, a…
freedom Web3 Bitcoin blockchain
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2016年1月21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
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
Bitcoin: The Disappearance of the State

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.05.09
Bitcoin: The Disappearance of the State
I’ve now written the third consecutive article about Bitcoin, and after this one I’ll more or less be wrapping things up for the time being. My spare cash has basically all been invested already, and I’ve now bid farewell to the infuriating Bitcoin China trading platform. I put one bitcoin into Mt.gox and started groping my way through the game of selling high and buying low; a few days later, one coin had become 0.98 coins… It’s a bit discouraging, really… Of course I’ll keep trying my hand at it, but I no longer dare to make any big moves. For now, the main thing is just to hold the…
media Web3 Bitcoin internet
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2013年5月9日