The Need and Feasibility of the UN to Lead the Human Community in Creating a Digital Planet(011)
— An Open Letter to UN Secretary-General Guterres and Global Sages
5.1.3 New Civilization is the Wisdom Civilization
Toffler proposed the theory of three waves, but he never defined what the third wave, the new civilization triggered by the information revolution, is. Currently, there are various terms for this new civilization in society, such as information civilization, knowledge civilization, intelligent civilization, digital civilization, virtual civilization, and the ecological civilization proposed by China. Based on the theory of three waves and the evolution law of cross-civilizational new wealth, we believe that this new civilization should be named “wisdom civilization”.
Our deduction logic is also simple. The evolution of civilization always has a direction and a trend, and there must be some regularity in it. Once we extract this regularity, it is not difficult to deduce the basic form of future civilization. However, everything has its own developmental law. If this thing does not play a decisive role in the process of human civilization, then its significance to us is not significant. Only by finding the core law that plays a fundamental role in the evolution of civilization, can such conclusions be convincing.
So what is the core law here? Undoubtedly, it is the economic activities of human society. Since everyone agrees that the economic foundation determines the superstructure, and productivity determines production relations. Therefore, the evolution direction of human civilization must be towards the continuous improvement of productivity and the continuous growth of the total social economy. In this way, we only need to observe and analyze which types or industries of wealth are growing rapidly in a civilization era. Furthermore, analyzing the evolution law of these wealth can accurately determine the development direction and trend of the new civilization. This also provides a basis for how to name the new civilization.
The United States is currently the world’s largest economy, and its economic development represents, to some extent, the direction of human wealth evolution at the present stage. If we divide the economy into primary, secondary, and tertiary industries according to international standards, as shown in Fig. 41, the actual GDP growth data for the United States in 2021 indicates that the primary industry, agriculture, and the secondary industry, manufacturing, both had small growth rates. The largest increase was seen in the tertiary industry, which is the service industry. Looking from the bottom up, the evolution of GDP value growth presents a trend of dependence on “material” becoming weaker and dependence on “human” becoming stronger. In other words, rapidly growing wealth has a lower degree of materialization and a higher degree of humanization. Humanization refers to putting people first, where people are the source of wealth growth. The subject that determines the value of wealth is human beings themselves, rather than material, money, or other things. According to this trend of wealth value evolution, the economic foundation that the new civilization relies on must develop towards becoming increasingly dependent on human beings. Therefore, the new civilization must be a civilization with a higher degree of humanization. In fact, this can already be seen very clearly from the trend of the evolution of new wealth across civilizations: new wealth is developing towards a direction where materialization is continuously decreasing and humanization is continuously increasing.
From our analysis of Figure 42, we can fully understand the evolutionary trend of the new wealth across civilizations.
Cattle and sheep are both direct material wealth (edible) and means of production. People play the weakest role in creating value in this form of wealth. No matter how good a person’s grazing or breeding techniques are, it is impossible to make the value of one head of cattle or sheep surpass another by several or tens of times. Therefore, the materialization degree of this type of wealth is the highest, and the humanization degree is very low.
Land is no longer a direct material wealth but belongs to means of production. People play an important role in this form of wealth. The value of Manhattan’s land is drastically different from the value of land in rural Qinghai, and it is the people who developed Manhattan into an international metropolis. Similarly, people can also develop Shenzhen from a fishing village into an international metropolis. The value of Shenzhen’s land as a fishing village is vastly different from its value as a metropolis, demonstrating that this form of wealth has reduced materialization and already reflects a certain degree of humanization.
Intellectual property rights no longer belong to material wealth but to special means of production. People play a decisive role in this form of wealth. Although the value of intellectual property rights ultimately still needs to be reflected in material products or commodities, it no longer depends on any material existence but entirely depends on human creativity, invention, and innovation. The materialization of this form of wealth is obviously lower, and the humanization degree is higher.
In general, the core element determining the direction of human civilization’s evolution — the cross-cultural new wealth that plays a decisive role in the total economic volume — is developing towards a direction where human influence becomes increasingly greater and more direct. According to this evolution, the cross-cultural new wealth in the next new civilization should undoubtedly possess a higher degree of humanization. This will inevitably be a new civilization that is human-centered, belonging to the “human” civilization, rather than the “material” civilization.
