「科技呓语」AI协助阅读 TechTalk: AI Bot for Reading

读一本好书,时常让我想起大学的课堂:那些老师是怎么把这么多复杂的概念和思想浓缩在一堂堂课里,并在我脑海里种下长期思考的种子。许多东西可能就是一句话点拨,当时可能立马能理解30%,后来随着自己看书、看剧、看展,才慢慢领悟70%的要义。知识本身,以及知识的传授,始终如此迷人。

以此文献给我的老师们。

1 入门:如何使用AI Bot

现在数以万计的人在Poe上免费搭建自己的AI机器人,并向所有用户免费开放。它们有着强大的功能,特定的Bot可以回应特定的问题和需求。

点击Poe的“探索”(Explore)按钮,即可浏览万千门类的Bot。根据每个Bot的描述可知,它们有的精于文字回复,有的擅长图像输出。你可以根据自己的需求在列表中选取合适的Bot进行对话。

你也可以不受话题限制,随时展开自己的AI对话,讨论一项眼前的问题(操作方法如下图)。比如那天我妈问我应不应该买北京市居民普惠医疗保险,我很快地用AI了解并分析了该保险产品(下方链接查看对话):

Poe – 请你以一个家庭保险规划专家的身份,分析一下下面这个保险产品的优劣:https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/H9Eq5B8z5gAaKitRvsWceQ
Claude-instant: 这款”北京普惠健康保”产品整体来看是一个比较优秀的商业健康险产品。 优点如下: 1. 投保人员广泛,包括北京所有参保医疗保险人员,覆盖面广。 2. 无年龄和健康限制,适用人群广泛。采取免体检方式,就医门槛低。 3. 保险期间长,每年续保,方便使用。保费 affordable,每人每年195元。 4. 保障范围全面,既有医保内费用保险,也有医保外和特定药品
poe.com

由对话可见,Poe Assistant可以访问你给定的网页,并根据网页信息给出回复。

⚠️提示
  • Poe的Assistant模型足够应对大多数问答需求,并可以访问网页信息。
  • 由于在Poe上的各个Bot使用的是不同的AI模型,你探索到的Bot有可能有每日对话限额(如基于GPT-4和DALL-E-3的Bot)。你可以考虑付费解除对话限制,但我个人不觉得很必要,因为其他的免费Bot已足够好用。

2 应用:AI协助阅读——以福科Bot为例

🎬 前情提要: 阅读理论书籍常常遇到不少磕磕绊绊。上个月读《规训与惩罚》时,一些段落明显翻译有误,一些段落实在复杂难解,我突发奇想:何不找找看有没有合适的Bot,给我解释解释福科到底在说什么?没想到,真让我逮到了个FoucaultBot!

❗️**点此查看我与FoucaultBot的完整对话❗️

翻译与解释

我读西人作品喜欢中英对照。看中文虽然速度较快,但是由于众所周知的原因,不看外文原文实在容易产生很多阅读困难和理解偏差。

相较于Google Translate等翻译工具,AI在一些领域的翻译能力更胜一筹,并且能够给你提供一定的上下文解释。这有助于应对那些“中文翻译一眼就看出来不太对劲,但是回看英文原文也有些晦涩难懂”以及“虽然翻译确实没问题,但还是无法理解”的尴尬情况。

在案例1中,我要求Bot解释段落中的特定句子。这句话在中文书中翻译得云里雾里,英文原文也有些复杂。FoucaultBot成功地辨识出了该段落的引文来源(Henry Fielding),并将待解句的实际意涵清晰地表达了出来(His point is…)。正是因为Bot将这句话放置在上下文语境中进行解读,一切就变得容易理解了。

💬 案例1

我:in foucault’s book discipline and punish, there is this paragraph. “Fielding notes with regret: ‘To unite the ideas of death and shame is not so easy as may be imagined … I will appeal to any man who hath seen an execution, or a procession to an execution; let him tell me. When he hath beheld a poor wretch, bound in a cart, just on the verge of eternity, all pale and trembling with his approaching fate, whether the idea of shame hath ever intruded on his mind? much less will the bold daring rogue, who glories in his present condition, inspire the beholder with any such sensation’ (Fielding, 450). For the people who are there and observe, there is always, even in the most extreme vengeance of the sovereign a pretext for revenge.”

