Digital Technology Boosts Common Prosperity in Cultural-Ethical Life

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism and an important feature of Chinese-path modernization. The common prosperity we speak of is the common prosperity of all the people, the common prosperity of the people in both material and cultural-ethical life." Common prosperity in cultural-ethical life is an inherent requirement of Chinese-path modernization, and the rapid development of digital technology accelerates the realization of this beautiful vision. The launch of ChatGPT as a representative AI product at the end of 2022, followed by the "Hundred-Model War" in China, has triggered global attention to and application of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Digital technology, as the engine and driving force of future economic and social development, is reshaping China's social structure, business ecology, and workplace culture. Effective use of digital technology not only greatly improves social production efficiency, stimulates enterprise innovation, enhances employee effectiveness, and promotes individual career development, thereby promoting people's material prosperity, but also creates and invents more cultural-ethical products, enriches people's cultural-ethical life, meets the people's growing needs for a better life, and empowers the people's common prosperity in cultural-ethical life.

习近平总书记指出：“共同富裕是社会主义的本质要求，是中国式现代化的重要特征。我们说的共同富裕是全体人民共同富裕，是人民群众物质生活和精神生活都富裕。”精神生活共同富裕是中国式现代化的应有之义，数字技术的快速发展加速了这一美好愿景的实现。2022年末ChatGPT为代表的人工智能产品问世，及随后展开的中国百模大战，引发了全球对生成式人工智能（AI）的广泛关注和应用。数字技术作为未来经济社会发展的引擎和动力，正在重塑中国的社会结构、商业生态和职场文化，有效利用数字技术不仅大幅提高社会生产效率、激发企业创新、增强员工效能及促进个人职业发展，促进人们物质富裕，而且也创造、发明了更多的精神产品，丰富人民的精神生活，满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要，赋能人民群众的精神生活富裕。

Digital technology has an inherent capacity to empower common prosperity in cultural-ethical life

数字技术具有赋能精神生活共同富裕的内在能力

Common prosperity in cultural-ethical life is a rich concept with multiple levels and connotations; it is a dynamic category relative to the requirements of social development and economic prosperity. Although there is no precise definition of common prosperity in cultural-ethical life, there is no dispute that the vision of common prosperity in cultural-ethical life must be realized in the continuous satisfaction of the people's growing cultural-ethical needs. "Cultural-ethical needs — cultural-ethical production — cultural-ethical enjoyment" is the practical logic of common prosperity in cultural-ethical life, while "need — satisfaction — new need — re-satisfaction" is the driving force of the development of cultural-ethical life. Marxist theory holds that cultural-ethical life is an important part of the overall human life and the soul of human life; it is premised on material life, yet transcends material life and has its own independence. Human cultural-ethical needs are the direct driving force for the formation of cultural-ethical life, while cultural-ethical production and cultural-ethical interaction are two paths for its formation. Cultural-ethical life can better reflect human existence and its essence than material life; only by attending to this historical consciousness of human beings can their production demands and practical results be brought forth. From the perspective of human motivation theory, the satisfaction of cultural-ethical needs is the core driving force of individual behavior and self-development. Maslow's hierarchy of needs points out that when individuals' basic physiological and safety needs are met, they will naturally pursue higher-level cultural-ethical needs, such as a sense of belonging, respect, and self-actualization. Therefore, pursuing cultural-ethical life and satisfying cultural-ethical needs is an inevitable result of the progress of human society, an inevitable requirement for individual development, and a prerequisite for social cultural-ethical production and enjoyment.

精神生活共同富裕是一个多层次、多内涵的丰富概念，是相对于社会发展、经济富裕要求而言的动态范畴，尽管还未形成精神生活共同富裕的确切定义，但毫无争议，精神生活共同富裕愿景一定是在不断满足人民日益增长的精神文化需求中得以实现。“精神需要—精神生产—精神享受”是精神生活共同富裕的实践逻辑，而“需要—满足—新需要—再满足”是精神生活发展的动力。马克思主义理论认为，精神生活是人类生活整体中的重要组成部分，是人生活的灵魂所在，它以物质生活为前提，同时又超越于物质生活，具有独立性。人的精神需要是精神生活形成的直接动力，而精神生产和精神交往是精神生活形成的两种路径，精神生活比物质生活更能体现人的存在及其本质，只有观照到人的这种历史自觉，才能催生人的生产诉求和实践结果。从人类动机理论来看，精神需求的满足是驱动个体行为和自我发展的核心动力。马斯洛的需求层次理论指出，当个体的基本生理和安全需求得到满足后，自然会追求更高层次的精神需求，如归属感、尊重和自我实现。因此追求精神生活、满足精神需要是人类社会进步的必然结果，是实现个体发展的必然要求，也是社会精神生产和享受的前提条件。