Based on the above deduction and understanding, let us take a look at the naming of the new civilization in society. Whether it is the information civilization, knowledge civilization, intelligent civilization, digital civilization, or virtual civilization, they do not belong to the “material” civilization, but they cannot accurately express the human civilization’s connotation either. After all, information, knowledge, intelligence, and digital technology are not exclusive to humans, as artificial intelligence can also generate them. The concept of ecological civilization is too general. Only the term “wisdom civilization,” with “wisdom” being unique to humans, can accurately express the characteristics of human civilization. As for artificial intelligence, in the foreseeable future, it will only possess “intelligence” and not “wisdom.” Therefore, the term “wisdom civilization” is more appropriate to express the human civilization’s characteristics.
This is why we named the new civilization “Wisdom Civilization.”
Here, I want to reiterate that this is just an open letter and not an academic discussion. Some may think that there are too many arguments and evidence that are not rigorous and not sustainable. That’s okay. You are welcome to present more rigorous and convincing evidence. The purpose of this letter and this story is to help the United Nations save itself and help the human society to save itself. The best way for the United Nations to save itself is to print its own money, and print more money than traditional finance, which will not only save itself but also all the underdeveloped countries and people on this planet. Why can the United Nations print money and print more money? Because human civilization has reached a new turning point. Most people in the world have not yet realized this, including the creators of the old financial order. A new civilization era of humanity is coming. So, this new civilization will definitely have a new economic form, a new wealth system, and a new financial model different from the old civilization. And the total value of this new wealth system will far exceed the old one. If the United Nations understands this and realizes this, it can lead some underdeveloped countries and people in human society to take the lead in the new civilization transformation. It is only natural for the United Nations to print money and print more money in the new wealth system.
As for whether there is a new civilization, what the new civilization is, whether there is a new wealth system in the new civilization, and what the new wealth system should be like… Everyone can have their own opinions and understanding. This letter is just an introduction, just changing the perspective of thinking about the problem, providing some ideas to solve the problem. I don’t want to convince anyone, I just want everyone to have some reference opinions.