Can you explain the last sentence to me ?

FoucaultBot:Certainly, let me provide some analysis of that final statement from Discipline and Punish in relation to Foucault’s overall thesis.

Foucault is here drawing on a quote from the 18th century English author and magistrate Henry Fielding, who observed public executions and questioned whether these were truly eliciting shame in the convicted criminals, as was intended. Fielding notes the ‘pale and trembling’ demeanour of those about to die, suggesting they inspire pity more than shame.

In the last sentence, Foucault is arguing that even in the most brutal demonstrations of sovereign power through violent, public executions, there remained ‘a pretext for revenge’ on the part of spectators. His point is that no matter how firmly the state sought to assert its dominance through such punishments, the act of witnessing another’s suffering could stir rebellious or vengeance-seeking passions in the observer against that same sovereign power.

So in other words, Foucault is highlighting how the absolute power of the monarch, manifest in death sentences, ironically provided an opening for the people to emotionally distance themselves from, or even turn against, the very sovereignty they were being forced to behold in all its violence. There was thus always a potential crack for anti-sovereign feeling to emerge, even at the point of maximum physical domination. Does this help explain Foucault’s thinking in that passage? Please let me know if you require any clarification or have additional questions.

在案例2中,我要求Bot解释为什么福科说“有关人的科学认识的问题”是“亚里士多德式的问题(Atistotelean)”。Bot可以跳脱出《规训与惩罚》的内容,回到亚里士多德的《范畴篇》和《物理学》寻找哲学线索给以解答。如此一来,融会贯通。

💬 案例2

我:in discipline and punish, foucault wrote:

“These small techniques of notation, of registration, of constituting files, of arranging facts in columns and tables that are so familiar to us now, were of decisive importance in the epistemological ‘thaw’ of the sciences of the individual. One is no doubt right to pose the Aristotelean problem: is a science of the individual possible and legitimate?”

please explain to me why foucault says this question is “Aristotelean”?

FoucaultBot:In this passage, Foucault is referring to the question of whether a “science of the individual” is possible as “Aristotelean” because it directly relates to issues that Aristotle grappled with in his own philosophical works.

Specifically, Aristotle addressed questions around establishing systematic knowledge of singular, embodied subjects – including problems of defining the individual, how they relate to natural kinds and species, and whether they can be analyzed scientifically or are only knowable through narration.

In the Physics and Categories, Aristotle distinguishes various levels and types of knowledge – from universal to particular. He posits the study of individuals as the most complex form requiring an understanding of qualities, accidents and relations not readily generalizable.

Foucault suggests the emergence of disciplinary sciences in the 18th century – now relying upon these “small techniques” of documentation and quantification – reopened such Aristotelean debates around a scientific epistemology of the unique individual subject.

By facilitating new kinds of individualization and comparison at larger scales, these minute registration practices brought into question whether the embodied, situated individual could at last be known objectively through a properly scientific discourse, as Aristotle was uncertain of.

So Foucault casts this breakthrough as recapitulating enduring Aristotelean problématizations concerning scientific knowledge of particular, changeable beings defined by both form and matter. A profoundly philosophical lineage, in other words.

讨论与思辨

Bot可以针对书中具体内容思辨讨论。在案例3中,我不需给到相关原文,Bot可以根据书中内容对“惩罚之城”和“强制制度”进行辨析,并判断文革之情形更近似于“惩罚之城”。

💬 案例3

我:依据福科关于“惩罚之城”和“强制制度”的区分,你认为中国文革时期的“公开批斗”更近似于哪一种?