Digital technology is highly efficient, interconnected, equalizing, and full-cycle; it has strong anti-interference ability, good confidentiality, strong versatility, and decentralization. It can effectively link different resources to form a more efficient resource allocation method. By fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of the government, enterprises, social organizations, and residents, it forms new social connections that can break traditional organizational boundaries such as household registration, region, and work unit, create new connection mechanisms and corresponding social structures among social individuals, provide equal opportunities for different groups to acquire knowledge and resources, and help enrich the abundance and breadth of cultural-ethical life.

数字技术具有高效性、互联互通性、平等性和全周期性，抗干扰能力强，保密性好，通用性强，去中心化，可以将不同的资源有效地联结起来，形成更加高效的资源配置方式。通过充分调动政府、企业、社会组织以及居民的积极性，形成新的社会连接方式，能够打破传统的户籍、区域、单位等组织边界，形成社会个体之间新的连接机制和相应的社会结构，为不同群体提供获取知识和资源的平等机会，有利于赋能精神生活的丰度和广度。

Through empowerment, digital technology creates more cultural-ethical products that the people are happy to see, enriches the people's cultural-ethical life, and enables people's senses to obtain cultural-ethical enjoyment and the mind to be purified and calmed. As a decentralized parallel world combining the virtual and the real, a landmark product of the transformation of human civilization from carbon-based to silicon-based, the digital technology composed of "AI + machine intelligence + human-machine intelligence" breaks through the constraints of time and space, embeds social networks, and is endowed with spiritual attributes unique to humans, such as external perception, social interaction, emotion, thinking, self-awareness, judgment, and even free will, pattern recognition, etc. The behavior and thinking of AI can flexibly respond to various situations like humans, conducting emotional communication and interaction.

数字技术通过赋能，创造出更多的为人民群众喜闻乐见的精神产品，丰富人民的精神生活，使人的感官获得精神上的享受、心灵获得净化和宁静。作为一个虚拟与现实结合的去中心化的平行世界、人类由碳基文明转化为硅基文明的标志性产物，“人工智能＋机器智能＋人机智能”组成的数字技术突破了时间和空间的限制，内置了社交网络，被赋予了人类所独具的对外感知、社交、情感、思维、自我意识、判断力甚至自由意志、模式识别等精神层面的东西，人工智能的行为和思维能够像人类一样灵活应对各种情境，进行情感交流和互动。

Higher-level technology applications such as brain-computer connection, machine perception, speech and language processing, intelligent search, complex system planning, emotion perception, knowledge learning, and interaction algorithms bring people into a digital cognitive world integrating vision, hearing, touch, taste, and belief, giving people an immersive experience and obtaining spiritual pleasure infinitely close to reality. They not only extend the human brain, five senses, and limbs, realizing "the extension of man," but also replicate human consciousness and thinking, making people "extended humans," thus bringing new spiritual satisfaction and pleasure to humanity.

脑机连接、机器知觉、语音语言处理、智能搜索、复杂系统规划、情绪感知、知识学习以及交互算法等更高阶技术运用，将人们带入到视觉、听觉、触觉、味觉和信念相融合的数字认知世界，使人们拥有沉浸式的体验，获得无限贴近现实的精神快感，不仅延伸了人的大脑、五官和四肢，实现了“人的延伸”，而且复制了人的意识和思维，让人成为“延伸的人”，从而给人类带来了新的精神满足和愉悦。

Realizing common prosperity in cultural-ethical life is an important original aspiration and founding mission of the CPC

实现精神生活共同富裕是中国共产党重要的初心和使命

Marxist theory holds that cultural-ethical life is unique to humans and is the essential characteristic of human beings. The technical characteristics of digital technology in empowering the people's common prosperity in cultural-ethical life have a strong degree of fit with the CPC's original aspiration and founding mission of seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. The CPC, as a political party guided by Marxism, takes the communist ideal society envisioned by Marx and Engels — "the great abundance of material wealth, the great elevation of people's spiritual realm, and the free and comprehensive development of each individual" — as its own pursuit, is committed to leading the people in realizing common prosperity that includes both material and cultural-ethical prosperity, and spares no effort to satisfy the people's cultural-ethical needs for the pursuit of science, the thirst for knowledge, and their own development needs.

