That professor must be very lonely

Yesterday (December 2, 2014), Zhao Hejuan, the beautiful founder of Titanium Media, posted a message in her circle of friends. After reading it, I felt quite unhappy.

"KK (Tan Zhu Note: This refers to Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of Wired magazine and author of Out of Control) was quite sad today. Most people gathered around him to take photos and group photos, and the books were used as props. KK asked, "Do you have any questions?" Everyone continued to take photos and group photos... The rich people kept coming... No one asked him any valuable questions..."

What Zhao Hejuan was talking about was the scene on December 1 when Kevin Kelly attended the "First China Community Leaders Summit" in Beijing (Zhao Hejuan's circle of friends was posted at 00:08, so the date difference can be ignored).

Pingwest founder Luo Yihang’s article has a more intense description of this scene.

"In the official materials printed for the conference, Kevin Kelly's name was listed together with items such as Shanhaijing Rice, Guiyuan Porcelain, Tangsong Wine, Yunshangfeng Eggs, Danruiti Pearls and Jinboge Essential Oils - the latter being outstanding representative enterprises in different 'communities'."

Luo Yihang's sarcastic tone is understandable - he has always believed that Kevin Kelly has been marginalized in Silicon Valley and around the world, but has been deified by the market in China.

He even judged that Kevin Kelly has formed a fixed "moonlighting" model in China: "Chinese agents offer a package, and a top brokerage agency or business school acts as the agent, and then outsources it layer by layer. The organizers of different activities offer prices to the "general agent" to invite Kevin Kelly to attend. In addition to occasionally arranging for Kevin Kelly to participate in some of his own "home" activities, the general agent reaps the rest of the profits."

I won’t make any judgement on this issue here, but what is certain is that China’s technology sector has indeed been ruined.

The first to be directly impacted was the Internet, and e-commerce was the first to be hit within the Internet.

The "myths" of those Taobao shop owners, WeChat marketing experts, and even O2O stars have given a group of tycoons in traditional industries a lot of enthusiasm, and they are desperately rushing to the Internet, regardless of how many shop owners are losing money, how many pictures of monthly income of millions or tens of millions posted in WeChat Moments are forged with cheating software, and how many O2O stars are just boasting concepts created behind closed doors.

It is true that the Internet is transforming the traditional economy, but when this cross-border transformation is constantly alienated by variant pyramid schemes and success studies, it can only evolve into six words: stupid people, lots of money, come quickly.

In a forum, a friend said: "I have only been in the domestic Internet circle for two years (this friend had been investing in other industries for 15 years before that), and I have seen many impetuous and unprofessional people, more than the total number of unreliable people I have seen in the previous 15 years."

Of course, in more occasions within the Internet industry, everyone still hopes to be more professional and technological.

For example, the two hottest conferences recently are: Tencent’s “We” conference and Baidu’s “Big Talk”.

On November 8, 2014, at the second WE Conference, Tencent invited 12 global scientists and technology entrepreneurs to showcase cutting-edge explorations in artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, genetic technology, outer space travel, and social organization innovation.

Since June 2014, Baidu has started to hold the "Big Talk" offline dialogue event, and has invited Nicholas Negroponte, author of "Being Digital", Jeremy Bailenson, a world leader in virtual reality technology and founder of Stanford University's Virtual Interaction Laboratory, and Alex Pentland, one of the world's seven authoritative big data experts and director of the Human Dynamics Laboratory at MIT, and other important guests to share their latest research experiences.

On November 24, 2014, Baidu even invited lecturers from Singularity University, co-founded by Google and NASA, to speak to registered students and authors at the Imperial Ancestral Temple in Beijing about cutting-edge sciences such as artificial intelligence, network technology, and biological genetics.

I have to say that in terms of conference organization, the two conferences were well organized. They were of high standards and high quality, in line with the world and the cutting-edge of science and technology.

But the question is, if Zhong Ziqi was gone, who would appreciate the towering mountains and flowing waters in Yu Boya’s heart?

At this year's "We" conference, the founder of Japan's NeuroWear, Tomonori Kagatani, was invited to demonstrate several products including the "cat ears" necomimi designed based on "brainwave interaction".

He first demonstrated Necomimi. When the MV was over, the audience applauded and whistled. Many people said that this new product was really awesome...

Please, necomimi has already appeared in various Taobao stores as early as 2012 - they are just reviewing and introducing it now, and haven't talked about new products yet.

After thinking about it, I felt relieved. Those who spent thousands of dollars to buy tickets to attend the "WE" conference may not even know who the speakers are. How can they tell which ones are new technologies and which ones are old products?

But even technology journalists and columnists are not much better...

An internet journalist friend of mine attends two meetings and writes 3,000 words a day on average, but most of the content in his articles comes from materials and presentation PPTs provided by the company. He knows the results, but not the reasons.

But how many people can truly break out of this impetuous circle and do serious research?

A few days ago, I was chatting with a friend, and he said that after a recent Big Talk, the guest speaker, a professor who was at the forefront of a certain field and had considerable authority, asked him, "Was my speech today not clear?"

“It’s very clear…”

"Isn't that a bad way of speaking?"

"Great……"

"Then why didn't you react at all when I just announced our new technological achievements for the first time worldwide?"

My friend was speechless and had no answer.

He also didn't know what the professor was talking about.

After the professor left, my friend asked many of his friends who came with him - unfortunately, maybe there were some like-minded people among the audience who shared the professor's thoughts, but at least he didn't discover them.

Perhaps this professor brought this upon himself, as he overestimated China's science and technology journalists and columnists.

How many journalists and self-media in the audience have sufficient scientific literacy? How many of them will do their homework before attending the lectures to learn about the background, expertise, research direction, and latest developments of these technology giants in advance?

China's technology media is too close to business and too far away from technology.

This place is filled with a large number of media outlets that lack scientific literacy, are unwilling to learn, and are only pursuing profits.

I think the professor must be very lonely when he stands on the stage, expecting someone's eyes to sparkle, but finds the whole audience is dead silent.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.