The Need and Feasibility of the UN to Lead the Human Community in Creating a Digital Planet(016)
— An Open Letter to UN Secretary-General Guterres and Global Sages
5.2.2 The essence of the Digital Earth
The concept of Digital Earth was proposed by the former US Vice President Al Gore in January 1998 in a speech titled “Digital Earth: Understanding Our Planet in the 21st Century”. He viewed Digital Earth as “a three-dimensional multi-resolution representation of the Earth, able to accommodate vast amounts of geographic data”. In his view, this Digital Earth is a digital model of the Earth. Using computer technology, people organize relevant life and ecological data on the Earth according to its coordinates and store it in computers distributed globally, forming a digital model of the Earth. Clearly, Gore’s understanding of Digital Earth is a digital mapping of the material Earth in virtual space. This is also the mainstream understanding of Digital Earth in society today and corresponds to the mainstream understanding that the metaverse is a mapping of the real world.
Our understanding of Digital Earth is different and has a completely different definition: Digital Earth is a digital scene created by humans in the metaverse that can store human spiritual resources and provide a place for human spiritual and cultural development. When humans migrate from the material Earth to Digital Earth, what is migrating is not the human body but the human spirit and soul. Digital Earth is not only the home of human spirit and soul but also the activity place, upgrading base, and eternal carrier of human spirit and soul.
This understanding is also consistent with our view of the metaverse. Digital Earth is not a digital model or mapping of the material Earth but a digital planet that exists independently in the metaverse without any dependence or attachment to the material Earth. The current essence of Digital Earth is to create inexhaustible new wealth for human society; the future essence is to enable humans to achieve immortality.
The topic of human immortality is a separate discussion. Here, we focus on why Digital Earth can create inexhaustible new wealth and why it can fundamentally solve the United Nations funding problem. The reason is that Digital Earth’s new wealth is “incremental market new wealth” for our material Earth. Here, we have talked about “incremental market” and “new wealth.” The concepts of incremental and stock markets are well understood and need no explanation. The concept of wealth in new wealth needs to be defined to avoid ambiguity.
The wealth referred to here is narrow wealth, which refers to all resources, properties, or assets that have monetary value, exchange value, or can meet human needs, including currency, commodities, financial products and derivatives, intellectual property, etc. The so-called incremental market new wealth is the new wealth that is expanded from the metaverse’s incremental market beyond the old wealth of the existing stock market in the physical world. This is the value essence of Digital Earth.
To thoroughly understand this issue, let’s start by examining the essence of the value of the material Earth from a cognitive perspective.
In the physical universe, there are countless material planets, many of which are larger in volume and richer in material resources than Earth. However, those planets have no real value to humanity, because humans cannot live and develop on them or extract their resources to create wealth. Even if those planets have abundant material resources, they are worthless to humans if they cannot be converted into wealth. In contrast, material Earth has wealth value to humans, and the source of its value lies in the material resources it contains, which can be developed and utilized by humans. In the future, if Elon Musk’s Mars immigration plan succeeds, the material resources on Mars can also be developed and utilized by humans, and at that time, we can say that Mars also has value to humanity.
Let’s now look at the Metaverse. Currently, the Metaverse is essentially empty and does not contain any digital planets. Digital Earth can be considered the first digital planet created by humans in the Metaverse. This digital Earth can accommodate and facilitate human spiritual and intellectual activity, and thus, human spiritual resources are stored within it. These spiritual resources are also available for human development and utilization, and this is the source and essence of the value of digital Earth, where new wealth can be created. Today, the essence of digital Earth that we need to understand mainly refers to this value.
This value is extremely important. We can see that whether it’s Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, or various Meme coins, they all eventually become objects of capital speculation or tools for capital exploitation because they lack this value. The money printed by the United Nations in the Metaverse is fundamentally different from these digital currencies because digital Earth has this value.
In the future metaverse, there will certainly be more countries, organizations, associations, communities, or individuals creating various digital planets. The only criterion for determining whether they have wealth value and how much wealth value they have is to see how many spiritual resources available for human development and utilization are stored on this digital planet. A person can have countless avatars on the physical planet or the digital planet, but his or her spirit and soul are unique. Once you place your spirit and soul on the digital planet, you cannot place another on the digital Mars. Therefore, the value of the future digital planet mainly depends on how many people are willing to place their unique spirit and soul on it. The more people there are, the richer the spiritual resources, and the greater the potential value for development.
