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Today — 22 December 2024Main stream

Germany Bulked Up Christmas Market Security. An Attack Still Happened.

22 December 2024 at 02:46
The latest deadly assault on a beloved German tradition illustrates the challenge of holiday safety.

© Michael Probst/Associated Press

Police officers standing guard on Saturday at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, where a car plowed into a crowd on Friday evening.
Yesterday — 21 December 2024Main stream

3-Minute Christmas Market Rampage Shakes Germany

At least five people, including a 9-year-old child, were killed in the attack, which took place in the eastern city of Magdeburg. The authorities are still seeking a motive.

© Ebrahim Noroozi/Associated Press

Security guards early Saturday in front of the cordoned-off Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, where an S.U.V. plowed into a crowd on Friday evening.

Driver Rams Into Christmas Market in Germany, Killing at Least 2 and Injuring Dozens

21 December 2024 at 06:59
Video showed a car plowing into a large crowd in the city of Magdeburg. The driver, identified as a 50-year-old Saudi Arabian citizen who worked as a doctor, was arrested.

© Dörthe Hein/DPA, via Associated Press

Emergency services at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on Friday.

Volkswagen Reaches Labor Deal, Avoiding Germany Plant Closures

21 December 2024 at 01:51
The automaker agreed to keep all 10 of its factories in Germany open and to guarantee workers’ jobs until the end of 2030.

© Ronny Hartmann/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Volkswagen plant in Hanover, Germany, on Friday. The company’s struggles over the last months have strained its strong ties with its roughly 120,000 workers in Germany.

Musk Expresses Support for Far-Right Party in Germany’s Election

It was not the first online intervention by Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and adviser to Donald Trump, on behalf of once-fringe anti-immigrant parties in Europe.

© Pool photo by Allison Robbert

Elon Musk has long made heavy use of X, which he bought in 2022, to express his views on politics in the United States and abroad.
Before yesterdayMain stream

Coke, Pepsi and Other U.S. Companies Face Wall Street Pressure Over Labor Abuses in India

20 December 2024 at 18:50
Pension funds and big investors are pressuring Coca-Cola, Pepsico and others over brutal working conditions in India’s cane fields. Some of the sugar buyers are tiptoeing toward change.

© Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times

Sugar cane workers in Maharashtra, western India, in 2023. An investigation by The New York Times and The Fuller Project this year revealed a brutal, endemic labor system there.

5 Takeaways From an Investigation Into Hysterectomies in India’s Sugar Industry

24 March 2024 at 14:54
Indebted workers, facing brutal working conditions, are pushed to get hysterectomies as a treatment for routine ailments. Sugar mills disclaim responsibility.

© Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times

Loading sugar cane to transport it to mills in the Satara district of India’s Maharashtra State in March last year. Laborers often work in couples, paid through contractors.

Europe Has a Leadership Vacuum. How Will it Handle Trump?

With Germany and France both in political turmoil, the new administration of Donald J. Trump will begin at a time of instability for the continent.

© James Hill for The New York Times

U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump, left, with President Emmanuel Macron of France, center, and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Paris last week.

Who Is Friedrich Merz of Germany?

19 December 2024 at 02:04
If polls are correct, Olaf Scholz’s successor could be the 69-year-old leader of the Christian Democratic Union. He is offering to get the German economic engine humming again.

© Tobias Schwarz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Friedrich Merz, right, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, addressing Germany’s lower house of Parliament ahead of a no-confidence vote against Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, on Monday.

Chinese-Flagged Ship Suspected of Cutting Cables Remains Halted Weeks Later

After fiber-optic cables under the Baltic Sea were cut last month, European officials hurried to stop the Yi Peng 3. It’s still at anchor there, with no update on three nations’ investigation.

苹果或与索尼合作,让 Vision Pro 变成「游戏机」

By: 范津瑞
9 December 2024 at 18:00

苹果在去年推出的虚拟现实头显设备 Vision Pro 声称标志着「空间计算」时代的开启。但一直以来,Vision Pro 因其比较有限的使用场景和昂贵的售价并未获得市场的热烈反应,销量也因此陷入停滞,还不到 50 万台。

分析认为,如果苹果想要扩大 Vision Pro 的受众群体,应该着眼于那些「游戏玩家」。然而,目前其大约支持 270 款游戏,其中只有 12 款针对该设备进行了优化适配,实在是缺乏游戏方面的吸引力

