Marx’s Thought on the “System of Machinery” and Its Methodological Implications

We are now in an increasingly complex technological society. With the emergence of artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT, questions concerning the relationship between machines and humans, technology and civilization, and the fate and direction of human civilization have become hot topics of discussion. So, how should we actually view modern technologies like artificial intelligence? What methods and attitudes should we adopt toward artificial intelligence and world civilization? If Marx were alive today, how would he understand artificial intelligence and the technological society? Would he use ChatGPT?

我们正处于日益复杂的技术社会。随着Chat-GPT等人工智能的涌现，机器与人、技术与文明的关系，人类文明的命运与走向等问题成为大家讨论的热点。那么，究竟应该如何看待人工智能等现代技术？我们应该用什么样的方法与态度看待人工智能、世界文明？如果马克思生活在今天，他会如何理解人工智能、技术社会，他会使用Chat-GPT吗？

Many scholars have noted the significance of Marx’s thought on the “system of machinery” for understanding world civilization, technology and society, artificial intelligence, and related issues. In *The Myth of the Machine*, the American scholar Lewis Mumford argued that Marx was one of the earliest thinkers to engage in profound reflection on the “system of machinery.” “Marx correctly recognized that the organization of material production (which is in fact technology) very effectively shapes personality types.” Mumford believed that Marx’s depiction of an ideal, all-round life was of great significance for criticizing issues such as the forced division of labor in the machine age. Although Mumford misinterpreted Marx’s historical materialism to some extent, he could not but acknowledge Marx’s penetrating analysis of the system of machinery and human civilization.

诸多学者注意到马克思的“机器体系”思想对理解世界文明、技术与社会、人工智能等问题的意义。在《机器神话》中，美国学者芒福德认为，马克思是较早对“机器体系”问题进行深刻思考的思想家。“马克思正确认识到，物质生产组织（其实就是技术）很有效地塑造了人格类型。”他认为，马克思对理想全面生活的描绘，对批判机器时代的强制分工等问题有重要意义。虽然芒福德对马克思的唯物史观有误读之处，但也不得不认同马克思对机器体系、人类文明的穿透性分析。

Chinese scholars have also noted Marx’s thought on the system of machinery and its value. For example, An Qinian argues that Marx conducted a comprehensive exploration of the relationship between the system of machinery and capitalism: “‘The automatic system of machinery’ is the final form of the development of the means of labor under the capitalist system.” The automation of the system of machinery has its profound problems: “The worker is no longer the subject of labor production; the subject becomes the machine.” At the same time, the system of machinery also has its progressive aspects: “The changes brought about by the automatic system of machinery are a proof of communism, or the generation of communist elements.” Zhang Yibing argues: “Marx first noted the problem of the decline of the worker’s labor status in mechanized production.” “Marx also saw that machine production led to a dual deterioration of workers’ working conditions and living conditions, which provoked workers’ resistance; however, this anger was not directed at the bourgeoisie but at the physical machines.” “Now, Marx needed to think deeply about the problem, namely the terrible antagonistic relationship between machine production and workers’ survival that emerged under the conditions of bourgeois society.” Gao Qiqi argues that Marx’s concept of the system of machinery has rich connotations: “The system of machinery is not a purely instrumental existence but possesses a certain quasi-subjectivity.” “The transformation of machines as means of labor into a more subjective system of machinery signifies the transformative development of future productive forces.” “Maximally negating necessary labor time causes the value of future products to continuously decline, which provides a basis for distribution according to need in a future society.” “The capitalist application of the system of machinery will impose greater oppression on laborers and produce more severe social crises.” “If applied properly, the development of the system of machinery can provide the material basis for the increase of human free time and ultimately for human liberation.” Marx’s concept of the “system of machinery” is of great significance for regulating artificial intelligence.

我国学者也注意到马克思的机器体系思想及其价值。比如，安启念认为，马克思对机器体系与资本主义的关系进行了全面探索，“‘自动的机器体系’是劳动资料在资本主义制度下发展的最后形态”。机器体系的自动化有其深刻问题，“工人不再是劳动生产的主体，充当主体的是机器”。同时，机器体系也有其进步性，“自动机器体系引起的变化是对共产主义的证明，或者说是共产主义因素的生成”。张一兵认为：“马克思先留意到机器化生产中工人劳动地位的下降问题。”“马克思也看到，机器生产导致工人工作条件和生活条件的双重恶化，这也遭到了工人的反抗，然而，这种愤怒没有指向资产阶级，而是投向了物性机器。”“现在，马克思需要深入思考问题，就是资产阶级社会条件下所出现的机器生产与工人生存这种可怕的背反关系。”高奇琦认为，马克思的机器体系概念具有丰富内涵：“机器体系不是纯粹的工具性存在，而是具有某种类主体性。”“作为劳动资料的机器向更加主体性的机器体系的转化，意味着未来生产力的变革性发展。”“最大限度地否定必要劳动时间使得未来产品的价值不断下降，这为未来社会的按需分配提供基础。”“机器体系的资本主义应用会对劳动者形成更大的压迫，并产生更为严重的社会危机。”“如果运用得当，机器体系的发展可以为人类自由时间的增加以及最终解放提供物质基础。”马克思的“机器体系”概念对规范人工智能有重要意义。

We believe that although Marx was not the earliest thinker to discuss the “system of machinery,” he is to date the thinker who has provided the most historically grounded and penetrating reflection on it. In works such as *The Poverty of Philosophy*, *The Communist Manifesto*, the *Grundrisse* (the *Economic Manuscripts of 1857–1858*), the *Economic Manuscripts of 1861–1863*, and *Capital*, Marx engaged in a reflection on the “system of machinery” that combines historical depth, breadth of reality, logical profundity, and human warmth. The value of Marx’s thought on the “system of machinery” lies not only at the epistemological level but also at the methodological level. Marx’s thought on the “system of machinery” is of great significance for our understanding of contemporary intelligent technology and the fate of human beings in a technological society.