马克思主义理论认为，精神生活是人类特有的，是人类的本质特征。数字技术赋能人民精神生活富裕的技术特征，与中国共产党为中国人民谋幸福、为中华民族谋复兴的初心和使命具有很强的契合度。中国共产党作为以马克思主义为指导思想的政党，将马克思、恩格斯设想的“物质财富极大丰富，人的精神境界极大提高，每个人自由而全面的发展”的共产主义理想社会作为自身的追求，致力于领导人民实现物质生活、精神生活都富裕的共同富裕，尽最大的努力满足人民对科学的追求、对知识的渴望和对自己发展需求的精神生活满足。

During the revolutionary war years, the CPC, in the revolutionary base areas it led, provided the people with a rich and colorful cultural-ethical life through running schools, eliminating illiteracy, publishing newspapers and books, broadcasting, performing plays, giving speeches, and other means. Under harsh material conditions, it created a vibrant spiritual state and formed great revolutionary spirits such as the Jinggangshan Spirit, the Long March Spirit, the Zunyi Conference Spirit, the Yan'an Spirit, and the Xibaipo Spirit.

革命战争年代，中国共产党在领导的革命根据地，通过办学、扫盲、办报、出书、广播、演剧、演讲等方式，为人民群众提供丰富多彩的精神文化生活，在艰苦的物质条件下营造出朝气蓬勃的精神状态，形成了井冈山精神、长征精神、遵义会议精神、延安精神、西柏坡精神等伟大革命精神。

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the CPC proposed to educate the people with lofty communist ideals and the spirit of self-reliance and hard struggle to serve socialist construction. It vigorously carried out activities to eliminate illiteracy and feudal superstitions, reform outdated customs and habits, promote the renewal of education, science, and culture, guide the people to actively transform old ideas, old concepts, and old habits, and lay a solid foundation for the people's common prosperity in cultural-ethical life.

中华人民共和国成立后，中国共产党提出用崇高的共产主义理想和自力更生、艰苦奋斗的精神教育人民，服务社会主义建设。大力开展扫盲和扫除封建迷信、改革陈规陋习等移风易俗活动，推动教育科学文化事业除旧布新，引导人民群众积极改造旧思想、旧观念、旧习惯，为人民群众精神生活富裕打下坚实的基础。

In the new period of reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping emphasized that socialism must not only be materially prosperous but also spiritually abundant. He stressed the need to vigorously develop education, science, technology, and culture as cultural-ethical life, and to "grasp with both hands, both hands must be strong," promoting the development of cultural-ethical life while promoting material prosperity.

改革开放新时期，邓小平同志强调社会主义不仅要在物质上富裕，还要在精神上富足，强调大力发展教育、科技、文化等精神生活，要“两手抓，两手都要硬”，在促进物质生活富裕的同时，也要推动精神生活发展。

Entering the New Era, the CPC has paid more attention to the common prosperity in cultural-ethical life of the broad masses of the people. General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: "A person cannot stand without spirit, and a country cannot be strong without spirit. Spirit is the soul on which a nation depends for long-term survival. Only when a nation reaches a certain height in spirit can it stand firm and move forward in the torrent of history." The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC explicitly designates "enriching the people's spiritual world" as "an essential requirement of Chinese-path modernization" and states that "material abundance and spiritual prosperity are fundamental requirements of socialist modernization," indicating that common prosperity in cultural-ethical life is gradually moving from practical exploration to theoretical construction.

进入新时代，中国共产党更加重视广大人民群众的精神生活共同富裕，习近平总书记明确指出：“人无精神则不立，国无精神则不强。精神是一个民族赖以长久生存的灵魂，唯有精神上达到一定的高度，这个民族才能在历史的洪流中屹立不倒、奋勇向前。”党的二十大报告将“丰富人民精神世界”明确为“中国式现代化的本质要求”，并指出“物质富足、精神富有是社会主义现代化的根本要求”，意味着精神生活共同富裕逐渐从实践探索迈向理论建构。

Digital technology empowerment has further accelerated the speed of this great undertaking of common prosperity in cultural-ethical life for all people, expanded the depth and breadth of the people's common prosperity in cultural-ethical life, and created a large number of unprecedented scenarios for cultural-ethical life. People's cultural-ethical life is also gradually becoming digital and self-service, further promoting the emergence of new "buffet-style" forms of cultural-ethical life, with stronger interactivity and deepening development towards "more embodied" and "more virtual" directions, weakening the absolute difference between the real and the virtual. Common prosperity in cultural-ethical life has essential significance for human development, reflecting the CPC's high sublimation of understanding and theoretical consciousness of the laws for realizing common prosperity.