就连苹果公司 CEO 库克也曾直言 Vision Pro「不是一款大众市场的产品」。华尔街日报的评价更是一针见血:大多数消费者还没有准备好为一个「酷玩具」掏出 3500 美元。

▲图源:MacRumors

不过,接下来苹果和索尼的这项合作不知道能否让正在观望的消费者们心甘情愿「掏空腰包」,一睹其风采。

根据彭博社马克·古尔曼(Mark Gurman)在 PowerOn 通讯中的报道,苹果正在考虑将索尼的 PlayStation VR 2 控制器引入 Vision Pro 设备。也就是说,Vision Pro 即将可以用索尼的 PS 手柄控制了

据悉,苹果在今年年初已经就合作事宜与索尼方面进行了接触,而索尼则已经为 Vision Pro 和 PSVR 2 控制器的适配和兼容工作了几个月。此外,苹果正在与一些第三方游戏开发者就支持索尼手柄一事开展讨论和协商。

苹果和索尼原计划在几周之前对外公布两者兼容的消息,但由于技术原因有所推迟。尽管如此,古尔曼仍然表示「这是一个令人兴奋的进展」。

▲索尼 PSVR 2 设备(图源:Tom’s Guide)

实际上,PSVR 2 并不是 Vision Pro 支持的首个外部控制器。此前,Vision Pro 已经支持使用 PS5 和 Xbox 控制器进行操作,但它们不支持 VR 游戏操作所需的六自由度(6DOF),同时也并未针对虚拟现实体验进行优化。

PSVR 2 则是索尼为 PS5 设计的下一代虚拟现实输入设备,其不仅内置了 6 轴运动传感器系统(三轴陀螺仪+三轴加速度计),还支持与 PS5 的 DualSense 控制器类似的自适应触发器和触觉检测反馈功能。

搭配头显使用,PSVR 2 还支持眼动追踪和头显反馈等功能。值得一提的是,这款控制器最大的亮点是其采用了全新的「球形」设计,索尼声称其更自然,更舒适,并且提供了「高度自由」的手部移动空间。

▲图源:The Verge

古尔曼称,阻碍 Vision Pro 成为游戏设备的两个主要原因是「内容」和「控制器」。换句话讲,除了游戏适配方面的缺乏和不足和开发者意愿不强烈的情况以外,Vision Pro 现有的操控方式使其并不适合用来玩游戏。

由于 Vision Pro 的定位更偏向于生产力和媒体消费设备,并且其设计「并没有从一开始就考虑到游戏」,因此它的控制方式以眼动追踪、手势识别和语音控制为主。古尔曼评价这些方式「有损游戏前景」。

如果能与 PSVR 2 控制器搭配使用,无疑将大大提高 Vision Pro 的游戏性能,使其更像一台「游戏机」。此外,控制器还允许用户进行更为精确的输入:摇杆和方向键可以进行页面滚动,而触发按钮可以取代手指捏合手势进行选择。

这样一来,用户不仅能够更加高效地使用 visionOS 系统,在 Vision Pro 上使用 Final Cut Pro 或者 PS 等编辑类软件也会更加方便快捷。

▲Final Cut Pro 界面(图源:Editors Keys)

目前,索尼的 PSVR 2 控制器并未单独出售。如果苹果和索尼的这项合作进展顺利的话,消息称其将在苹果的在线商店和线下零售店(Apple Store)中销售。根据古尔曼的说法,除非这一项目被「突然叫停」,否则它大概率会实现。

除了索尼控制器的助力以外,苹果需要在游戏方面投入更多资金并重新考虑 Vision Pro 的营销策略,方能使其以全新的面貌(Fresh Look)展现在消费者眼前。

#欢迎关注爱范儿官方微信公众号:爱范儿(微信号:ifanr),更多精彩内容第一时间为您奉上。

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E.U. Vessels Surround Anchored Chinese Ship After Cables Are Severed in Baltic Sea

Multiple countries are investigating and the authorities in Europe say they have not ruled out sabotage. But U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that the cables were not cut deliberately.

Reading visual art: 169 Wedding, personal

By: hoakley
23 October 2024 at 19:30

After yesterday’s accounts of the extraordinary weddings in myth and other narrative, in this article I consider a small selection of depictions of more normal wedding celebrations, from the personal and tender to some amid spectacular scenery.

rubensartistwife
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Honeysuckle Bower (The Artist and His Wife) (1609-10), oil on oak, 178 x 136.5 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany. Wikimedia Commons.