我们认为，虽然马克思不是最早讨论“机器体系”的思想家，但却是迄今为止对机器体系进行了最有历史感、最具穿透性反思的思想家。在《哲学的贫困》《共产党宣言》《政治经济学批判（1857-1858年手稿）》《政治经济学批判（1861-1863年手稿）》《资本论》等文献中，马克思对“机器体系”进行了兼备历史厚度、现实宽度、逻辑深度、人性温度的思考。马克思的“机器体系”思想的价值不仅体现在知识论层面，更体现在方法论层面。马克思的“机器体系”思想对我们认识当代智能技术、人在技术社会中的命运等问题具有重要意义。

I. The Main Content of Marx’s Thought on the “System of Machinery”

一、马克思“机器体系”思想的主要内容

Mumford believed that the system of machinery refers not only to machines but also to the organization and mechanization of the entire operation of society. Before capitalism, the system of machinery had already emerged in monarchy, the military, and the church. He argued that human society itself is a vast machine: “The invention of the megamachine is precisely the most important achievement of ancient civilizations: it was a mode of technical operation that provided the basic paradigm for all subsequent mechanical organization.” In fact, Marx recognized the content and characteristics of the system of machinery at the material, social, and intellectual levels earlier than Mumford. Marx conducted a comprehensive analysis of the content, characteristics, and functions of the “system of machinery.”

芒福德认为，机器体系不仅指机器，也指整个社会运行的组织化、机械化，在资本主义之前，机器体系在王权、军队、教堂中已经产生。他认为，人类社会就是一部巨大的机器，“巨型机器这一发明，正是古文明最重要的功劳：它是一种技术运作方式，为后世一切机械组织提供了基本范式”。其实，马克思比芒福德更早地认识到了机器体系在器物、社会、知识等方面的内容与特点。马克思对“机器体系”的内容、特点、作用等进行了全面剖析。

First, from the technological and material dimension, the system of machinery refers to automatic machines—that is, the organization of different tools of labor into a complex machine with more complete functions that can operate automatically. Tools are the externalization of human labor capacity. “A machine is a collection of tools, but by no means an organization of the various labors of the worker himself.” As a complex combination of tools, the system of machinery is the systematic and comprehensive externalization of human skills and abilities. It corresponds to productive forces and is an important indicator of the level of development of productive forces; labor organization, on the other hand, corresponds to relations of production, and its state marks the state of the relations of production. “All fully developed machinery consists of three essentially different parts: the motor mechanism, the transmitting mechanism, and the tool machine or working machine.” Among these three parts, the tool machine is the core of the system of machinery; the specific production function of the machine is mainly embodied in the tool machine. “This part of the machine—the tool machine—is the starting point of the industrial revolution of the 18th century. Today, whenever handicraft or manufacture production transitions to machine production, the tool machine is still the starting point.” The system of machinery undergoes a process of generation and change, from relatively simple to increasingly complex. Increasingly complex structures, growing scale, more powerful functions, and rising efficiency are important trends in the evolution of the system of machinery. “Simple tools; accumulation of tools; composite tools; tools driven solely by human power, i.e., composite tools driven by human beings; tools driven by natural forces; machines; a system of machinery with a single motor; a system of machinery with an automatic motor—this is the process of the development of machinery.” From simple tools to the system of machinery, its development requires the accumulation of experience, the advancement of science, the expansion of markets, changes in the mode of social organization, and many other reasons. It is precisely for this reason that “real machines only appeared at the end of the 18th century.” “In the 18th century, progress and discoveries in mathematics, mechanics, and chemistry reached almost the same level in England, France, Sweden, and Germany. The same was true of inventions, for example in France. However, at that time their capitalist application occurred only in England, because only there had economic relations developed to the point where capital could make use of scientific progress.” 18th-century England was the first to possess these conditions, and thus became the place where the system of machinery first emerged.

