Science

I was brought up as a Han Chinese and I myself have never doubted that identity.  However, I do know that I look slightly different from people around me when I grew up. Darker skin, slightly curly hairs, deeper set eyes and other distinctive facial features. Put it simply, my face does not look like an average Han male face. However, nobody really said anything about my appearance except that my old brother occasionally joked about it (he looks like a normal Han Chinese by the way). After all, I look just like my father.

Yunyao and I work in a research center of a major technology company. At this time of a year, we attend job talks every week. These talks are technical presentations given by candidates for our research or development positions, as part of their two day job interviews here. Not surprisingly, the majority of the talks are given by newly graduated computer science PhDs who have published a lot of technical papers in premier computer science conferences. After a while, we kind of see some common deficiencies of these new graduates. Below is an instant messaging conversation we had right after attending a talk, which I hope would be helpful for some people.

YY: How do you like the talk?

HH: good slides

YY: yes, very well made

HH: lack of big picture in question handling Continue reading »

Peter Gardenfors, Conceptual Space: The Geometry of Thought, MIT Press, 2004

我先写个总的印象，再逐章总结一下，这书共八章。 Continue reading »

《1434》是一个英国退役的潜艇舰长Gavin Menzies写的书，是他的《1421》的后续。《1421》主要是说是中国
人，具体的说，就是郑和舰队的一支，发现了美洲。自然，有很多人质疑。其中一个观点就是如果中国人发现了美洲，咋没到更近的欧洲？《1434》就主要讲郑和的舰队的一支，在最后一次出航的时候的确到了意大利，并且带去了技术引爆了文艺复兴。 这本书也花很大篇幅介绍了中国舰队使用的星相航行技术的细节，弥补了上一本书的一些缺陷。 Continue reading »

心理学能成为一门关于思维的科学么？

斯金纳 Continue reading »

到非洲撒哈拉沙漠以南辽阔的大草原(Safari)上旅行可能是很多人的梦想。在电视上大家可能看过这样的镜头：纯净高远的蓝天之下，水草丰美的草甸之上，大群大群的野生动物随意倘佯，与坐在越野车上的游客咫尺相邻，兴奋的游客们有的照相，有的惊呼指点，好不快活。不过，如果知道这些游客在上车前受到的警告，可能有人就不会觉得有这么快活了。 Continue reading »