Hao Jingfang Quotes

We're only travelers, singing songs whose meanings are obscure, wandering through the dark sky. That is all.

The real key isn't about whether what I say is true, but whether you believe it. From start to end, the direction of narrative is not guided by the tongue, but by the ear.

If you ask them directly, they'll reply, very puzzled, "Yes, what you say sounds like Truth. But the world is full of Truths. So what if you have a Truth?

Lao Dao’s research on kindergarten tuition had shocked him. For schools with decent reputations, the parents had to show up with their bedrolls and line up a couple of days before registration. The two parents had to take turns so that while one held their place in the line, the other could go to the bathroom or grab a bite to eat. Even after lining up for forty–plus hours, a place wasn’t guaranteed. Those with enough money had already bought up most of the openings for their offspring, so the poorer parents had to endure the line, hoping to grab one of the few remaining spots.

Peng Li took off his shirt and washed while he spoke with Lao Dao. The “washing” consisted only of splashing some drops of water over his face because the water was already shut off and only a thin trickle came out of the faucet. Peng Li took down a dirty towel from the wall and wiped his face carelessly before stuffing the towel into a drawer as well. His moist hair gave off an oily glint.

Ren.” The others pondered this exchange. “Ren” is at the core of Confucianism, naming a concept that has no exact translation into other human languages. It’s a type of love that doesn’t fall within the typology of philia, eros, storge, and agape, a love that emphasizes mutual respect, exchange, and the abiding humaneness that drives true altruism. In pronunciation, it is a homonym for the word for “human.” As a hanzi, it is written as a compound formed from the hanzi for “person” and “two.” A less elegant but more digestible way to express the ideas within “ren” might be: you and I, being human together.

Chang Tian chuckled. “When I was in the kitchen, I heard the three of you debate ‘good relationships.’ My goodness, you’re all theory with no practical knowledge at all. What do you know about healthy relationships?” “All right, expert, why don’t you enlighten us?” Jiang Liu asked. “A good relationship must first allow each party to face their own faults and defects, and in that clarity, they can strive to heal and become complete. Moreover, both parties must ultimately accept the other as they are—in that process the two will repeatedly approach, resist, re-approach, re-resist; they must learn to open up and reveal their core selves and learn that it’s okay to be vulnerable without being hurt, being abandoned, or hurting and abandoning. And after acceptance, there comes the challenge of long-term trust—

I reject aspects of Confucianism that emphasize hierarchy in relations, obedience to authority, and all the rites and restrictive rules of propriety,” Qi Fei said. “But there are also aspects of Confucianism that deserve consideration. For example, the belief that one should do what is right even if they know failure is certain, or the notion that the virtuous should be especially scrupulous when there’s no one around to observe their actions. These ideas are very much worth preserving.

Such a life of uncertainty entranced her. It was such a contrast to the life in the platonic garden of idealized creation that she had grown up in. The two collided like air masses in her heart, and a tempestuous storm was the result.

Tell me about the fascinating planets you've seen. But I don't want to hear anything cruel or disgusting.

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs love to describe their products as "democratizing access", "connecting people", and, of course, "making the world a better place". That vision of technology as a cure-all for global inequality has always been something of a wistful mirage, but in the age of AI it could turn into something far more dangerous. If left unchecked, AI will dramatically exacerbate inequality on both international and domestic levels. It will drive a wedge between the AI superpowers and the rest of the world, and may divide society along class lines that mimic the dystopian science fiction of Hao Jingfang. As a technology and an industry, AI naturally gravitates toward monopolies. Its reliance on data for improvement creates a self-perpetuating cycle: better products lead to more users, those users lead to more data, and that data leads to even better products, and thus more users and data. Once a company has jumped out to an early lead, this kind of ongoing repeating cycle can turn that lead into an insurmountable barrier to entry for other firms.