其一，从工艺学与器物维度看，机器体系也就是自动化的机器，也就是人们将不同的劳动工具组织起来，所构成的具有更完备功能、可以自动运行的复杂机器。工具是人的劳动能力的外化，“机器是劳动工具的集合，但决不是工人本身的各种劳动的组织”。机器体系作为一种复杂的工具组合，也就是人的技能、能力的系统与综合外化，对应于生产力，是生产力发展水平的重要标志；劳动组织则对应于生产关系，其状态标志着生产关系的状态。“所有发达的机器都由三个本质上不同的部分组成：发动机，传动机构，工具机或工作机。”在这三个部分中，工具机是机器体系的核心，机器的特定生产功能主要体现在工具机上，“机器的这一部分——工具机，是18世纪工业革命的起点。在今天，每当手工业或工场手工业生产过渡到机器生产时，工具机也还是起点”。机器体系有一个生成、变迁的过程，一个从相对简单到日益复杂的过程。结构日益复杂、规模日益巨大、功能日益强大、效率日益提高，是机器体系变迁的重要趋势。“简单的工具，工具的积累，合成的工具；仅仅由人作为动力，即由人推动合成的工具，由自然力推动这些工具；机器；有一个发动机的机器体系；有自动发动机的机器体系——这就是机器发展的进程。”从简单工具到机器体系，其发展需要经验的积累、科学的发展、市场的扩大、社会组织方式的变革等诸多原因，正因为如此，“真正的机器只是在18世纪末才出现”。“18世纪，数字、力学、化学领域的进步和发现，无论在英国、法国、瑞典、德国，几乎都达到了相同的程度。发明也是如此，例如在法国就是这样。然而，在当时它们的资本主义应用却只发生在英国，因为只有在那里，经济关系才发展到使资本有可能利用科学进步的程度。”18世纪的英国首先具备了这些条件，也就成为机器体系率先涌现的地方。

Second, from the perspective of the social landscape and the world picture, the system of machinery means that the entire society and even the world become an interconnected system based on machine industry. “A change in the mode of production in one sphere of industry brings about changes in other spheres.” “Apart from the already completely transformed shipbuilding industry, the means of transport and communication gradually adapted themselves to the mode of production of large-scale industry through the system of inland steamers, railways, ocean steamers and the telegraph.” Once the system of machinery emerges, it gradually transforms the mode of production of the entire society and spreads outward. This spread manifests as the extension and expansion of the industrial chain, the continuous emergence of more complex, diverse, and efficient machines, to the point where all kinds of machines become the material landscape of the entire society, and the whole society becomes an industrialized society filled with machines. Domestically and internationally, in cities and villages, in the spheres of production, transportation, information, etc., every field of society becomes a society operating systematically on the basis of machines; even the entire world becomes an organic system full of machines and interconnected in operation on the basis of machines. “Owing to the application of machinery and steam, the division of labour has assumed such dimensions that large-scale industry, detached from the national soil, depends entirely on the world market, international exchange and the international division of labour.” “Large-scale industry created the world market, which had been prepared for by the discovery of America. The world market gave rise to an immense development of commerce, navigation and land communication. This development in its turn reacted upon the expansion of industry.” “The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation.”

其二，从社会景观与世界图景看，机器体系指整个社会乃至世界成为以机器工业为基础的互联系统。“一个工业部门生产方式的变革，会引起其他部门生产方式的变革。”“撇开已经完全发生变革的帆船制造业不说，交通运输业是逐渐地靠内河轮船、铁路、远洋轮船和电报的体系而适应了大工业的生产方式。”机器体系一旦产生，就会逐渐改变整个社会的生产方式，并向外扩散。这种扩散表现为产业链的延长、扩展，不断涌现更为复杂、多样、高效的机器，以至于各类机器成为整个社会的器物景观，整个社会成为充斥机器的工业化社会。国内国外、城市乡村，生产领域、交通领域、信息领域等，社会各领域都变成以机器为基础的体系化运行的社会，甚至整个世界都成为一个充满机器、以机器为基础的相互关联运行的有机体系。“由于机器和蒸汽的应用，分工的规模已使脱离了本国基地的大工业完全依赖于世界市场、国际交换和国际分工。”“大工业建立了由美洲的发现所准备好的世界市场。世界市场使商业、航海业和陆路交通得到了巨大的发展。这种发展又反过来促进了工业的扩展。”“资产阶级，由于一切生产工具的迅速改进，由于交通的极其便利，把一切民族甚至最野蛮的民族都卷到文明中来了。”

Third, from the perspective of the subject-object relationship and the relationship between artifacts and human beings, the system of machinery refers to the systematic substitution of machines for human skills, strength, and living labour. On the one hand, this substitution is conducive to human liberation, freeing people from heavy and complex labour, but it also leads to the loss of labour opportunities for many workers in specific fields, turning them into surplus labour. Especially in a society dominated by capital, it can make the machine the master and human beings the object; thus, the system of machinery becomes a society of alienated operation with the machine as the subject. In capitalist society, the system of machinery becomes fixed capital, “hardens into the particular mode of existence of capital.” “After entering the production process of capital, the means of labour goes through various morphological changes, its final form being the machine, or more precisely, the automatic system of machinery (i.e., the system of machinery; the automatic system of machinery is merely the most perfect and most appropriate form of the system of machinery, and it alone makes the machine into a system), which is driven by an automaton, a self-acting motive power. This automaton consists of many mechanical and intellectual organs, so that the worker himself is only regarded as a conscious limb of the automatic system of machinery.” On the one hand, the machine that can operate automatically becomes the master, a master with a soul; on the other hand, many workers become limbs of the machine. “The machine, on the contrary, possesses skill and strength in place of the worker; it is itself the virtuoso, with a soul of its own in the mechanical laws acting through it.” “In the system of machinery, knowledge appears to the worker as something external and alien, and living labour is subordinated to objectified labour that operates independently. As soon as the worker’s activity is not required by the needs of [capital], he becomes superfluous.” “The system of machinery — as fixed capital — renders the worker dependent, makes him a possessed person.” How to unify the development of the system of machinery with human development and the subject position of human beings has become a major issue facing social development and the progress of civilisation.

