Li Keqiang and cybernetics, a short thread:

1/ During the post-Mao era there was a renewed interest in cybernetics which, alongside von Bertalanffy's systems theory and Shannon's information theory, was known as the "(old) 3 theories" (老三论). 2/ To the country's new intellectual class, the information metaphor underlying cybernetics was a scientific tool for rapid modernization; it translated new social, political, and economic challenges into technical questions that demanded rational, computational solutions.

The narrative of Xi using covid to create some sort of permanent border restriction, as we will soon see, is also unwarranted. Anecdotes of the Chinese NIA denying passport renewals and citizens being turned away from the border have mostly cited public health concerns. One can debate the nature of these policies; I was never a fan. And like all Zero Covid restrictions this was implemented arbitrarily—what exactly constituted 'essential overseas travels' was left to the discretion of local-level govt workers who were incentivized to deny…

asking chatgpt to summarize some of my favorite books in one paragraph, one sentence, and one word: SIDDHARTA, by Hermann Hesse

This isn't Stanford, but the new campus of Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, College of Advanced Copper Industry in southeastern China. Since it’s a new campus there aren’t many photos online, but here are a few photos I found on Xiaohongshu