Today, the United Nations is taking the lead in building the digital earth in the metaverse, which is also a process of establishing standards for building digital planets in the metaverse and clarifying new rules and orders, including new rules and orders for the new economic ecosystem. Why is the United Nations restrained by capital and choked by money on the physical planet? It is because Wall Street financial oligarchs are the standard and rule makers of the traditional capitalist financial system, so they are the actual masters on this physical planet. However, once the United Nations becomes the standard and rule maker for the new finance and civilization in the digital earth and the metaverse, not only will its influence change, but its actual power will also be completely different. Only under such a premise can the United Nations lead the governance and development of human society in the future and guide human society into a completely new stage of civilization development.
The standard for building digital planets in the metaverse includes first, of course, safety standards. Second, it is the value standard. Safety standards belong to technical standards and are relatively easy to solve, so we will not discuss them here. Here, we mainly focus on the value standards. The most worthwhile discussion is the bottom-up construction standard of the metaverse, which is a standard that has never been explored before in human society and needs to be completely re-explored.
Fig. 49 shows a few general principles of equality for building a digital planet in the metaverse.
Firstly, there are no pre-determined privileges or benefits, everyone is equal. All values are shaped from the bottom up.
second, anyone is free to participate, free of charge, without threshold and without the need for anyone’s review or permission.
Thirdly, there is no retention or commission for the developer or investor either, all are on the same starting line.
Fourthly, all values can be nurtured, and all nurtures are based on algorithmic trust.
These principles, which are the criteria for the creation of the digital planet, are based around the spirit of value equity and value sharing. None of the current meta-universe projects, on the other hand, clearly meet any of these principles. So, they are neither building a meta-universe nor a digital planet, but just some form of reality mapping space. These principles, the criteria, are, of course, only in a nascent stage. The aim is to show that the economic ecology is completely different from the present one. The standards of the future are to be set by all the metaverse builders.
And for the UN to save itself, to enter the metaverse to build a new financial system. The most central aspect is to mobilise the global metaverse quasi-migrants to come together to build this digital earth. Once the Digital Earth is created, the spirit and soul of humanity can settle down on it. Only then can the great migration of human society across the universe take place. Once the migration is complete, this Digital Earth will have stored spiritual resources that can be exploited by human beings, and will have a value substance. The new finance built on it will also have value substance. At the same time, the fairness and sharing properties of the value essence will completely rewrite the economic, wealth and financial history of mankind.
The capitalist system is to blame for the failure of global governance. But it is also rooted in the fact that the resources of the physical earth are finite and unevenly distributed and unjustly distributed. Suppose, from the very beginning, we had divided the material resources of the earth into equal portions, and every earthling had been given his share at birth. Perhaps human society today would be far more equitable. Unfortunately, fairness and sharing of value is never possible on a material Earth.
Not so on the digital earth, which contains spiritual resources generated by human spiritual activity that are constantly growing, that is, infinite. This means that every person can have unlimited spiritual resources. People’s participation in the creation of the Digital Earth is a juridical confirmation that they have a share of unlimited spiritual resources. And the only way that spiritual resources can be exploited by human beings is by sharing and sharing. This not only reflects the fairness and sharing of values, but also has the core meaning that all the billions of people who participate in the creation of the Digital Earth have become the masters, the owners of the Digital Earth, and the creators of the new financial values. A new economic ecology, unprecedented in human history, will emerge, illuminating a new human society where there will be no more “poverty” and no more economic crisis.
Speaking of no more poverty, no more economic crises. Another difficult question is whether the value of the new wealth created by the metaverse and the digital earth, apart from the real world, really exists. And if so, where does this value come from? How can this new economic ecology eradicate poverty, how can it eradicate economic crises, how can it sustain the growth of the value of wealth. All this is incomprehensible in the context of existing knowledge. It would be like saying, more than 300 years ago, that a market economy (commercial economy) model could increase the material wealth of human society on earth several times or tens of times. Not many people would have understood, let alone believed it. At that time, China, which had dominated the global economy for thousands of years, was guided by the idea that “agriculture was more important than business”. Agriculture was the only thing that was fundamental, and to say that “industry”, “commerce” and “market economy” could make mankind richer was something that people at that time could not understand in any way.
(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.