其三，从主客关系、器物与人的关系看，机器体系是指机器对人的技能、力量、活劳动的系统替代。一方面，这种替代有利于人的解放，将人从繁重、复杂的劳动中解放出来，但也会导致诸多具体领域的劳动者丧失劳动机会，成为剩余劳动力。特别是在资本主导的社会，会使机器成为主人，人则成为客体，这样，机器体系也就是成为以机器为主体的异化运行的社会。在资本主义社会，机器体系成为固定资本，“硬化为资本的特殊存在方式”。“加入资本的生产过程以后，劳动资料经历了各种不同的形态变化，它的最后的形态是机器，或者更确切些说，是自动的机器体系（即机器体系；自动的机器体系不过是最完善、最适当的机器体系形式，只有它才使机器成为体系），它是由自动机，由一种自行运转的动力推动的。这种自动机是由许多机器器官和智能器官组成的，因此，工人自己只是被当做自动的机器体系的有意识的肢体。”一方面，可以自动运行的机器成为主人，成为具有灵魂的主人，另一方面，诸多劳动者则成为机器的肢体。“机器则代替工人而具有技能和力量，它本身就是能工巧匠，这通过在自身中发生作用的力学规律而具有自己的灵魂。”“在机器体系中，对工人来说，知识表现为外在的异己的东西，而活劳动则从属于独立发生作用的对象化劳动。只要工人的活动不是\[资本的\]需要所要求的，工人便成为多余的了。”“机器体系——作为固定资本——则使工人不独立，使他成为被占有者。”如何使机器体系的发展与人的发展、人的主体地位相统一，成为社会发展、文明进步面临的重大问题。

Fourth, from the perspective of factor composition and developmental trends, the system of machinery refers to a comprehensive system in which scientific factors increasingly play a key role. The reason why the system of machinery can achieve the substitution for human skills and abilities, and why society continuously produces more complex, diverse, and powerful machines, is that science has become a penetrating component of the system of machinery and various fields of society, even becoming a relatively independent field or industry. Although, under capitalist conditions, many subjects, in applying and developing science, are more motivated by competition for their own profit, which also leads to the degradation of the status of workers and other labourers, this does not affect the fact that science is increasingly becoming the foundation or even the core element of the system of machinery. The combination of capital and science, on the one hand, lowers the status of labourers: “Science, through the construction of machines, compels the inanimate limbs of the machine to operate purposefully as an automaton; this science does not exist in the consciousness of the worker, but acts upon him through the machine as an alien force, as the force of the machine itself.” “In fixed capital, the social productive forces of labour appear as an inherent attribute of capital, including both the power of science and the combination of social forces in the production process, and finally the skill transferred from direct labour to the machine, i.e., to dead productive forces.” On the other hand, it also provides conditions for the development of science. “The development of natural science itself (natural science is the foundation of all knowledge), like the development of all knowledge related to the production process, still takes place on the basis of capitalist production, which for the first time, to a considerable extent, creates the material means for natural science to conduct research, observation, and experimentation.” “With the expansion of capitalist production, the scientific factor is for the first time consciously and widely developed, applied, and embodied in life, on a scale unimaginable in previous eras.” For the system of machinery, the introduction of scientific elements and the continuous development of science enable the system of machinery to continuously achieve new innovations and acquire an ever more complete knowledge base. “The means of labour, in taking the material form of the machine, requires the substitution of natural forces for human forces, and the conscious application of natural science for the rules derived from experience.” How to promote the civilisation of science and the system of machinery, and to advance the civilisation of the entire social system and civilisational system, while developing science and the system of machinery, is a major issue facing humanity in modern times.

其四，从要素构成与发展趋势看，机器体系是指科学因素日益起到关键作用的综合体系。机器体系之所以能够实现对人的技能、能力的替代，社会之所以不断产生复杂、多样、功能更为强大的机器，其重要原因是科学成为机器体系与社会各领域的渗透性构成，甚至成为相对独立的领域、产业。虽然，在资本条件下，诸多主体在运用、发展科学时，更多是出于为自身谋利的动机相互竞争，也会导致工人等劳动者地位的降低，但这并不影响科学日益成为机器体系的基础甚至核心要素。资本与科学的结合，一方面，使劳动者的地位降低了，“科学通过机器的构造驱使那些没有生命的机器肢体有目的地作为自动机来运转，这种科学并不存在于工人的意识中，而是作为异己的力量，作为机器本身的力量，通过机器对工人发生作用”。“在固定资本中，劳动的社会生产力表现为资本固有的属性，它既包括科学的力量，又包括生产过程中社会力量的结合，最后还包括从直接劳动转移到机器即死的生产力上的技巧。”另一方面，也为科学的发展提供了条件。“自然科学本身（自然科学是一切知识的基础）的发展，也像与生产过程有关的一切知识的发展一样，它本身仍然是在资本主义生产的基础上进行的，这种资本主义生产第一次在相当大程度上为自然科学创造了进行研究、观察、实验的物质手段。”“随着资本主义生产的扩展，科学因素第一次被有意识地和广泛地加以发展，应用并体现在生活中，其规模是以往的时代根本想象不到的。”对机器体系而言，科学要素的引入，科学的不断发展，使机器体系不断获得新的创新，不断获得更为完备的知识基础。“劳动资料取得机器这种物质存在方式，要求以自然力来代替人力，以自觉应用自然科学来代替从经验中得出的成规。”如何在发展科学、发展机器体系的同时，推进科学与机器体系的文明化，推进整个社会体系、文明体系的文明化，是近代以来人类面临的重大课题。

