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标签：value

  • Why Won’t Bitcoin Fall to Zero? — Random Thoughts on Bitcoin Market Trends

    Web3 & Cypherpunks

    Why Won’t Bitcoin Fall to Zero? — Random Thoughts on Bitcoin Market Trends

    Recently the Bitcoin market had another fit of madness: from 1242 it plunged all the way to well below half, then rebounded to 1000 and fell again. A lot of newcomers could no longer sit still, and one after another quite a few people also came to ask me what I made of it. What can I make of it? Obviously, I am not a candlestick expert, and I can’t analyze the market; such a frenzied market is even less something I can get a grip on. I myself tried taking one coin and flipping it high and low, but it failed as well, and instead I lost some…… My…

    Web3valueBitcoineconomy
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  • Is Bitcoin Environmentally Friendly?

    Web3 & Bitcoin

    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:…

    technologyWeb3valueBitcoin
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  • Bitcoin: An Endless Scam

    Bitcoin: An Endless Scam

    Bitcoin: An Endless Scam
    Web3 & Cypherpunks

    Bitcoin: An Endless Scam

    Previously I wrote a long article on Bitcoin, but I still did not make clear the two most crucial questions: first, the question people on the internet love to argue about most—whether Bitcoin is really a scam; second, the truly important question: what exactly is the revolution brought about by Bitcoin? The previous article in fact also touched on these two questions, but because it was so long, they may have been obscured, so let me talk about them separately here. First, let us discuss this question, which in fact is not even worth refuting: is Bitcoin a scam? Many people like to compare Bitcoin with the notorious tulip bubble,…

    historyWeb3valueinternet
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  • Bitcoin: The Nature of Money

    Bitcoin: The Nature of Money

    Bitcoin: The Nature of Money
    Web3 & Bitcoin

    Bitcoin: The Nature of Money

    Recently Bitcoin has risen and fallen wildly, and a great deal of discussion has sprung up as well. Of course there are those who strongly support it and those who predict its doom; in any case, this peculiar electronic currency has officially entered public view. In fact, I heard about this thing a few years ago, and at the time I also thought about joining the ranks of the “miners.” Unfortunately I was still too wary of trouble to pursue it in depth. More crucially, my insights in media philosophy were not yet mature enough then, so I failed to seize the opportunity. And these past few days, gritting my…

    mediaWeb3valuepolitics
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  • The History of Work

    AI & the Future of Technology

    The History of Work

    Richard Donkin: The History of Work, translated by Xie Zhongwei, Electronic Industry Press, 2011. Generally speaking, a title like “The History of XX” is always interesting, especially when that “XX” looks all the more dull and ordinary; its history is often all the more interesting. For history tells us that anything we have long taken for granted and found unremarkable has its own origins and development; by tracing history we can let our imagination unfold: is it necessary? Is it inevitable? In what other forms might it still take place? Recently, I happened upon this The History of Work, and felt it was quite good. Along with Technical Elements, Electronic…

    book readingtechnologynotesfaith
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  • Contempt and Locality

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Contempt and Locality

    This article had actually been ready to write half a year ago, or even earlier. It was during the Olympics, and I wrote a few articles in the form of “…and …”, including two bad-stub pieces; I only wrote down the title “Contempt and Locality” and never went on. Now, although I’d like to change it to a more provocative title—say, “Why Do We Contempt Migrant Workers?”—after thinking it over, I still decided not to go in for clickbait. At first I wanted to start from international contempt in the Olympics (for example, how Chinese people look at Koreans and Japanese). Recently, when I thought of rewriting it, I tried…

    cultureChinavaluesociology
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  • Media and Morality

    Philosophy & Thought

    Media and Morality

    In the previous article, I said I wanted to make a transition from one thing to another; in fact, I only wrote half of it. I had originally planned to move from the Olympics to media, but the Olympics piece ended up being about the right length, and the latter half was a bigger theme. So let me pick it up again now. At the time I mentioned that, although on the one hand we were paying attention to the reeducation-through-labor case and satirizing politics, on the other hand we were also thrilled by the Olympics’ gold-medal contest. That is not a contradiction, much less something shameful. Recently I reposted…

    philosophytechnologymediavalue
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  • The Flush Toilet: City, Civilization, Modernity

    AI & the Future of Technology

    The Flush Toilet: City, Civilization, Modernity

    Yesterday, Professor Jiang Jinsong came to Chengze Garden to give a talk titled “Observations and Reflections on the Flush Toilet,” and Professor Tian Song offered comments. Professor Jiang did not say very much, and Professor Tian’s comments were also rather hurried, but the discussion was still very lively. Indeed, the flush toilet can be counted as one of the greatest achievements of modern civilization. It is not only a device that makes “going to the bathroom” more convenient, but also a hub that helped assemble the whole modern urban way of life and the entire urban system. Professor Wu commented that Professor Jiang’s presentation should be divided into the issue…

    technologyvaluehuman naturemodernity
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  • The Left and Right, Chinese Style

    Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom

    The Left and Right, Chinese Style

    Recently I’ve been mentioning the left and the right quite often, but always rather cautiously, always wanting to add a couple of lines: I don’t like taking sides, I only use labels because I have no choice, and so on. To keep on like that is not really a solution, so I might as well write an article and talk through my understanding of the so-called left and right. My first acquaintance with the concepts of left and right probably came in middle school political class, where the teacher explained that the left was progressive and reformist, while the right was backward and conservative. We children, brainwashed by China’s rote-learning…

    Chinafreedomautobiographytradition
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  • The Spring and Autumn Annals Style or Scientific Research? — Is the Mission of the Media to Seek Truth?

    Culture & Public Commentary

    The Spring and Autumn Annals Style or Scientific Research? — Is the Mission of the Media to Seek Truth?

    A few months ago Nagoya produced a mayor who, in the name of pursuing the truth, denied the Nanjing Massacre; Chinese people, unwilling to be outdone, produced Secretary Lin, who cast doubt on the Great Famine of Three Years. These two events are to some extent comparable, and the line of questioning is similar too: such huge numbers—how could that be? I’ve never heard of it… no one witnessed it… Yet compared with the injury done to public feeling, Secretary Lin’s case may be even more potent. After all, the Three-Year Disaster came just one generation after the Nanjing Massacre; many elderly people who personally experienced the Three-Year Disaster are…

    cultureChinasciencemedia
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