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Thu, September 21, 2017 | 05:16

Opinion > Columnists > Jason Lim >

Can NK be just another country?

I’ve always found B.R. Myers a very interesting voice in Korea studies. His idea that North Korea is not a Marxist-Leninist or a Stalinist state but an ethnonational-socialist country patterned more after Imperial Japan than Soviet Union really struck a nerve when I first read it. It was jarring but also very insightful. It was certainly a shock to my subconscious sense of ethno-nationalism that admittedly informed my analytical paradigm and hermeneutics when it came to Korea.

Jason Lim | 2017-09-01 17:08

Google's sins of omission

“Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” was the title of the 10-page memo that James Damore circulated with his fellow Google employees. In the memo, Damore took issue over what he perceived was Google’s current Politically Correct (PC) culture, claiming that the gender gap in Google’s diversity was not due to discrimination but inherent differences in what men and women find interesting. Damore was promptly fired for perpetuating gender stereotypes. Most of the outrage against this memo had to do with Damore’s claim that there are biological differences between men and women that lead to natura...

Jason Lim | 2017-08-18 17:18

Can the self survive augmented intelligence?

By AI, I actually mean augmented intelligence, not artificial intelligence. And by augmented intelligence, I mean technology that will allow us to do what we do faster, more, higher, stronger, etc. In short, AI doesn’t replace the human; it makes us better in every way. While this seems less threatening than artificial intelligence with its PR baggage of Skynet and Terminators, HAL9000 and Dave, etc., augmented intelligence may be more of a threat to what it means to be a human being because it can fundamentally redefine how we define ourselves. Arati Prabhakar, the former director of DARPA,...

Jason Lim | 2017-08-04 17:50

Elon Musk's AI challenge

So, Elon Musk wants us to start thinking about how to regulate artificial intelligence. Speaking at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting on Rhode Island, Musk suggested that the gubernatorial assembly start thinking about putting in regulations to prevent artificial intelligence from wiping out humanity. Huh. A push for proactive regulation coming from the world’s most famous serial entrepreneur is somewhat disorienting. You would think that an entrepreneur would want the government to get out of the way, rather than get in the way on purpose.

Jason Lim | 2017-07-21 17:21

Gaya to nowhere

Recently, President Moon expressed his explicit wish that the fresh articulation of Gayan history across the whole swath of Korea’s southern coast would facilitate the easing of the current regional animosity between South Korea’s southeastern and southwestern regions. Moon basically wants to use the history of this ancient Korean kingdom to create an alternate, common cultural identity that could overcome the seemingly intractable emotional and political separation between the two regions.

Jason Lim | 2017-06-23 16:11

Human immune system as cybersecurity

Cyberattacks and response patterns have become painfully obvious in the last few years. There is some type of an advanced persistent threat (APT) lurking in a system, siphoning off important information that includes personally identifiable information (PII) or financial information such as credit card passwords. Or there is a new exploit that suddenly becomes visible with the potential to create catastrophic damage across countless systems around the world.

Jason Lim | 2017-06-09 17:10

Articulating gay-ness in Korea

Back in the late 1990s when I spent a few years working at an English language institute in Seoul, something that almost seems like a rite of passage for Korean Americans, there were no gays in Korea even though I saw them everywhere. Let me explain. Having grown up in New York City, seeing gay people, especially gay men, was not an especially surprising event for me. However, when I first saw a gay man in Korea, it almost seemed as if he didn’t realize that he was gay. While I admit that you can’t judge a person by his or her cover, my “gay-dar” was pretty tuned and it was very quickly obvi...

Jason Lim | 2017-04-28 17:29

We beat the competition. Not you.

The image is that of a sparkling Southwest Airlines plane flying through the gorgeous sky. Underneath, the copy says, “We beat the competition. Not you.” Funny. And pretty brutal. This was only one of the countless mock advertising memes that popped up on social media platforms in the aftermath of the disastrous action by the United Airlines in forcibly yanking the Vietnamese American doctor from its flight from Chicago to Louisville. By now, everyone knows what happened, so I won’t recount what happened. Suffice it to say that it was pretty disturbing. And with the times being what they are...

Jason Lim | 2017-04-14 17:11

Become a certified 4th industrial revolutionary

Everything is certified these days. From used cars, massages and organic foods to program management and cyber security, certification is a ubiquitous and somewhat mysterious term that denotes a certain level of quality, authenticity, truthfulness, expertise, and everything good about the product or person. In fact, there are certifications that certify other certification processes so as to certify their capability to certify things in a certifiable way. It’s certifiably crazy sometimes. Granted, certification is oftentimes useful way for potential consumers to lessen their chances of buyin...

Jason Lim | 2017-03-31 16:48

Overcoming Korea's founder's syndrome

Many organizations experience the founder’s syndrome, in which a charismatic founder establishes a successful company on the power of his personality but ultimately becomes an impediment to the growth of the organization because of his need to remain in absolute control or misuse of the organization for personal gain. Most often, accountability and transparency are subverted by the founder himself through the use of nepotism, abusive leadership, and demands for personal loyalty that rivals those reserved for religious cults. Unless the founder’s syndrome can be overcome, it will prove to be ...

Jason Lim | 2017-03-17 16:58

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