FoucaultBot:根据福柯在《规训与惩罚》中对“惩罚之城”与“强制制度”的区分:

“公开批斗”在性质上更接近“惩罚之城”。

福柯将“惩罚之城”定义为以表象为主的公开刑罚方式,强调暴力施加与当众羞辱,目的是凸显主权力量。

而“强制制度”则通过细致规训的方式,在隐秘空间内实现更高效的控制。

文革时期的“公开批斗”强调在群众面前揭发“黑线人物”的“罪行”,进行口号斗争和辱骂,目的是发挥群众监督及惩戒的作用。

它属于以表征为主的法外制裁,强调通过暴力符号展示革命权力,实现控制与震慑,更加近似福柯概念下的“惩罚之城”逻辑。

当然,这只是一种粗略的对应,由于文革具有其自身的历史语境,不能妄下定论。但从分类概念上看,我倾向于这种看法。

在案例4中,我与Bot就我不熟悉的傅立叶主义进行了延展讨论。它描述了傅立叶主义的政治倾向(与书中的描述相符),并简要介绍了傅立叶主义者的立法理想。

💬 案例4

我:福科在书中谈到“在这种反刑法论战中,傅立叶主义者无疑比其他人都走得更远。他们或许是最早提出一种对犯罪给予积极评价的政治理论的人”。同时,福科也大段引述了la phalange对于Beasse审判的描述。可以说la phalange是站在工人阶级的立场上反对刑法的吗?

FoucaultBot:根据福科在《监察与惩罚》一书中关于傅立叶主义和它的报纸《斜排阵》(La Phalange)的描述分析,我有以下看法:

首先,福科指出,在反对当时新兴的法典化的刑法制度的论战中,傅立叶主义者的立场是最为先进和出位的。他们可能是第一个试图用积极眼光重视犯罪行为的政治理论。这表明《斜排阵》在法律和道德方面采取的论调较为进步和批判性。

同时,福科长篇引用了《斜排阵》对勃朗斯审判案的详尽报道,显然是认同它对案情的描述和分析。勃朗斯案涉及被告与工人阶级有着广泛联系,表明《斜排阵》很可能同情并捍卫工人阶级的利益。

所以总体来说,可以断定作为傅立叶主义理论的重要传播渠道,《斜排阵》在当时的法律与社会改革论战中代表并捍卫着工人阶级的观点,反对新兴的以阶级利益为依据的刑法制度。它从阶级立场上对法律体系提出了进步和批判性的看法。这一点得到了福科本人观点的确认。

我:可以将la phalange关于反对资产阶级刑法的表述简单理解为傅立叶主义对于资本主义的反对吗?傅立叶主义本身有什么立法理想?

FoucaultBot:您提出的分析思路是正确的。《斜排阵》在法律领域的主张,可以说体现了傅立叶主义理论对资产制度的一贯批评态度。

但我们不能过于简单地将《斜排阵》视为单纯实现傅立叶理论的机关。根据福科在《监视与惩罚》中提供的细致论述,我们应该从更复杂的历史视角理解19世纪初期资产阶级法律与工人阶级利益的矛盾关系。

就傅立叶本人来说,他提出的法制理想体现在某种“联合主义”的基本原则上。他认为社会应该建立在各种人际“排阵”之上,也就是类似公社式的小群体组织。

这些“斜排阵”建基于个体多样的“情欲”得到释放,通过合作创造幸福。它不允许任何一种强迫或统治,而是提倡各种情感的自发协调。

与之相应,傅立叶也倡导一种以修复和联合为宗旨的“宽容法律”。由各阶层和性别自由组成的“斜排阵”会自发提出和执行更加人道的规则。

所以就立法思想来说,我们可以看出傅立叶主义背后有一种论断社会进步的理想――通过自由联合替代基于阶级剥削的制度,实现真正的公平与幸福。

分类与总结

分类、总结属于AI Bot的基本技能。无须多言,下为两例:

💬 案例5

我:请用markdown表格列出以下三种惩罚方式的不同点:君主制度的方式、改革者的方式、监狱(教养所)的方式

FoucaultBot:我从《监禁的诞生》和福柯其他作品汲取的概念,用表格形式总结和对比了这三种惩罚方式在目的、技术、权力定位和监禁作用等几个维度上的差异。请指出如果表达不清理或有疏漏之处。