When Peter Paul Rubens married for the first time, to Isabella Brant in the autumn of 1609, he painted this touching celebration, the Honeysuckle Bower, the closest that he could come to the modern wedding photo of bride and groom. Honeysuckle was a well known symbol for faithfulness, and hands laid over one another (“dextrarum iunctio”) have symbolized matrimony since ancient times. Tragically, their bliss was to be short-lived, as Isabella was to die of the plague in 1626 when she was only thirty-four.

watteaumarriagecontract
Antoine Watteau (1684–1721), Marriage Contract and Country Dancing (c 1711), oil on canvas, 47 cm x 55 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain. Wikimedia Commons.

Antoine Watteau’s first masterpiece, Marriage Contract and Country Dancing from about 1711, combines three stages of a wedding in a single image, as if in multiplex narrative. In the distance at the far left is the tower of the church where the priest brought the couple together in union in front of God. In the centre, they sign their contract of marriage, while around them is the country dancing of the secular celebration.

delacroixjewishwedding
Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), Jewish Wedding in Morocco (1837-41), oil on canvas, 104 x 140 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.

Eugène Delacroix started painting his Jewish Wedding in Morocco in 1837, apparently as a commission, and completed it in time for the 1841 Salon. The viewer is given the opportunity to see one of the women dancing in honour of the bride, in a ceremony clearly intended to be very private.

tidemandgudebridalprocession
Adolph Tidemand (1814–1876) & Hans Gude (1825–1903), Brudeferden i Hardanger (Bridal journey in Hardanger) (1848), oil on canvas, 93 × 130 cm, Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo. Wikimedia Commons.

Weddings in the villages around the fjords of the far south-west of Norway, to the east of Bergen, were very special events. To show this, Hans Gude joined forces with Adolph Tidemand in this marvellous painting of Bridal Journey in Hardanger in 1848. Tidemand’s figures are seamlessly integrated into Gude’s majestic landscape.

sichulskihutsulwedding
Kazimierz Sichulski (1879–1942), Hutsul Wedding (1909), media and dimensions not known, Masovian Museum, Płock, Poland. Wikimedia Commons.

Weddings continued through winter in the Carpathian Mountains, in modern Ukraine. Kazimierz Sichulski’s Hutsul Wedding from 1909 shows a wedding party in traditional dress making their way through the snow.

frithmarriageprincewales
William Powell Frith (1819–1909), Marriage of the Prince of Wales, 10 March 1863 (1865), oil, further details not known. Wikimedia Commons.

Royal weddings merited pageantry of a different form, as shown in William Frith’s painting of the Marriage of the Prince of Wales, 10 March 1863 completed in 1865. This took place under the watchful eye of the groom’s mother, Queen Victoria (on the balcony at the upper right), who seems to be attracting as much attention as the wedding in progress below her. The groom was to become King Edward VII on the death of the Queen; his bride was Alexandra of Denmark, who was only eighteen at the time. The ceremony took place in Saint George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. By this time, Victoria’s husband Prince Albert had died and she had effectively withdrawn from public life.

fortunyspanishwedding
Marià Fortuny (1838–1874), The Spanish Wedding (1870), oil on wood, 60 x 93.5 cm, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. Wikimedia Commons.

Marià Fortuny, whose interest in ceremony and costume has led to him being dubbed a Costumbrist, painted this intricately detailed view of The Spanish Wedding in 1870. The scene is the interior of a sacristy, where a wedding party is going through the administrative procedures of the ceremony. The groom is bent over a table, signing a document, while the bride behind him (holding a fan) is talking to her mother.

The rest of the wedding party waits patiently, but a woman at the back of the small group turns towards a penitent, who stands to the right of the group. He carries an effigy of the soul burning in flames. The wedding party, and a group seated at the right, are shown in richly-patterned dress, as if attending a masked ball. Their detail contrasts with the more painterly rendering of the surroundings.

In the late nineteenth century weddings changed forever, when they became the preserve of the photographer.

dagnanbouveretwedding
Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (1852–1929), Une noce chez le photographe (A Wedding at the Photographer’s) (1879), oil on canvas, 120 x 81.9 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France. Wikimedia Commons.

Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret’s A Wedding at the Photographer’s (1879) comes close to a photographic realism throughout the image. He was calculating in his choice of motif: the wedding market wasn’t one that could be catered for by painters, at least not in the way that photographers were starting to capitalise on it. The image gives the appearance of veracity, and uses subtle signs to make photography appear cheap and nasty compared with painting. There is an irony in this painting too, in that Dagnan-Bouveret was one of the first painters to incorporate photography into his working methods, later using it in conjunction with more traditional sketches and studies when preparing major works.

dagnanbouveretblessingcouple
Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (1852–1929), Blessing of the Young Couple Before Marriage (1880-81), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Pushkin Museum Музей изобразительных искусств им. А.С. Пушкина, Moscow, Russia. Wikimedia Commons.

A year or two later, Dagnan-Bouveret revisited the wedding theme without the aid of a photographer, in his Blessing of the Young Couple Before Marriage (1880-81). This traditional subject is lit by brilliant sunshine from the right, which almost makes the bride’s dress appear to be on fire.

frithforbetterforworse
William Powell Frith (1819–1909), For Better, For Worse (1881), oil, dimensions and location not known. Wikimedia Commons.

By coincidence, William Frith also returned to the theme at the same time, in For Better, For Worse from 1881. This is one of his Hogarthian paintings, most definitely not by Royal command, and passing comment on contemporary society with its glaring inequalities. He contrasts an affluent couple departing for their honeymoon in a hansom cab, with a poor couple and their two children watching at the lower left, a theme that I’m sure the author Charles Dickens would have appreciated had he not died a decade earlier.

bulandinnocentwedding
Jean-Eugène Buland (1852–1926), Innocent Wedding (1884), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Carcassonne, Carcassonne, France. The Athenaeum.

My final nineteenth century wedding painting is by another Naturalist, Jean-Eugène Buland, although here being more than a little sentimental and romantic, even populist. His idyllic Innocent Wedding from 1884 shows a young couple strolling arm in arm through blossom with their home village in the distance.

随身听和冰啤酒,流行乐与热咖啡,谁来定义经典设计?非正常读物 vol.4

By: Steven
13 August 2023 at 15:21
🎥 点击封面播放视频,可以优惠价购买这本书

是什么,在炎炎夏日的晚上,让人获得一丝丝清凉与放松的呢?或许,是一段与友人的闲谈,或许是一罐啤酒?可是,你是否想过,为什么,装酒的易拉罐会设计成这样子呢?

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你可能没有意识到,易拉罐的历史,距今只有短短 61 年。

六十年前,由于消费者需要随身携带开罐器才能打开铝罐,这极大阻碍了初代罐装饮品的推广。自开罐的必要性是显而易见的,但在当时,该领域到处都是失败的原型先例。在一次野餐中,印第安纳州的工具生产商 厄尼 · 弗雷兹 不得不靠着汽车金属杠才打开罐头。经此困扰,他开始着手开发带耳片、可拉开的罐子。他创造了一个跷跷板机制,利用小杠杆,沿着预先半切划线的开口,撬开罐盖。他将小杠杆通过冷焊法固定在罐子的铆钉上,铆钉也使用罐子本身的材料。

他把这个创意,卖给了美国铝业公司。1962年,匹兹堡啤酒公司下了第一笔订单,订购了10万只拉耳罐。许多爱钻研的个人以及公司,继续改进他的发明。1965年,拉耳式开口被拉环取代。1975年,丹尼尔 · 丘德齐克 开发了不必拆卸的拉环装置。打开拉环即可畅饮的易拉罐,撕开了罐装饮料行业的巨大市场,也成为了美国饮品行业的圣杯。

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方便的工具,总是更受人们的欢迎。尤其是,成瘾性饮料。比起可乐和啤酒,人类更早开始了,对现制咖啡器具的工业化探索。

1933年,意大利人 阿方索·比乐蒂 设计出了摩卡快速咖啡壶。这款炉顶咖啡壶,自1933年首次亮相至今,仍然保持着它的经典设计。

这款壶由3个金属部分组成:用于煮水的底部胆舱,放置咖啡粉的过滤器,以及带有一体式壶嘴的咖啡液收集隔间。煮沸的水穿过咖啡粉,从中间管道顶部如涌泉般流出,一杯富含油脂的咖啡就做好了。

据说,比乐蒂在设计这款咖啡壶的时候,参考了当时的洗衣机。那会儿的洗衣机,由一个锅炉式的底座和顶部的洗涤盆组成。因为铝的导热性能,和多空隙的表面特性,既能快速把水煮开,又能维持住水温,还可以吸收咖啡风味,于是成为了摩卡壶的首选材料。

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如果说饮料的工业化平权,给人们带去了身体上的享受,那么,随身听播放器则是伴随着流行音乐的黄金年代,给人类带来了空前的精神滋养!