数字技术赋能，进一步加快了全体人民精神生活共同富裕这一伟大事业的速度，扩大了人民群众精神生活共同富裕的深度和广度，并创造出了大量前所未有的精神生活场景，人民的精神生活也逐渐数字化、自助化，进一步促进新的“自助餐式”精神形式的出现，人民精神生活具有更强的互动性，且向着“更加具身”和“更加虚拟”的方向深化发展，弱化了真实与虚拟间的绝对差异。精神生活共同富裕对于人的发展具有本质性意义，体现了中国共产党对共同富裕实现规律认识的高度升华和理论自觉。

Effectively promoting digital technology to empower common prosperity in cultural-ethical life

有效促进数字技术赋能精神生活共同富裕

Common prosperity in cultural-ethical life includes multiple subjects — individuals, groups, society, and the state — and especially requires each individual to have collective consciousness and a sense of responsibility and mission for the state and society, forming a "community" with high cohesion and centripetal force.

精神生活共同富裕包括个人、群体、社会和国家多元主体，尤其需要每个个体具有集体意识和国家、社会责任感与使命感，形成具有高度凝聚力和向心力的“共同体”。

The impact of digital technology on cultural-ethical life is both deep-seated and multi-dimensional. Through the two paths of "the extension of man" and "extended humans," it has profoundly changed the operational logic of traditional cultural-ethical life. Science and technology have transformed "man is machine" into "machine is man," extending human physical and mental strength, and then transformed "man is digital" into "digital is man." Digital technology provides strong support for the richness and inclusiveness of cultural-ethical life, but at the same time faces multiple practical challenges, including imbalances in the supply-demand structure of cultural-ethical products, intensification of differentiation in cultural-ethical life, spiritual distress caused by information overload, algorithmic bias, and systemic risks such as privacy leakage. These not only limit the process of realizing common prosperity in cultural-ethical life but may further exacerbate inequality in cultural-ethical life. Digital technology can empower common prosperity in cultural-ethical life by using tools such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence to extend the field of cultural-ethical life from traditional physical space to virtual space and digital space, and further develop it into augmented space, expanding both the spatial boundaries and experiential forms of cultural-ethical life. Digital technology acts directly on the human body, improving, compensating for, and enhancing physical functions, providing perceptual and experiential abilities that transcend natural limits, improving the quality and level of cultural-ethical life, thereby enhancing the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security, and achieving people's free and comprehensive development. Digital technology empowerment of common prosperity in cultural-ethical life can be effectively promoted through the following aspects.

数字技术对精神生活的影响既是深层次的也是多维度的，通过“人的延伸”和“延伸的人”两条路径，深刻改变了传统精神生活的运行逻辑，科学技术将“人是机器”转化为“机器是人”，延伸了人的体力和脑力，进而“人是数字”转换为“数字是人”。数字技术为精神生活的丰富性与普惠性提供了强有力的支撑，但同时也面对多种现实挑战，包括精神产品供需结构的失衡、精神生活分化加剧、信息过载引发的精神困境、算法偏见以及隐私泄露等系统性风险，不仅限制了精神生活共同富裕的实现进程，还可能进一步加剧精神生活的不平等。数字技术赋能精神生活共同富裕可以通过虚拟现实、人工智能等工具，将精神生活的场域从传统的物理空间延展到虚拟空间、数字空间，并进一步发展为增强空间，使精神生活的空间边界与体验形式均得到拓展。数字技术直接作用于人体，通过健全、弥补和增强身体机能，提供超越自然界限的感知与体验能力，提升精神生活的质量和层次，从而提升人民群众的获得感、幸福感和安全感，实现人的自由全面发展。数字技术赋能精神生活共同富裕可从以下方面有效促进。

First, promote the inclusive development of digital infrastructure and narrow the digital divide in cultural-ethical life. The government should increase investment in digital infrastructure, especially in underdeveloped regions and technologically backward groups, promoting education and training in basic digital literacy. Through policy subsidies or tax reductions, lower the cost of purchasing and maintaining smart devices, enabling more social groups to have equal access to and enjoy cultural-ethical products empowered by artificial intelligence.