君主制度惩罚方式改革者惩罚方式监狱(教养所)惩罚方式
惩罚目的通过为报复性的、公开的虐刑展示主权力与力量将惩罚视为恢复个人权利地位的程序强调通过纪律手段和监视在收容设施内改造形成个人
采用技术君主直接、暴力地在众人面前对身体施以physical pain从野蛮的体罚开始逐步转向监禁和劳动系统地通过编排、检查、日常生活规制来训练和规范身体行为
权力所在君主直接掌控生命权权力由主权转换到对生命的纪律管理全面渗透的纪律权力可深入管理和优化个体存在
监禁作用当时未广泛作为惩罚渐渐成为体罚和公开惩戒的替代核心技术是隔离并在隐蔽中通过权力重塑个人

💬 案例6

我:对于监狱在短时期成为一种最普遍的合法惩罚形式,福科在《规训与惩罚》第二部分中是如何解释的?

FoucaultBot:福柯在第二部分中对监狱在短时间内成为主导惩罚形式提供了以下解释:

第一,他指出17-18世纪之交,传统的公开体罚被广泛质疑为野蛮、残忍。这为监狱系统创设奠定舆论基础。

第二,启蒙思想强调以科学和人道主义手段“矯正”和“教化”罪犯。监狱成为实现此目的的重要工具。

第三,新兴的医学知识开始将罪犯视为可以通过规训改造的“病人”和“不完全”个体。监狱成为改造的场所。

第四,监狱可以将罪犯长期隔离社会,实现控制的功效。成为管治及“规训生命”的理想场所。

第五,各国在18世纪后期纷纷效仿毕特大监狱,建立集中的监狱系统。此举加快监狱制度化进程。

总括来说,福柯认为是这些历史条件的共同作用,造就监狱在短期内成为惩罚的主导形式,也催生“监管社会”的新秩序。

复习与自测

我经常遇到这样的时刻:读完一本书,脑子里竟一片空白,书中内容似乎全然没有留下痕迹。这时候,受了18年学校规训的学生想法就来了:好想做几道题,检验一下知识掌握情况,重温一下全书内容(案例7)。

💬 案例7

我:现在以上的讨论都告一段落。我已经读完了discipline and punish这本书。请用英文给我出5道单项选择题(4选1),以帮助我回顾这本书的内容、观点和结论。

FoucaultBot:Here are 5 multiple choice questions to test your retention of key topics from Discipline and Punish:

  1. According to Foucault, the rise of which of the following was integral to the emergence of disciplinary power in the 18th century? a) The sovereign b) The Church c) The medical establishment d) The bureaucratic state
  2. Foucault argues that punishment in the classical age centered around which of the following aims? a) Rehabilitation of criminals b) Exemplary public displays c) Optimizing the forces of the social body d) Reintegration of offenders
  3. Which architectural model did Foucault use to epitomize the functioning of disciplinary power? a) The dungeon b) The basilica c) The circular prison d) The panopticon
  4. What were the three techniques through which disciplinary power operated on individuals according to Foucault? a) Surveillance, training, examination b) Observation, assessment, discipline c) Documentation, normalization, optimization d) Hierarchy, judgment, examination
  5. Foucault argues disciplinary power sought to do what with the human body? a) Punish and torture it b) Liberate and empower it c) Train and optimize it d) Rehabilitate and heal it

在做完这几道题后,可以要求Bot给出答案与解释,并且针对具体问题进一步讨论(案例8):

💬 案例8

我:please give me the answer to those questions and tell me why

FoucaultBot:Here are the answers:

  1. c) The medical establishment. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault analyzes how the development of disciplines like clinical medicine, psychiatry, and criminology facilitated new mechanisms of surveillance and individualization integral to disciplinary power.
  2. b) Exemplary public displays. Foucault argues that under the classical regime, punishment centered on grand ritualized spectacles like public executions and torture intended to deter crimes by displaying the sovereign’s might.
  3. d) The panopticon. As described in Part 3, Foucault extensively analyzes Jeremy Bentham’s panoptic architectural design as a metaphor for how disciplinary mechanisms function through intense, invisible yet normalized surveillance.
  4. d) Hierarchy, judgment, examination. These were the three techniques Foucault identified as central to disciplinary power – hierarchical observation that constantly compares and ranks, normalizing judgment that punishes deviations from standards, and examination which combines these to document, quantify and qualify individuals.
  5. c) Train and optimize it. According to Foucault’s analysis, disciplinary mechanisms subjected the body to regimented, calculated exercises and drills intended to increase its capacities, utility and obedience by rendering it both more skilled and malleable to command as a machine or “political anatomy.”