索尼的董事长盛田昭夫认为,人们在任何情况下都需要音乐。这款 1979 年诞生的 TPS-L2,它的外形尺寸仅仅比磁带略大一些,这种便携性,使它超越了不同的市场界限和地域文化影响,大获成功。

德国博朗的设计工作室与日本的极简主义,在索尼身上充分融合。小巧的体型与干净利落的造型,至今仍被津津乐道。

它最初的产品定位是青少年市场,因此在设计上,采用了类似蓝色牛仔布拼接金属色的涂装,并设置了双耳机插孔,以供两人同时靠近彼此。这使得它成为了当时乃至今天许多人心目中,一代经典的流行文化符号。

🎥 点击播放视频

考点众多的设计史,是我读书时期的噩梦。那么多陌生又拗口的人名,我从来都记不住。但是,工作多年以后,我渐渐意识到:

那些经典的设计,都是那个时代下的一次又一次范式革新。

设计史不是设计师史,也不是经典产品史。

当我关注一个设计时,我所关注的是人们如何使用它。人名和产品不是设计史,它们所对应的社会形态、人文环境以及生产技术水平,才是。

设计史是最简便、最低成本的索引目录。

对某个著名设计师的关注,其实远远达不到了解设计。站在宏观的角度去观察,一条已经梳理好的时间轴,就很有帮助。这条时间轴未必符合每个人对历史的认知,但由此发散出来,而关注到的无数分叉,会在日后形成自己的视野有着不可避免的重要性。

任何历史最终都是汇集在一处的。

人类史谈论人类如何进化、如何实用工具、如何创造了古往今来的生活。然而这些生活当中,却也并行着器物进化的历史。这些历史其实是同一部历史,关心设计的历史,就是在关心自己生活在什么样的世界里。

历史是人类的镜子,也是器物的根。

上万年来,人类无数次地重复着同样的错误,然而器物,却一直按照自己的节奏在进化着,从最粗糙的原型里诞生,伴随着人类不断地尝试,衍生出了丰富的世界。

这样的过程,怎么能不迷人呢?

设计史不是人名、地名,不是产品和公司的名字,它是人类和器物之间,相互扶持,纠缠不清的故事,是古往今来的人们,用对生活的热爱,所写下的诗。

在我看来,每一位设计爱好者、在职设计师,我们的案头上都应该至少有一本这样子的书。

做为一本观察世界的魔法目录,它是我们随手可得的一条又一条线索,每一次翻开,都能对我们所处的世界多一份联系和了解。

🌟从视频入口下单,会有观众的福利优惠券!

这次是为 中信出版社 推荐一本新书。这本书由 英国费顿出版社 编著,内容非常丰富。书籍主题专注于探索人类的创造力和想象力,其中包含了许多激发灵感的故事和实用的技巧。无论你是学生、艺术家、工程师还是企业家,这本书都会为你提供独特的思维方式和创造力的启示。通过精心编排的章节,书中详细介绍了各种创造力的来源,从观察自然到探索文化,再到引发思维火花的不同方法。而且,书中还包含了一系列的练习和案例分析,帮助你在实际生活中应用这些创造性思维的技巧。这本书不仅能帮助你在个人生活中拥有更多灵感和创造力,还可以帮助你在工作中更具创新性和竞争力。如果你对提高自己的创造力和想象力感兴趣的话,不妨考虑阅读这本令人兴奋的新书。无论你是专注于艺术、科学、写作还是其他领域,这本书都将成为你的灵感宝库。购买这本书不仅能丰富你的知识,还可以激发你的创造力,并为你的个人和职业发展提供指导和启发。(此段落由 AI 拓展)

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艺术可以糊弄,体力劳作也是高级智能

By: Steven
19 March 2024 at 21:05

昨天发现 AAAny 更新了发图的功能,于是就顺势发起了一个讨论 AIGC 的话题

轶轩在话题下问我为什么对外发表的图都是一些细节比较丰富的类型,是否有基于 AIGC 的生成方式而做的一些突破方向的尝试。我觉得,针对这个问题,我可以在对他的回复上,再做一期视频来谈一谈我的观点。