5.2.2 数字地球的实质
数字地球的概念，是1998年1月，时任美国副总统的阿尔·戈尔在题为 “数字地球：认识二十一世纪我们所居住的星球” 演说时提出来的。他将数字地球看成是“对地球的三维多分辨率表示、它能够放入大量的地理数据”。在他看来，这个数字地球，就是地球的数字模型。人们利用计算机技术，将地球上相关生活和生态数据，按地球的坐标加以整理，存入全球分布的计算机中，构成一个地球数字模型。很显然，戈尔理解的数字地球，就是物质地球在虚拟空间中的一种数字映射。这也是现在社会上人们对数字地球的主流认知和理解，也正好符合了人们理解元宇宙是现实世界的映射这样一种主流认知。
我们对数字地球的认知并非如此，也有着完全不同的定义：数字地球，是人类在元宇宙中打造的可以储藏人类精神资源，并供人类进行精神文明建设的数字场景。当人类从物质地球迁徙到数字地球上时，迁徙的并不是人类的肉身，而是人类的精神和灵魂。数字地球，不仅是人类精神和灵魂的家园，也是人类精神和灵魂的活动场所、提升基地和永生载体。
这种认知，也与我们的元宇宙观完全一致。数字地球，不是物质地球的数字模型或映射体。而是一颗与物质地球没有任何依存或依附关系，独立存在于元宇宙中的数字星球。数字地球现阶段的实质意义，就是为人类社会创造出取之不尽用之不竭的新财富；而未来的实质意义，就是为了让人类获得永生。
人类永生的话题，另找时间谈。这里，我们着重聊聊数字地球为什么能创造取之不尽用之不竭的新财富，为什么可以从根本上解决联合国资金问题。因为，数字地球新财富对于我们物质地球来说，属于“增量市场新财富”。这里，我们谈到了“增量市场”，谈到了“新财富”。增量市场和存量市场的概念大家都没什么歧义，不用解释。倒是新财富中的财富概念，为避免歧义，有必要做个限定。
这里所指的财富属于狭义财富，是指：所有具有货币价值、交换价值或能满足人类需求的资源、财物或财产，包括货币、商品、金融产品及衍生品、知识产权等。所谓增量市场新财富，就是在实宇宙存量市场的旧财富之外，从元宇宙增量市场中拓展出来的新财富。这就是数字地球的价值实质。
要透彻理解这个问题，我们不妨先从认知物质地球的价值实质入手。
实宇宙中，存在着无数颗物质星球，比地球体积更大、物质资源更丰富的物质星球也多的是。但是，那些星球对人类没有什么价值实质。因为，人类不能在那些星球上居住和生活，也就无法开发上面的物质资源。即便它上面物质资源再丰富，由于无法将其转化成财富，对人类也就没价值。而物质地球对人类具备财富价值，其价值本源，就是物质地球中蕴含的物质资源，是可供人类开发利用的。未来，若马斯克火星移民计划成功，火星上的物质资源也可以供人类开发了。那时候，我们可以认为火星对人类来说也具有价值实质了。
再看元宇宙。现阶段的元宇宙基本是空的，不存在任何一颗数字星球。数字地球，可以认为是人类在元宇宙中打造的第一颗数字星球。这颗数字地球，因为能让人类的精神和灵魂在上面安居和活动，于是，人类的精神资源也就储存在里面了。而这些精神资源，都是可供人类开发利用的。这就是人类可以在数字地球中创造新财富的价值本源、价值实质。今天，我们要认知的数字地球实质，主要就是指的这个价值实质。
这个价值实质极其重要。我们目前看到，无论是比特币、莱特币、瑞波币，以及形形色色的Meme币。就是因为缺乏这个价值实质，最后都不得不沦落为资本炒作的对象，或变成资本割韭菜的工具。联合国在数字地球上印的钱，之所以与它们这些数字币有根本区别，就是因为数字地球具备这种价值实质。
未来的元宇宙，一定会有更多国家、机构、社团、社群或个人，打造形形色色的数字星球。而判断它们有没有财富价值、有多大财富价值的唯一标准，就是看这颗数字星球上，储存有多少可供人类开发利用的精神资源。一个人，可以在物质星球或数字星球上拥有无数个分身，但他的精神和灵魂是唯一的。你在数字地球上安置了自己的精神和灵魂，就不可能在数字火星上再安置一个。所以，未来数字星球的价值，主要看有多少人愿意在它上面安置自己唯一的精神和灵魂。安置的人越多，精神资源越丰富，它的可开发价值就越大。