(To be continued)
The English translation is mainly done by AI and is inevitably not accurate enough. Please refer to the original Chinese text below for a more accurate understanding.
联合国引领人类社会打造数字地球的必要性和可行性（011）
— — 致联合国秘书长古特雷斯及全球贤达的公开信
5.1.3 新文明是智慧文明
托夫勒提出了三次浪潮理论。但是，他始终没有定义出第三次浪潮，也就是信息革命引发的新文明是什么。目前，社会上对这个新文明，各种提法都有。信息文明、知识文明、智能文明、数字文明、虚拟文明，还有中国提出的生态文明。我们在三次浪潮理论的基础上，结合人类文明发展阶段，尤其是跨文明新财富的演变规律，认为这个新文明应该命名为“智慧文明”。
我们的推导逻辑也很简单，文明的进化总会有一个方向，有一个趋势。这里面一定有一些规律性的东西，一旦我们把这种规律性的东西提炼出来，推导出未来文明的基本形态就不难了。不过，任何事物都会有它的发展规律，如果这个事物在人类文明进程中并不起决定性作用，那么，对我们而言，它的意义也不大。只有找到对文明进化起着根本性作用的核心规律，这样的结论才有说服力。
那什么是这里的核心规律呢，无疑是人类社会的经济活动。既然大家都承认，经济基础决定上层建筑，生产力决定生产关系。那么，人类文明进步的演变方向，必然是朝着生产力不断提高、社会经济总量不断增长的方向发展。这样一来，我们只需要观察和分析一个文明时代，社会财富迅速增长的是哪些种类，或者说是哪些行业。再进一步分析这些财富的演变规律，就可以准确判断出新文明的发展方向和趋势。从而，也为如何给新文明命名找到了依据。
美国是当今世界第一大经济体，美国的经济发展，在一定程度上代表着现阶段人类财富的演变方向。如果我们按照国际上第一产业、第二产业和第三产业的划分来看，图41说明，美国2021年的实际GDP增长数据中，第一产业的农业和第二产业的工业，增幅都很小。增幅最大体现在第三产业，也就是服务业上。由下往上看，GDP价值增幅的演变规律呈现出依赖于“物”越来越弱、而依赖于“人”越来越强的趋势。也就是说，迅速增长的财富，其物质化程度越来越低，而人本化程度越来越高。所谓人本化，就是以人为本，人是财富增长的本源。决定财富价值的主体是人本身、而不再是物质、金钱或其它。按照这么一个财富价值演变趋势来看，新文明所依赖的经济基础，必然朝着越来越依赖人的方向发展。那么，新文明必然是人本化程度更高的文明。
实际上，关于这一点，从跨文明新财富的演变趋势上，已经可以看得很清晰了：新财富是朝着物质化不断减弱、人本化不断增强的方向发展。
从我们总结的这个图42，可以全面了解到跨文明新财富的进化趋势。
牛羊，既是直接物质财富（可以食用），也是生产资料。人在这种财富形态中，能起到的价值作用最弱。人的放牧技术、饲养技术再怎么好，也不可能让某一头牛羊的价值超过另一头几倍、几十倍。所以，这类财富的物质化程度最高，人本化程度很低。
土地，不再是直接物质财富，而属于生产资料了。人在这种财富形态中，起着重要价值作用。曼哈顿的土地价值，与青海农村的土地价值，有着天壤之别，是人将曼哈顿发展成了国际大都市。人也同样可以将深圳由一个渔村发展成国际大都市，同是深圳土地，作为渔村时与作为大都市时的价值相差千百倍。说明这种财富形态，物质化减弱了，已经体现出了一定的人本化。
知识产权，已经不属于物质财富，而属于特殊生产资料了。人在这种财富形态中，起着完全的决定作用。知识产权这种财富形态，虽然其价值最终依然需要通过物质产品或商品体现出来。但其本身已经不依赖于任何物质存在，而完全取决于人，取决于人的发明、创造和创新能力。这种财富形态物质化显然更低，而人本化程度更高了。
总的来说，决定人类文明进化方向的核心要素 — — 对经济总量起着决定性作用的跨文明新财富，是朝着人的作用越来越大、越来越直接的方向发展。按照这个演变方向，再接下来的新文明，其跨文明新财富的财富形态，无疑应该具备更高的人本化程度。那必然是一种以人为本的新文明，属于“人”的文明，而一定不再属于“物”的文明。
基于以上推导和认知，我们再来看看社会上对新文明命名的提法，无论是信息文明、知识文明、智能文明、数字文明、虚拟文明，都确实不再属于“物”的文明，但也不能精确表达出“人”的文明内涵。毕竟，无论是信息、知识、智能、数字、虚拟，并非只有人独有，人工智能也能输出。至于生态文明的提法，过于笼统。唯有“智慧文明”这个提法中的“智慧”，才是人所独有的。而人工智能在可以看得到的未来，只会具备“智能”，不可能具备“智慧”。因此，“智慧文明”这个提法，能更准确地表达“人”的文明特性。
这就是我们将新文明命名为“智慧文明”的考虑。
这里，再次重申。这只是一封公开信，不是在做学术探讨。也可能有人认为这里面有太多不严谨、经不起推敲的论点和论据。都没关系，欢迎你拿出更严谨、更有说服力的成果来。这封信也好，这个故事也好，其目的，是希望能帮助联合国自救，也帮助人类社会自救。而联合国自救的最好办法，是自己能印钱，而且能印出比传统金融更多的钱，这样，既救了自己，也救了这个地球上所有经济不发达的国家和人民。为什么联合国能印钱，还能印更多的钱呢？因为，人类文明到了一个新的转折点。世界上绝大部分人都还没有意识到，包括旧金融秩序的制定者们，也都还没有意识到，人类的一个新文明时代正在到来。那么，新的文明一定有不同于旧文明的新经济形态，新财富体系和新金融模式。而这种新财富体系的价值总量一定会远远超过旧财富体系。如果联合国明白了这一点、认知到了这一点，引领人类社会中一部分不发达国家和人民，率先进行新文明转型。联合国在新财富体系中印钱、印更多的钱当然就顺理成章了。
至于究竟有没有新文明，新文明究竟是什么，新文明究竟有没有新财富体系，新财富体系又究竟该是什么样…… 这一切，大家都可以有自己的见解和认知。这封信仅仅是个引子，仅仅是变换了一些思考问题的角度，提供了一些解决问题的思路。并不想去说服任何人，只是想让大家多拥有一点参考意见而已。
（未完待续）