用于风格参考的马列维奇的画作
基于马列维奇而生成的《城堡下的人群》

但与此同时,我也想做一些「简练」或「抽象」的图来辅助说明我的看法。于是,今天在工作之余,用一些碎片时间,做了一些图出来。

对此,我尝试比较随意地做了一些「东西」。它们都没有什么明确的「表达」,仅仅只是我随手写的一些 prompt,或者就是在 Midjourney 的社区里复制修改的 prompt,最终出来的东西都是一眼看上去有一些「意境」或者没那么精致细节的但表现比较能唬住人的图像。

你会发现,在这些人类认为偏「抽象」的表达上,AI 反而是比较容易做「好」的。

但是,这种好不是真的好,只是这些风格上,并不需要对细节有很认真的考据,在表现层面上是非常容易「糊弄」的。

这也是现当代艺术作品常常被人诟病的原因之一,因为那些作品浓缩了大量的思考和抽象提炼,但表现形式上,其实并没有比传统艺术更复杂,或更需要技艺和体力上的付出。也就是说,作为当代艺术最核心的「观念」,在完全不需要理解的情况下,一个外行的人或者一个数据量管够的 AI 就可以模仿出「看上去像那么回事」的东西。这种模棱两可的状态,恰恰是江湖神棍和 AIGC 擅长处理的对象。

这里说的「糊弄」「神棍」并非贬义,而是借着世俗的话语体系来表达,这样的「生成作品」并不需要 AI 具备「意识」和「创意」也可以轻松地实现。

那么,什么东西是更难的呢?

细节,是令人信服的细节。

这些是我用 AI 生成的男士剃须刀的设计方案。

你会发现,这些方案咋一看是那么回事,但只要你多看两秒,立刻就会意识到它不对。它们的空间关系、形态的处理、物理交互的关系、电子器件的布局,通通都有很大的问题。这些就是不可信的细节。

因为 AI 实际上并不理解它学习的那些图像。

这些令人信服的关键点,是无法糊弄的。因为它们当中包含了大量精确的思考和训练,也包含了海量的脑力和体力劳动,如果一个「智能体」不理解一个图像背后的复杂逻辑,那么它就没有办法真正地创作出这个对象。它只能模仿,只要模仿得足够像,就可以唬住外行。但是对于以此为生的从业者,这样的智能工具,还不足以成为生产力。设计师可以用这样的工具拓展自己的思维,但这些过程并不能替代设计行为。

从创意到落地,中间还有漫长的路需要人类设计师去走完。

现阶段,更适合工业设计使用 AIGC 的方式是这样:

我的意思并不是让 AI 画手绘图,这仅仅是一种表现方式。但是,这是一种不需要追求精确的表达方式,很适合 AI 用「抽卡」的方式来快速堆想法。除了这种,当然也可以让它生成上面剃须刀那样的图,但同样的,目的不在于出方案,而是借助 AI 的海量数据库,快速地堆出一批发散性思维的「胡编乱造」的混杂图像来。

人类的视野有限,但 AI 看得一定比人类个体的平均值多。

工业设计不是天马行空地想象,它是一种「劳作」。

从初期的构思,从草图推延到模型和效果图,再从设计方案导入结构设计和工艺、制程,这意味着工业设计不是一项纯脑力劳动,不是一种只运行在计算机里的行为。它包含的体力劳作同样是设计的一部份,甚至可以说,是更关键的那部份。这种体力劳作,不仅仅是肌肉和工具的配合,更是人脑对环境、事件、社会群体、物质的反应和处理,设计师的动作意味着这个人对世界的认知。这种程度的认知,对于只运行在计算机内,仍然缺少复杂的传感器和理解过程的 AI 而言,暂时还是无法实现的。

我当然相信它未来会具备这样的能力,但是在目前的技术条件下,依然需要大量的人类来完成这些真正代表了「智能」的「体力劳作」。

欢迎加入我们的讨论:

https://aaany.app/aaa/ltwu3txza

想注册体验 AAAny 的话,请给我留言

我会给你留言的邮箱发送注册邀请码

Hell, Politics, and Religion

21 February 2023 at 00:19

Some forthcoming talks are helping me think through a new book, which I want to start writing in 2023 once Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future is out in September 2023 (more on that in a post coming soon).