今天，联合国在元宇宙中率先打造数字地球的过程，也是一个构建数字星球元宇宙打造标准，明确新规则和新秩序的过程。包括新经济生态体系的新规则和新秩序。联合国为什么在物质地球上被资本掣肘、被金钱扼杀，就是因为华尔街金融寡头们，是资本主义传统金融体系的标准制定者、规则制定者，所以，他们才是这个物质地球上的实际主宰。而现在，一旦联合国成为数字地球、成为元宇宙中新金融、新文明的标准和规则制定者，不仅话语权不同了，实际权利也完全不一样了。也唯有在这样一个前提下，联合国才有可能主导人类社会未来的治理和发展，引导人类社会进入一个全新的文明发展阶段。
元宇宙中数字星球的打造标准，第一，当然是安全标准。第二，就是价值标准了。安全标准属于技术标准，比较好解决，就不在这里探讨了。这里，我们主要关注的是价值标准。最值得探讨的就是元宇宙由下而上的打造标准，这是以往人类社会不曾有过的、需要完全重新探讨的标准。
图49是元宇宙中数字星球打造的几个平等性通用原则。
第一，没有预设特权和利益，人人平等。所有价值都是自下而上形成的；
第二，任何人都可自由参与，免费、无门槛，也无需任何人审核或许可；
第三，开发方、投资方也没有任何提留或提成，所有人处在同一起跑线；
第四，所有价值都可以养成，所有养成都基于算法信任。
这些原则，也就是数字星球的打造标准，都是围绕价值公平和价值共享的精神来制定的。而现在的元宇宙项目，显然没有一个符合以上原则。所以，他们既不是在打造元宇宙，也不是在打造数字星球，只是在打造一些形形色色的现实映射空间而已。当然，这些原则、标准，都仅仅处在一个萌芽期。旨在说明与现在的经济生态是完全不同的。未来的标准，是由全体元宇宙建设者共同制定的。
而对于联合国来说，要自救，要进入元宇宙打造新金融体系。最核心环节，就是要动员全球元宇宙准移民，一起来打造这颗数字地球。数字地球打造出来了，人类的精神和灵魂可以在上面安居了。人类社会的跨宇宙大迁徙才得以进行。一旦迁徙完成，这颗数字地球，就储存了可供人类开发利用的精神资源，就具备了价值实质。在它上面打造的新金融也才具备价值实质。与此同时，价值实质中的公平性和共享性属性，也将彻底改写人类的经济史、财富史和金融史。
人类社会之所以一步一步走到全球治理失败的今天，虽然资本主义制度难辞其咎。但其根源还在于物质地球的资源是有限的，而且分布不均衡，分配也不公。假设从一开始，我们就将地球上的物质资源划分为若干等分，每个地球人一生下来，就能分到属于他的那一份。或许，今天的人类社会会公平得多。遗憾的是，在物质地球上，价值的公平性和共享性是绝无可能的。
而数字地球就不一样了，它所蕴藏的精神资源是人类精神活动产生的，是不断增长的，也就是无限的。这就意味着每个人都可以拥有无限的精神资源。人们参与数字地球的打造，就是从法理上确认，他们拥有的无限精神资源份额。而精神资源能被人类开发利用的唯一途径，就是分享和共享。这不仅体现了价值的公平性和共享性，更核心意义在于，所有参与打造数字地球的亿万大众，也都成了造物主，成了数字地球的主人，成了新金融价值实质的缔造者。一个人类历史上从未有过的新经济生态就会喷薄而出，照亮一个再无“贫穷”二字、再无经济危机的崭新人类社会。
说到没有贫穷、说到没有经济危机。就不得不继续挑战另一个高难问题，元宇宙也好，数字地球也好，它们创造的新财富，脱离了现实世界，其价值还真的存在吗。如果存在，那这个价值究竟来自哪里？这个新经济生态怎么可能消灭贫穷，怎么可能消灭经济危机，怎么可能让财富价值持续增长。所有这一切，都是人们在现有认知范畴内无法理解的。这就跟300多年前，如果说一种市场经济（商业经济）模式，能让地球上人类社会的物质财富增加几倍、几十倍。肯定没有几个人能理解，更别说相信了。那时候，称雄全球经济数千年的中国，主要指导思想是就“重农轻商”。唯有农业才是根本，你竟然说什么“工业”，、商业”、“市场经济”，可以让人类更富裕，那时的人无论如何也是理解不了的。
（未完待续）