II. Methodological Characteristics of Marx’s Thought on the “System of Machinery”

二、马克思“机器体系”思想的方法论特点

In *The Poverty of Philosophy*, Marx criticised Proudhon for thinking about machines from abstract concepts and theories, arguing that “to start from the general division of labour in order to arrive at a particular instrument of production — the machine — is an insult to history.” Marx advocated concrete research based on history, reality, and trends. In many texts, Marx engaged in thinking about machines and civilisation, machines and capital, machines and the world, machines and science, and machines and the subject, in a manner that unifies the concrete and the abstract, logic and history, and objective process analysis with subjective value judgment. Specifically, Marx’s thought on the system of machinery has the following methodological characteristics.

在《哲学的贫困》中，马克思对蒲鲁东从抽象的概念和理论出发思考机器的方法进行了批判，认为“先从一般的分工出发，以便随后从分工得出一种特殊的生产工具——机器，这简直是对历史的侮辱”。马克思主张从历史、现实、趋势出发进行具体研究。在诸多文献中，马克思对机器与文明、机器与资本、机器与世界、机器与科学、机器与主体等问题进行了具体与抽象相统一、逻辑与历史相统一、客观进程分析与主体价值评判相统一的思考。具体而言，马克思的机器体系思想具有以下方法论特点。

First, based on the objective historical process, it concretely reveals the generative mechanism of the system of machinery. In Marx’s view, the system of machinery is a product of specific social conditions and historical accumulation; division of labour, accumulation, the market, capital, and their interactions play a key role in the generation and transformation of the system of machinery. “War develops earlier than peace; certain economic relations, such as wage labour, machinery, etc., develop earlier in war and armies than within bourgeois society. The relationship between productive forces and relations of intercourse is also particularly evident in the army.” But it was only in the 18th century, with the concentration of population, the division of labour in society, the increase in the power of capital, and the expansion of the market, that true machines and the automatic system of machinery developed. The generation of the system of machinery is the result of the combined action of multiple historical conditions; only by proceeding from the objective historical process can one truly grasp the essence, characteristics, and trends of the system of machinery.

其一，立足客观历史进程，具体揭示机器体系的生成机理。在马克思看来，机器体系是特定社会条件、历史积累的产物；分工、积累、市场、资本及其相互作用，对机器体系的生成转换有关键作用。“战争比和平发达得早；某些经济关系，如雇佣劳动、机器等等，怎样在战争和军队等等中比在资产阶级社会内部发展得早。生产力和交往关系的关系在军队中也特别显著。”但只是到了18世纪，随着人口聚集、社会分工、资本力量的增加、市场的扩大，真正机器、自动化的机器体系才得到发展。机器体系的生成是多种历史条件综合作用的结果，只有从客观历史进程出发，才可能真正把握机器体系的实质、特点、趋势。

Division of labor and concentration are the key variables in the generation of the system of machinery. On the one hand, machinery can only be generated where the division of labor is relatively developed and where population, industry, inventions, and the like are relatively concentrated. Machinery is also the accumulation of instruments of production, and “the accumulation of the instruments of production and the division of labour are inseparable from each other.” “With the acquisition of new productive forces, men change their mode of production; and with the mode of production they change all their social relations.” Without division of labor and accumulation, there is no system of machinery. On the other hand, the generation and development of machinery and the system of machinery in turn give rise to new divisions of labor, spawn new fields of production, and even bring about new transformations in the operation of the entire society and in the mode of production. “The accumulation of the instruments of production develops, and with it the division of labour, and vice versa. That is why every great mechanical invention is followed by a greater division of labour, and every increase in the division of labour gives rise to new mechanical inventions.”

分工与聚集是机器体系生成的关键变量。一方面，机器只能在分工比较发达，人口、产业、发明等相对聚集的地方生成。机器也就是生产工具的积聚，而“生产工具的积聚和分工是彼此不可分割的”。“随着新生产力的获得，人们改变自己的生产方式，随着生产方式即谋生的方式的改变，人们也就会改变自己的一切社会关系。”没有分工、积累也就没有机器体系。另一方面，机器、机器体系生成与发展，又会使催生新的分工，催生新的生产领域，甚至使整个社会的运行与生产方式发生新的变革。“工具积累发展了，分工也随之发展，并且反过来也一样。正因为如此，机械方面的每一次重大发展都使分工加剧，而每一次分工的加剧也同样引起机械方面的新发明。”

Manufacture and the growth of capital are the important foundation and driving force for the generation of the modern system of machinery. On the one hand, the system of machinery can only be generated where manufacture is relatively developed; the prosperity of handicraft workshops is insufficient to give rise to the system of machinery. “The expansion of the market, the accumulation of capital, the changes in the social position of the classes, the appearance of a large number of people deprived of their sources of income – these are the historical conditions for the formation of manufacture.” On the other hand, the important force driving the generation of manufacture and the modern system of machinery is capital. “Manufacture does not decompose labour and adapt the specialised worker to a very simple operation; it brings together many workers and many kinds of craft under one roof, under the command of a single capital.” If “the modern workshop is presided over by the merchant, not by the former guild master,” then it is mainly the capitalist who presides over the modern system of machinery and modern large-scale industry.