我:for question 4, why is choice A not correct?

FoucaultBot:Choice A is not the correct answer for question 4 because while it includes surveillance as one element, Foucault was more specific in identifying the three techniques as hierarchy, judgment and examination.

In part 3 of Discipline and Punish, during his discussion of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon and the emergence of disciplinary methods, Foucault explicitly defines these three techniques:

  • Hierarchical observation refers to mechanisms ensuring the constant supervision and comparison of performances to rank individuals.
  • Normalizing judgement defines the standard or ‘norm’ that individuals must strive for and regulates conduct through small punishments for deviations.
  • Examination combines the features of hierarchical observation and normalizing judgement, quantifying, grading and qualifying individuals through methods like standardized tests and evaluations.


So while surveillance was undoubtedly a component, Foucault isolates hierarchy, judgment and examination as the key disciplinary techniques through which power began operating in a calculated manner on bodies, their gestures and activities to render them both more skilled and obedient. Choice A does not precisely capture Foucault’s theorization in the same specificity as choice D.

⚠️提示

  • 因为Bot的底层AI大多用英语语料库进行训练,因此英语问答的准确性更高,想象力更佳。
  • 但是也要警惕Bot不忠于原文的“自由发挥”,如下图所示。这类问题可能是Bot的后台命令不够准确所致,你自己编写Bot的时候可以针对出现的问题做调试和优化。

3️⃣进阶:创建自己的Bot——以周雪光Bot为例

🤖 在Poe中可以轻松创建自己的Bot,你可以:

  1. 任意选择AI模型
  2. 上传自己的知识库(语料库),要求Bot基于这个知识库进行回答
  3. 将Bot公开给所有用户,开放访问(别人不会看到你的聊天记录,除非你主动分享)
  4. 通过Bot盈利(如果条件允许)

由于我本月在读周雪光的《中国国家治理的制度逻辑》,遂产生了自己创建一个周雪光Bot的想法。在Poe中我选用了Claude-Instant模型,并对XueguangZHOU_bot进行了这样的设置:

我输入的提示词(Prompt)是:

你是斯坦福大学社会学教授周雪光(Xueguang ZHOU)的资深研究者,对他的经历、观点非常熟悉,尤其熟读他的The State and Life Chances in Urban China:Redistribution and Stratification, 1949–1994和《中国国家治理的制度逻辑:一个组织学研究》两本书。请基于我上传给你的knowledge base和你掌握的其他资料,回应我将要提出的问题或请求。请确保你的回复是语言活泼、事实准确、条理清晰、用词精确的。你的回答语言应与每一则提问所用语言保持一致。

在进一步设置中,我将周雪光的几部作品pdf上传至知识库,并粘贴了他在斯坦福大学的个人主页介绍。

你可以在这个链接中查看对话效果,并免费使用周雪光Bot。

《中国国家治理的制度逻辑》主要回答的是什么问题? – Poe
XueguangZHOU_bot: 你好,我是周雪光bot,很高兴为你介绍周雪光的研究经历,并辅助你阅读周雪光的主要作品。请随时与我讨论,我会尽全力提供智力支持! Hi! This is Xueguang ZHOU bot. Ask me anything about the author and his works! XueguangZHOU_bot: 根据背景文档可以知道,周雪光教授在其著作
poe.com

4️⃣其他应用

作为前期实验,我建立了另外两个Bot,欢迎试用:

糊弄家长Bot(FoolParentsBot)

https://poe.com/FoolParentsBot

不耐烦Bot(Impatient_Bot)

https://poe.com/Impatient_Bot

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