How do we avoid becoming tools that are 'knowledgeable but lack judgment,' and cultivate our own 'taste'?
On October 18, 2025, Yang Zhenning, a scientific giant who spanned a century, passed away. Having worked alongside Einstein and known for the 'Yang–Mills'
"To learn something is not only to acquire some knowledge or some special technical method, but more importantly to gain some understanding and appreciation of its meaning. If
01 What Is 'Taste'? The 'Compass' on Yang Zhenning's Research Path
The 'taste' in Yang Zhenning's words was never 'taste' in the ordinary sense, but a sense of judgment, appreciation, and intuition toward the essence of learning. 'In every
For Yang Zhenning, taste was the 'core compass' of his research. In 1956, facing the experimental contradiction of the 'theta-tau puzzle,' most
This power of judgment even became his methodology of scholarship. He once advised young scholars to 'keep an eye on the few most brilliant people in the field,' essentially leveraging top scholars' tas
02 Where Did Yang Zhenning's Taste Come From: Slowly Grown in Diverse Nourishment
No one is born with the ability to 'judge the value of learning.' Yang Zhenning's taste took shape gradually over decades of diverse nourishment, and this process
Family enlightenment planted the seeds of humanities and 'slow nurturing.'
Yang Zhenning's father, Yang Wuzhi, was a renowned mathematician, yet he never rushed to drill calculus into his son. Instead, Yang Wuzhi invited a top student of a historian to lecture Yang Zhenning on 'Mencius,' reas
Seven years at Southwest Associated University completed an interdisciplinary and 'osmotic' transformation.
In 1938, Yang Zhenning entered the physics department of Southwest Associated University. Though the campus was in wartime, it had a liberal-education atmosphere of 'breadth over narrow specialization.' He not only delved deep
A vision blending Chinese and Western perspectives broadened the boundaries of taste.
After going to the U.S. for further study in 1945, Yang Zhenning both deepened his grasp of Western physics theory and never let go of his Chinese cultural roots: he could recite 'Lament for the Old Battlefield' together with Deng Jiaxian, and could
03 In the AI Age, How Do We Cultivate Our Own Taste?
Today, AI can summarize a physics book or generate a research framework within seconds, yet it cannot replace the ability to 'judge what is important and what is beautiful.' In this
First, see the challenge clearly: don't let AI steal your 'right to judge.'
The greatest threat AI poses to cultivating taste is the trap of 'blunted judgment.' First is the narrowing of information cocoons: AI algorithms, based on users
Second is the misdirection of 'transported' knowledge acquisition.
Now, searching 'core of quantum mechanics' with AI quickly yields summaries of formulas and theoretical frameworks, but this 'acquisition without thinking' is exactly what Yang Zhenning
Last is the risk of decision dependency.
Many people have grown used to letting AI recommend research directions, angles for topics, even judge 'whether this paper has value,' and over time they lose the ability to 'independently filter what is important
AI is not the enemy of taste cultivation; rather, it can become an 'efficiency tool.' How do we seize the opportunity: let AI be a 'burden-reducing assistant'?
The most direct value is freeing repetitive labor and focusing on core judgment:
For example, when organizing the viewpoints of a certain physics school, AI can quickly aggregate the abstracts of different scholars' papers, saving the time of manual collection; then a person can devote energy to '
AI can also break down domain barriers and facilitate cross-disciplinary osmosis.
Yang Zhenning's taste owed much to the arts-science crossover at Southwest Associated University, and now, with AI, one can quickly link cross-domain knowledge: for example, searching 'in physics
AI can provide a reference frame and strengthen autonomous reflection.
For example, ask AI to generate 'a value interpretation of parity non-conservation,' then compare it with your own thinking, and you can clearly see 'AI focuses more on technical breakthroughs, while
How to cultivate Taste in the AI age? There is no shortcut to cultivating taste, but there are methods that can be put into practice, and the core is 'holding onto human initiative.'
Step one, information processing: AI does the first screening, humans do the fine judgment.
When using AI to aggregate field content, don't directly trust its 'key highlights'; instead, manually circle 'the parts I think are important.' For example, when using AI to organize
Step two, knowledge internalization: AI builds the framework, you supply the 'flesh and blood of meaning.'
After using AI to summarize a theory, always ask 'why is this part beautiful.' For example, after AI lists the definition of 'wave-particle duality,' you can reflect on
Step three, pace of growth: slow nurturing plus practice, refuse quick fixes.
When facing a problem, first give yourself 10 minutes of independent thinking about 'from which angle should I approach it,' then use AI to verify. For example, when reflecting on 'taste in the AI age
04 The Humanities: The 'Ultimate Anchor' of Taste in the AI Age
Looking back at the path of Yang Zhenning's taste formation — from the humanistic enlightenment of 'Mencius,' to the arts-science immersion at Southwest Associated University, to the observation of life's phenomena — it was always inseparable from
AI can simulate linguistic logic and write 'words with warmth,' yet it cannot possess 'the awe of standing beneath the dome of the Sistine Chapel' or 'the resonance with benevolence and righteousness when reading Mencius'
In an era of rapid AI iteration, cultivating taste is essentially safeguarding 'human uniqueness.' We need not fear that AI knows more than us, nor