第一，推动数字基础设施的普惠发展，缩小精神生活的数字鸿沟。政府应加大对数字基础设施的投入，特别是在欠发达地区和技术落后群体中，推广基础数字素养的教育和培训。通过政策补贴或减税，降低智能设备的购买和维护成本，让更多社会群体能够平等地接触和享受人工智能赋能的精神产品。

Second, strengthen the regulation of digital technology ethical issues and promote the coordinated development of technology and social ethics. The widespread application of digital technology must advance in step with the improvement of social ethical norms. The government and relevant institutions should accelerate the formulation of legal and ethical norms for the application of digital technology, especially on key issues such as algorithmic bias, privacy protection, and transparency of automated decision-making, establishing effective supervision and accountability mechanisms. By improving the transparency and fairness of technology, reduce social injustice brought about by technological progress, and enhance public trust in digital technology.

第二，加强对数字技术伦理问题的规制，推动技术发展与社会伦理协调发展。数字技术的广泛应用必须与社会伦理规范的完善同步推进。政府和相关机构应加快制定针对数字技术应用的法律和道德规范，特别是在算法偏见、隐私保护和自动化决策透明度等关键问题上，建立有效的监督与问责机制。通过提高技术的透明度和公平性，减少因技术进步带来的社会不公正，增强公众对数字技术的信任感。

Third, build an occupational safety net and promote the transition of the labor force to new technology positions. As digital technology and automation technology gradually replace traditional positions, the government should strengthen labor market protection policies, improve the occupational safety net, and alleviate individual occupational anxiety caused by technological progress. Through vocational retraining, skills upgrading programs, and other means, help workers adapt to emerging technology positions, alleviating psychological pressure and social unrest caused by job displacement. At the same time, the government can encourage enterprises to assume more social responsibility and provide more employment support and transition measures.

第三，构建职业安全网，推动劳动力向新技术岗位的过渡。随着数字技术和自动化技术逐步取代传统岗位，政府应加强劳动力市场的保护政策，完善职业安全网，减轻个体因技术进步带来的职业焦虑感。通过职业再培训、技能提升计划等方式，帮助劳动者适应新兴的技术岗位，缓解因职业替代带来的精神压力与社会不安。同时，政府还可以鼓励企业承担更多的社会责任，提供更多的就业支持和过渡措施。

Fourth, optimize the information allocation mechanism to prevent information overload and increased mental stress. In response to the problems of information overload and data deluge, the government and technology enterprises should strengthen the supervision and optimization of information recommendation algorithms, and promote the establishment of a healthier ecosystem for cultural-ethical life. By limiting excessive reliance on algorithms and content homogenization, ensure that users can obtain more diverse and high-quality cultural-ethical products. At the same time, develop more humanized digital tools to help users effectively manage information flow and alleviate mental fatigue caused by information overload.

第四，优化信息配置机制，防止信息过载与精神压力加剧。针对信息过载和数据洪流问题，政府和科技企业应加强对信息推荐算法的监管与优化，推动建立更加健康的精神生活生态系统。通过限制对算法的过度依赖和内容同质化倾向，确保用户能够获得更多元和高质量的精神产品。同时，开发更加人性化的数字工具，帮助用户有效管理信息流，减轻因信息过载带来的精神疲劳。

Fifth, strengthen the digital technology system to prevent systemic risks. The government should strengthen technical safety supervision in key areas (such as healthcare, finance, transportation), promote redundant design and safety protection of digital technology systems, ensure that social systems can quickly resume operation when technology fails, and reduce systemic risks brought about by technological dependence. At the same time, establish an emergency response mechanism for technology failure, ensuring that timely measures can be taken to protect the public interest when crises occur.

第五，强化数字技术体系，防范系统性风险。政府应加强对关键领域（如医疗、金融、交通）的技术安全监督，推动数字技术系统的冗余设计和安全防护。确保技术失效时社会系统能够迅速恢复运行，减少技术依赖带来的系统性风险。同时，建立技术失效的应急响应机制，确保在危机发生时能够及时采取措施，保护公众利益。

(The authors' unit: School of Government Management, Beijing Normal University)

(作者单位：北京师范大学政府管理学院)

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