In many ways, crypto enthusiasts are trying to turn the clock back to the era where using computers was itself an exciting and valuable activity. Both a means and a means to an end. Long before Bitcoin and AI, Dung Kai Cheung’s writings have revolved around the use of tools and how it changes the way people see the world. 天工開物•栩栩如真 (2005) is structured around 19th and 20th century inventions that were introduced to the Chinese from the late Qing dynasty onwards for the first time....
Dung Kai-cheung Posthuman Comedy (2020)
DUNG Kai-cheung is a type of author that only colonial Hong Kong would produce. A star student across the board, he chose to focus on the academic study of literature, winning a place to study a BA and MA at the exclusive Hong Kong University, first in classical Chinese literature and then in comparative literature. At the beginning of his career, Dung’s work was academic to a fault. Experiments in form and obscure foreign literary references abound....
一元《離開，是為了找我回來》
我在一間九龍城的小店裏面發現這本書，覺得作者的經驗很特別，不知不覺就看完了。 從很多方面來說，作者在30歲前後工作假期簽證去澳洲窮遊不是一個舒適的經歷。 根據作者說，她在香港面對了很多嚴重的情緒問題。因此這不是一個Gap Year這麼簡單，而是一個治療自己的旅程。 作者經歷的種種辛酸，不少是常人都可以想見的。 在Hostel的同房鄰居晚上的一番喧鬧； 錢包被人偷偷拿走三分之一的現鈔； 找不到工作，被迫在街頭買明信片，耍太極賣藝賺錢； 遇上無良劏房房東，把三個人擠進一家只有一張床的房間裏。 但反過來說，作者孤身一人窮遊，有很多經歷也是其他方式不能得到的。例如， 在她賣藝的時候，有一個衣衫襤褸的清潔工人居然給了她一張20澳幣的鈔票。 在不同地方她在sofa surfing的時候，在一位樣貌凶神惡煞，但為人處事極為細心和體貼的大叔家中留宿。 一位自己生活也很不容易的單身母親，在招待作者之後仍然與她保持聯絡。 單身母親在聽到作者後來在澳洲別的地方的不快經歷之後，主動提出出錢買機票請她回來住，教鄰居太極，換來更好的生活。 作者講述她的經歷的時候十分簡明扼要，和繁體字書裏面台灣作家的風格炯然不同，相信不少香港讀者會讀得舒服。
Nick Bilton Hatching Twitter
My impression was that Jack Dorsey was the founder and inventor of Twitter. The reality seems to be a lot more complicated. In Nick Bilton’s telling, the story is broadly as follows: Ev Williams started Blogger.com in his bedroom. When it got bigger he hired a few friends to work on it together. One of these is next door neighbour Noah Glass. Williams then sold Blogger.com to Google for millions....
The displacement of traditional high cultures by the Silicon Valley
Cultural prestige is associated with political and economic power. China and Britain had established traditional high cultures largely due to (1) their historical dominance over much of the world; (2) the fact that learning to speak the language of the elites was important to advancing within society. America is the new super-power, with a high culture that is influential across the world. Apart from the internet and platform effects, the trend is likely to only to exacerbate further in the future:...
Accounting a Very Short Introduction
“A balance sheet must balance because what a Business owns must equal what it owes” I always found this puzzling until I realised there is an unspoken assumption: there is an owner to the business that is separate from the business itself (cf. Accounting a Very Short Introduction OUP p.31). This is why retained profits are treated as (positive) equity for the owner. And also how (assuming an unlimited liability company) there can be negative equity for the owner: the owner has not only lost all her initial contributions, but will be liable for money that the company owes others....
Lillehammer on moral praise
My memory of attending Moral Science Clubs talks from 10 years ago was that the atmosphere was often aggressive. The audience would be keen to poke holes in the talk and the speaker would come up with ways of fighting back. It was basically a Spanish bullfight with words. It was pleasant to discover that Hallvard Lillehammer’s talk on moral praise and moral performance wasn’t quite like that. During the presentation itself, Lillehammer would himself wonder whether his take on matters is influenced by Kantian instincts acquired due to his cultural background and upbringing....
Jeeves and the King of Clubs
When you see Bertie “hail a salaam” at someone, you know Ben Schott has got everything under control and could just toy with the reader.
Writing and thinking
What makes people want to write something that is not for immediate practical use (e.g. school/work report, letters of invitation)? Part of it, especially for literary and philosophical types, is no doubt fame, fortune and the possibility of immortality. Who could resist the thought that perhaps, one day, one’s writing will be pored over by scholars like any little scrap of paper by Shakespeare or Kant? More prosaically, writing also helps solidify memory....
Anarchy, State and Utopia
I remember coming across Nozick before as a cardboard libertarian philosopher. My impression of Anarchy, State and Utopia (“ASU”), its main arguments and weaknesses were more or less consistent with what Dworkin mentioned in his Magee interview: Nozick starts from the proposition that individuals have rights and there are things no state may do to them without violating their rights. His arguments fail because this basic starting point is unjustified....