One of the talks is at the Asia Society on March 1 and has to do with concepts of hell and the afterlife in China–especially how this played out after the Communist Party tried to destroy most values. Details here.

The second, and more relevant talk to my new book is on the idea of Civil Religion in China. I took a stab at this in early 2023 at a talk at Fordham University and will do so in a more systematic way in March at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, aka Germany’s Institute for Advanced Studies.

I’ll be on a podium with Franciscus Verellen, a distinguished historian of religious life in middle-period China (and along with Kristofer Schipper the editor of one of the great recent works of sinological study, The Taoist Canon, which is a magically written and illustrated two-volume companion to the canon, which is essentially an encyclopedia of Taoist thought).

Prof. Verellen will talk about state and religion in classical China and I’ll talk about the concept in the country today, especially as the Communist Party uses it to cement legitimacy.

You can see details of both talks on this site’s “Talks and Media Appearances” page. The German talk will be in German. Both will be posted to YouTube, and I think the German talk will have subtitles.

If you get a chance to hear these and have feedback, please do send me an email at ij@ian-johnson.com I’d appreciate any feedback.

Thanks!

The post Hell, Politics, and Religion appeared first on Ian Johnson.

更好的问题,总是在交流之后才出现的

By: Steven
14 December 2023 at 11:40

前两天,我收到 AAAny 的 Wenbo 发来的邮件,问我是否有兴趣注册他们的 APP 体验。我一看就乐了,立马截图发给汉洋和轶轩,开玩笑地问道:「我是不是应该告诉他,我早就注册了?」

这个叫做 AAAny 的新问答社区是汉洋他们团队,从 redit 等社区平台的使用中,萌生的对于「Ask Anyone Anything」的重新思考,所做出的产品。我其实几个月前,就在一次和他俩吃饭之后就注册好了。但是一直因为忙,我担心不能及时回复别人的提问,就一直没好意思发起一场主题活动。中途有看到可达和 JT 发起的问答,很感兴趣,也想试试看,但也因为对时间的担心就止住了念头。正好借着这次 Wenbo 的邮件,跟汉洋他俩聊了一会儿后,我就趁着夜色正浓,冲动还在,就立马编辑了两段自我介绍,发起了分别以「工业设计师」和「设计类视频创作者」为主题的两场活动。

点击进入「工业设计师 SUiTHiNK AmA~

点击进入「设计类视频博主 苏志斌 AmA!

当天也是高效,一连开了三个会。中途用各种碎片时间,一一回答了 AAAny 上的提问。晚上赶回家陪筱烨过生日的路上,我一看已经回复过的内容,好家伙,累计的输出量都赶上我平时写两三篇文章了。

碎片化地高密度输出,也是可以产生一些好内容的。

在使用了一天后,当晚,我和汉洋、轶轩聊了聊感受。汉洋问我感觉 AAAny 和知乎之间有什么区别?我打了一个比方:

知乎的问答是一种广场上的广播。一个问题对应一个完整的回答,虽然我可以不断修改回答,但是你修改后的内容很难再被之前看过的人再次看到。评论区就是一些人在外围窃窃私语,它们和主回答之间很难形成交流互动。它是有层级的、单向的信息传播。

但是 AAAny 给我的感觉,是老城区的街头沙龙。任何对话都是水平方向的,没有任何层级关系,就和大家在街头聊天一样。你看到一个感兴趣的话题,就可以直接加入;别人对你们正在谈论的感兴趣,也可以随时参与进来。它不是广播的形式,是集会和交流的空间。

有意思的事情在于,我们往往需要遇到好问题,才能写出一个好的回答。

然而,好的问题通常并不是我们提出来的第一个问题。你会在持续的提问和持续的回复之间渐渐发现,那些更本质和更有趣的问题。这是知乎解决不了的。好的问题如果都由运营和编辑来提出,那么知乎的运营压力会爆炸;如果都由用户提出,那么一定伴随着海量毫无意义的垃圾问题,这对真正的好问题是一种掩盖。

因此,持续的对话和前后文关系的保留,就很重要。同时也得确保,来自对话后段出现的好问题/好回答,能够被之前关心这个话题的人看到,也能被后来的观众发现。

运营这样的社区,需要真正会采访的记者。

点击进入「工业设计师 SUiTHiNK AmA~

点击进入「设计类视频博主 苏志斌 AmA!

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