CONCEPT
Rectification of Names
Confucius's doctrine (zhengming) that language must correspond to reality — and the discipline that exposes how the AI discourse has systematically corrupted the names for productivity, democratization, and intelligence.
The rectification of names (zhengming) is Confucius's doctrine that accurate language is the precondition for right action. 'If names are not correct, then language does not accord with reality. If language does not accord with reality, then things cannot be accomplished properly.' The teaching is not linguistic but structural: a civilization built on incorrect names will produce deformed institutions, because the institutions will be designed to address things as they are named rather than as they are. In the AI discourse, zhengming exposes the hollow language the industry deploys — calling intensification 'productivity,' calling expanded capability within concentrated power 'democratization,' calling pattern-matching 'intelligence,' calling destruction 'disruption.' Each corrupted name conceals a political question the correct name would force.
In The You On AI Field Guide
'Productivity' as deployed in the AI discourse describes volume of output without reference to value, cost to the producer, or sustainability. The Berkeley study found that AI did not reduce work