工场手工业与资本的成长是近代机器体系生成的重要基础与助推力量。一方面，机器体系只能生成于工场手工业相对发达的地方，手工作坊的繁荣不足以催生机器体系。“市场的扩大、资本的积累、各阶级的社会地位的改变、被剥夺了收入来源的大批人口的出现，这就是工场手工业形成的历史条件。”另一方面，推动工场手工业及近代机器体系生成的重要力量是资本。“工场手工业不是将劳动分解并使专业工人去适应很简单的操作，而是将许多劳动者和许多种手艺集合在一起，在一所房子里面，受一个资本的支配。”如果说，“主持现代作坊的是商人而不是从前的行会师傅”，那么，主持近代机器体系、近代大工业的则主要是资本家。

Second, based on real-life relations, concretely grasp the key characteristics of the system of machinery. In Marx’s view, society is a complex living organism that constantly evolves, and the system of machinery is the productive organ, an important organ, of the social organism in modern times. “A critical history of technology would show how little any of the inventions of the 18th century are the work of a single individual. Hitherto such a work does not exist. Darwin has interested us in the history of Nature’s Technology, i.e., in the formation of the organs of plants and animals, which organs serve as instruments of production for sustaining life. Does not the history of the formation of the productive organs of man in society, of the organs that are the material basis of every particular organisation of society, deserve equal attention?”

其二，立足现实生活关系，具体把握机器体系的关键特征。在马克思看来，社会是一个不断进化的复杂生命体、有机体，机器体系是近代以来社会有机体的生产器官、重要器官。“如果有一部考证性的工艺史，就会证明，18世纪的任何发明，很少是属于某一个人的。可是直到现在还没有这样的著作。达尔文注意到自然工艺史，即注意到在动植物的生活中作为生产工具的动植物器官是怎样形成的。社会人的生产器官的形成史，即每一个特殊社会组织的物质基础的形成史，难道不值得同样注意吗？”

Marx believed that grasping the system of machinery, this productive organ of modern society, requires adhering to “proceeding from the actual relations of life”; “this method is the only materialist, and therefore the only scientific one. The defects of the abstract materialism of natural science, which excludes the historical process, are already evident in the abstract ideological conceptions of its spokesmen whenever they venture beyond their own speciality.” Detached from vivid real life, proceeding from existing, ossified theories, concepts, and ideologies, from existing philosophical, economic, and other theories, one cannot truly grasp the system of machinery.

马克思认为，把握机器体系这个近代社会的生产器官，需要坚持“从当时的现实生活关系”出发，“这种方法是唯一的唯物主义的方法，因而也是唯一科学的方法。那种排除历史过程的、抽象的自然科学的唯物主义的缺点，每当它的代表越出自己的专业范围时，就在他们的抽象的意识形态的观念中显露出来”。脱离了鲜活的现实生活，从既有、固化的理论、观念、意识形态出发，从既有哲学、经济学等理论出发，无法真正把握机器体系。

In works such as the *Economic Manuscripts of 1861–63*, Marx investigated the historical changes of the mill, the clock, and the like, conducting a concrete examination from the medieval hand-mill, animal-mill, and water-mill, to the 16th-century fine-grinding and fine-sifting device, the 17th-century connecting-rod mill, and the 18th-century steam-mill, thereby revealing the key characteristics of the modern system of machinery. He believed that the important characteristic of the modern system of machinery is the logic of capital, the comprehensive control of the system of machinery by capital. “The hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill gives you society with the industrial capitalist.” Capital not only mastered the modern material level, shaping the physical landscape of the modern world, but also controlled modern knowledge production, scientific invention, and spiritual life. “Since natural science has been made a means of enriching capital, and science itself has therefore become a means of enrichment for those who develop it, those who engage in science compete with each other to explore the practical applications of science.” “Science appears to labour as an alien, hostile, and ruling power.”

在《政治经济学批判（1861—1863年手稿）》等著作中，马克思对磨、钟表等的历史变迁进行了考察，从中世纪的手推磨、畜力磨和水磨，到16世纪的细磨细罗装置，17世纪的连杆磨，18世纪的蒸汽磨，进行了具体考察，对近代机器体系的关键特征进行了揭示。他认为，近代机器体系的重要特点是资本逻辑，是资本对机器体系的全面掌控。“手推磨产生的是封建主的社会，蒸汽磨产生的是工业资本家的社会。”资本不仅掌握了近代器物层面、塑造了近代世界的物性景观，也掌控了近代的知识生产、科学发明、精神生活。“由于自然科学被资本用做致富手段，从而科学本身也成为那些发展科学的人的致富手段，所以，搞科学的人为了探索科学的实际应用而互相竞争。”“科学对于劳动来说，表现为异己的、敌对的和统治的权力。”

Third, based on social development trends, concretely judge the civilizational effects of the system of machinery. From the handicraft workshop where the guild master played the leading role, to the manufacturing workshop where the merchant played an important role, to the factory and system of machinery where the capitalist played an important role, productive forces and relations of production have always been in flux, and the subjects who lead and benefit have also differed. Different subjects and different degrees of benefit lead to different evaluations of social relations and material composition. Marx opposed evaluating the system of machinery as so-called good or bad in isolation from the trends of social development.

