The hottest new star in the world recently is ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer).
ChatGPT was released on November 30, 2022. It is a natural language processing tool driven by artificial intelligence technology. It is trained by massive data from the global network. It can communicate and generate results; and just before the program came out , The 20th CPC National Congress will be held on October 16, 2022. At the meeting, a new interpretation of "Chinese-style modernization" was made, which also triggered discussions from all walks of life.
The above-mentioned two fields seem to have no intersection, but in fact they have written the history of mankind through their own innovations.
Regarding this issue, "Hong Kong 01" interviewed Wu Qina, an associate researcher at the Institute of Modern History of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, to explore the cross-border dialogue between ChatGPT and "Chinese-style modernization".
Hong Kong 01
: From the perspective of historical evolution, ChatGPT and "Chinese-style modernization" are both evidence of the progress of the times and echoes of historical accumulation.
What do you think of the emergence of the two and their significance in the times?
Wu Qine
: In the past half month, the topic of ChatGPT seems to have overwhelmed the "Chinese-style modernization" issue announced by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The question of Chinese-style modernization is that modernization can only have a universal and unique definition. If modernization is divided into different regional models, then the so-called modernization seems to cease to exist; the most worrying about ChatGPT comes from " Students no longer have to work hard to collect data, think independently, and complete reports on their own.”
These two kinds of doubts seem to be irrelevant, but they actually have a strong internal logical connection.
When we ask questions to ChatGPT, we will get rich and even complex answers, which seem to be logically impeccable, but in the eyes of individual thinkers who are ideologically conscious and culturally conscious, ChatGPT’s answers clearly have the value of "Western" + "White Left" orientation.
The questioning of "Chinese-style modernization" actually stems from the "recognized" view of history in history textbooks generally adopted by countries around the world, as well as the acceptance of the direction of human history led by Western industrial society since the Renaissance, and the recognition of this direction. The expectation of the future prospect that can be brought, this direction and expectation also conform to the value orientation of "West" + "White Left".
Wu Qina, an associate researcher at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
(profile picture)
Except for a small number of schools of special denominations in the North American continent, in the modern national education system, history textbooks represent "universal" cognition and "universal" values.
However, when we examine the process of the formation of history textbooks, we will find that history textbooks directly graft the history that has happened so far into the value.
In other words, it only represents the modern society rewriting the restatement of the existing history into a philosophical determination of the laws of human history.
Hence the emergence of what Francis Fukuyama called "the end of history."
Unfortunately, Fukuyama himself later discovered that history did not end.
After the end of the Cold War, the ideal social model identified by Fukuyama has all-round loopholes; house leaks happen to rain overnight, and the "blind and ignorant" new crown virus has blasted the completed historical gas pipeline several times in the past three years.
In fact, in Fukuyama's "history", the positioning of "human" itself, the relationship between human beings, and the relationship between human beings and nature have not been truly defined; in the face of the explosion of the new crown virus, is human being an independent existence, or is it human beings? The sum of its relationship with the surrounding society becomes an unanswered question.
The relationship between man and nature is uncertain in the face of mission-driven and diligent research at the Virginia State Biological Laboratory and its branches around the world.
The "program errors" (bugs) that appeared during the operation of Fukuyama's "history" have allowed the simplified production process of history textbooks to be examined, and the value shaping process has been highlighted, so that the discussion of "Chinese-style modernization" no longer appears. So ridiculous.
Fukuyama is famous all over the world for its conclusion of history.
(Stanford University website)
Strictly speaking, "Chinese-style modernization" is not an invention of the Communist Party of China. Its origin is Qin Wangzheng in the third century BC. In his case, profession replaced blood relationship, political integration replaced feudalism, and law overwhelmed human feelings. , political rationality transcends religion.
This model has become the social atmosphere that Chinese politics and Chinese society have followed for a long time for more than two thousand years, so that when Bai Jin (Joachim Bouvet, a French Jesuit missionary during the Kangxi period), Voltaire, Leib When Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz first came into contact with this atmosphere, he was strongly shocked.