其三，立足社会发展趋势，具体评判机器体系的文明效应。从行会师傅起主体作用的手工作坊，到商人起重要作用的手工业工场，到资本家起重要作用的工厂、机器体系，生产力与生产关系始终处于变迁之中，主导与受益的主体也有不同。主体不同、受益程度不同，对社会关系、物质构成的评价也会不同。马克思反对脱离社会发展趋势，对机器体系进行所谓的优劣评价。

On the one hand, in Marx’s view, the progression from handicraft workshop to manufacture to the system of machinery represents a historical advance. The system of machinery is a progress of productive forces, representing humanity’s further mastery over natural forces, creating conditions for human freedom and emancipation. “The characteristic of the division of labour in the automatic factory is that labour has there lost its special character. But the moment all special development ceases, the need for universality, the tendency towards an all-round development of the individual begins to make itself felt. The automatic factory does away with the idiocy of specialisation and of the trade.” This is the “only revolutionary side” of the automatic factory. “This will be favourable to liberated labour, and is the condition for the liberation of labour.” People begin to have the conditions to pursue more comprehensive abilities and development. On the other hand, Marx also saw the adverse effects that these historically progressive productive forces and the system of machinery brought to different subjects in reality, especially to the workers. He believed that “the automatic factory, from the very first, exhibited some decidedly uncharitable features,” more conducive to satisfying the greed of the capitalist than to the all-round development of the ordinary worker. “The employment of machinery intensifies the division of labour within society, simplifies the functions of the worker within the workshop, concentrates capital, and further fragments the human being.” “The characteristic of the division of labour within modern society is that it produces specialised skills, and at the same time produces the idiocy of the trade.”

一方面，在马克思看来，从手工作坊到手工工场到机器体系，是一种历史的进步。机器体系是生产力的进步，代表着人们对自然力的进一步掌握，为人的自由、解放创造了条件。“自动工厂分工的特点，是劳动在这里已完全丧失专业的性质。但是，当一切专门发展一旦停止，个人对普遍性的要求以及全面发展的趋势就开始显露出来。自动工厂消除着专业和职业的痴呆。”这是自动工厂“唯一革命的一面”。“这将有利于解放了的劳动，也是使劳动获得解放的条件。”人开始有条件追求更为全面的能力与发展。另一方面，马克思也看到了有历史进步意义的生产力、机器体系为现实中的不同主体特别是劳动者所带来的不利影响。他认为，“自动工厂一出现就表现出一些绝非慈善的行为”，更利于满足资本家的贪欲，而不利于普遍劳动者的全面发展。“机器的采用加剧了社会内部的分工，简化了作坊内部工人的职能，集结了资本，使人进一步被分割。”“现代社会内部分工的特点，在于它产生了特长的专业，同时也产生职业的痴呆。”

That is to say, on the one hand, the generation and change of the system of machinery have important civilizational and developmental effects, advancing the progress of civilization and the development of society; on the other hand, when machinery adjusts the pattern of real interests, it often tends to favor the subjects who control capital over the ordinary workers; furthermore, when the renewal of the system of machinery triggers social contradictions and social conflicts, it may cause damage to productive forces and may even interrupt or reverse the civilizational progress of a society. While promoting civilizational progress, it may also subordinate labor to capital, cause the alienation of social structure, deepen social contradictions, and may lead to civilizational regression – these are the real problems existing in the generation and transformation of the system of machinery. Thus, the crux of the matter lies in concretely grasping the interactive laws and ecological relationships between the system of machinery and social division of labor, social concentration, social relations, social systems, etc., especially concretely grasping the specific problems encountered by the machinery changes of different societies and communities in specific environments, and concretely constructing the social operating institutions, systems, and mechanisms that are more conducive to the system of machinery exerting its positive effects.

也就是说，一方面，机器体系的生成、变化具有重要的文明效应、发展效应，推进着文明的进步、社会的发展；另一方面，机器在调整现实利益格局时，又往往更有利于掌握资本的主体，而不利于普通的劳动者；进而言之，当机器体系的更新引发社会矛盾、社会冲突时，就可能会造成对生产力的破坏，并可能使一个社会的文明进步中断甚至倒退。在推动文明进步的同时，又可能使劳动从属于资本，造成社会结构的异化，深化社会矛盾，并可能导致文明的倒退，是机器体系在生成、变迁中现实存在的问题。这样，问题的关键，就在于具体把握机器体系与社会分工、社会聚集、社会关系、社会体制等的互动规律、生态关系，特别是具体把握不同社会、共同体的机器变迁在特定环境中所遭遇的具体问题，并具体建构更有利于机器体系发挥正向作用的社会运行的制度、体制、机制。

III. The Contemporary Significance of Marx’s Thought on the “System of Machinery”

三、马克思“机器体系”思想的当代意义

Marx’s thought on the system of machinery and the “concrete historical method” or “method of philosophical history and civilizational critique” it contains play a foundational role in our understanding of new characteristics and new problems of contemporary human civilization such as artificial intelligence and digitalization.