Of course, the in-depth success of Western Europe in the industrial revolution and colonization has enabled the next generation of thinkers to quickly restore the pride of the monotheistic elect of God, and the feelings of Bai Jin and others have been locked in the filing cabinet.
Before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the West was intoxicated by the joy brought by this legacy, and the non-West also got used to the order brought by this legacy, despite the chaos, conflict, war and death in between.
But the fireworks over the Beiding Niangniang Temple woke up the comfortable world.
For the first time in the past two centuries, Westerners not only feel the shock of the East physically, but also feel the challenges of the East psychologically.
At the end of 2019, the arrival of the virus once again used its "blind ignorance" to fairly test the differences between the East and the West.
Historical China has provided an alternative answer to the survival and continuation of life on earth in terms of the definition of "human", the relationship between human beings, and the relationship between human beings and nature.
"Chinese-style modernization" uses this to answer the question of "modernization" and regionality. Its answer is that in the end there are only feasible modernizations and unfeasible modernizations. The "modernization" that was previously claimed to be universal is actually Western European. Modernization is an unsustainable modernization, a "modernization" that cannot reach the "end of history".
On June 21, 2022, a girl was vaccinated against the new crown in New York City, USA.
(AP)
Hong Kong 01
: From the perspective of knowledge production, what is the future interaction space between ChatGPT and "Chinese-style modernization"?
Wu Qina
: So far, the production process of ChatGPT content has not deviated from the blow molding model of the aforementioned history textbooks. The production and market of information are defined and determined by the right to speak.
In other words, the answer to ChatGPT is still provided by people who have the right to speak, not artificial intelligence.
Since the information sources of ChatGPT are highly overlapping with those of history textbooks, and also highly overlapping with the knowledge structure of Fukuyama, who once identified the "end of history", the conclusions it draws will be similar to the "Western" + "White Left" model The overlap is also unsurprising.
In fact, in recent decades, "modern social science", which aims to interpret human political, cultural, social, and economic phenomena, has suffered repeated setbacks in achieving its academic goals.
"Uncertainty" has become a certain "discipline characteristic" of economics, and the research methods of political science and sociology have become increasingly complex and "scientific", but the conclusions are in line with the conclusions of history in the nineteenth century.
The reason for this phenomenon is also that the "order and peace" dominated by the United States during the Cold War period is regarded as a typical slice of social laws, and "universal" social laws are derived from this.
From the perspective of the production process, the formation of sociological research paradigms is highly similar to the compilation of history textbooks in national education and the recent ChatGPT with rich content and single-oriented answers.
Facing the drastic changes in the world after the dramatic end of the Cold War, especially the phenomenon in China that violated the predictions of most social sciences, the research paradigm of social sciences began to encounter more and more challenges.
The inclusion of the post-Cold War China phenomenon and the seemingly absurd discourse of "modernization in Chinese style" is an opportunity to reverse this impasse.
Behind this opportunity also includes abandoning the linear and progressive historical views of modern history, and rethinking the value of circular historical views; letting go of the pride of "modern social science" and returning to the humility and openness of ancient academic traditions.
Only by canceling the "political correctness" set by "Western" + "White Left" and the resulting restrictions on information sources, will ChatGPT have the possibility of rich content and diverse orientations.
In Wu Qine's opinion, what kind of logical connection does the questioning of ChatGPT and "Chinese-style modernization" have?
ChatGPT's answer has the value orientation of "Western" + "White Left", which stems from the same historical thinking situation as the current doubts about "Chinese-style modernization" from all walks of life.
In Wu Qine's opinion, what kind of knowledge production relationship can ChatGPT have with "Chinese-style modernization"?
Incorporating the Chinese phenomenon in the post-Cold War period and the seemingly absurd "Chinese-style modernization" discourse can help "modern social science" break through the predicament; cancel the "political correctness" set by "Western" + "White Left" and the resulting With limited information sources, ChatGPT will have the possibility of rich content and multiple orientations.
Interview with Wu Qina III｜Why is a community with a shared future for mankind important and necessary?
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The three-year epidemic sounded the alarm. Interview with Wu Qina·1｜How does the epidemic change the world?
Progressive view of history is fundamentally challenged