马克思的机器体系思想及其所内含的“具体的历史方法”或者说“哲学历史学与文明批评”的方法，对我们认识人工智能、数字化等当代人类文明的新特点、新问题具有基础作用。

Reflecting on the contemporary era, we can find that we are still, to a considerable extent, in the age of machinery revealed by Marx. The science-based system of machinery remains the material foundation of human civilization, and intellectualization and digitalization have become new components and new characteristics of the system of machinery. Science becoming a relatively independent field and force, and being materialized and objectified into various complex, automated, and intelligent machines, is an important reason for the continuous progress of civilization in modern times, especially in the contemporary era.

反思当代，可以发现，我们仍在相当程度上处于马克思所揭示的机器时代。以科学为基础的机器体系仍是人类文明的物性基础，智能化、数字化已经成为机器体系的新构成、新特点。科学成为相对独立的领域、力量，并物化、对象化为各类复杂、自动化、智能化的机器，是近代以来特别是当代文明不断取得进步的重要原因。

“Science, which is in general an independent force in opposition to labour and in the service of capital, belongs to the category of the conditions of production which become independent forces in opposition to labour. And it is precisely this separation and independence of science (which initially only benefits capital) that simultaneously becomes the condition for developing the potential of science and knowledge.” Digital technologies such as the internet, intelligent computers, and artificial intelligence (including ChatGPT) are in essence still what Marx called the externalization, materialization, and mechanization of human capacities and skills. If early tools and machines primarily functioned to replace human physical strength and simple skills, substituting for manual labor, then modern artificial intelligence can replace part of human higher-level intelligence, substituting for sustained mental labor directed at specific goals. That is to say, artificial intelligence and digital technology are the externalization, materialization, and mechanization of human higher-level skills and capacities. The core of artificial intelligence remains in essence what Marx called the tool machine, albeit a more advanced one. Traditional tool machines function to produce material products according to human needs and designs; artificial intelligence tool machines function to process and produce digitalized, virtualized knowledge products, or spiritual products, according to human needs and designs.

“科学成为与劳动相对立的、服务于资本的独立力量，一般说来属于生产条件成为与劳动相对立的独立力量这一范畴。并且正是科学的这种分离和独立（最初只是对资本有利），同时成为发展科学和知识的潜力的条件。”互联网、智能电脑、人工智能（包括Chat-GPT）等数字化技术，在本质上仍是马克思所说的人的能力、技能的外化、物化、机器化。如果说，早期的工具、机器其功能主要是代替人的体能与简单技能，代替人的体力劳动；那么，现代人工智能则可以代替人的部分高级智能，代替人围绕特定目标持续进行脑力劳动。也就是说，人工智能、数字化技术是人的高级技能、高级能力的外化、物化、机器化。人工智能的核心在本质上仍是马克思所说的工具机，只不过是一种更为高级的工具机。传统的工具机，其功能是按照人的需要与设计生产物性产品；人工智能工具机，其功能是按照人的需要和设计去加工、生产数字化、虚拟化的知识产品或者说精神产品。

For the tool machines and system of machinery of Marx’s era, “Labour now appears only as a conscious organ, scattered among the individual living workers at numerous points of the mechanical system; it is subsumed under the total process of the machinery itself, as itself only a link of the system, whose unity exists not in the living workers, but rather in the living (active) machinery system.” For today’s intelligent, instrumental system of machinery, individual human intelligence and intellect seem to have become a link in an intelligent machinery system with more sustained and concentrated computing and processing capabilities. This intelligent system appears to have become an independent existence external to humans; human intelligence and intellect seem to reside within the intelligent machinery system. Humans appear to have no freedom.

对于马克思所处时代的工具机、机器体系而言，“劳动现在仅仅表现为有意识的机件，它以单个的有生命的工人的形式分布在机构体系的许多点上，被包括在机器体系本身的总过程中，劳动自身仅仅是这个体系里的一个环节，这个体系的统一不是存在于活的工人中，而是存在于活的（能动的）机器体系中”。对于今天的智能化、工具化的机器体系而言，人的个体智能、智力似乎成为具有更为持续、集中计算、运算能力的智能机器体系的一个环节，似乎这个智能体系已经成为外在于人的独立存在，似乎人的智能、智力已经存在于智能化的机器体系中。人似乎没有了自由。

But this is only one aspect of the system of machinery, the intelligent system of machinery. As Marx said, the system of machinery also has a liberating function, potentially bringing people more free time to engage in more diverse and creative activities. “Free time — which includes both leisure time and time for higher activities — naturally transforms anyone who possesses it into a different subject, and as this different subject he then enters into the direct production process. For the growing person, this direct production process is simultaneously training; for the adult whose mind possesses accumulated social knowledge, this process is the application of knowledge, experimental science, and science objectified in material creativity.” For the modern artificial intelligence system of machinery, its replacement of simple, repetitive, and sustained intellectual activities offers the possibility for people to engage in more creative and strategic activities, and to pursue more comprehensive and free artistic activities and a full life. Artificial intelligence is merely a tool for mental labor with increasingly enhanced functions; its complete replacement of humans is a literary proposition or a science fiction concept, not a scientific one.

但这其实只是机器体系、智能化的机器体系的一个面相。正如马克思所说，机器体系也具有自由功能，可能给人带来更多的自由时间，以从事更为多样、更有创造性的活动。“自由时间——不论是闲暇时间还是从事较高级活动的时间——自然要把占有它的人变为另一主体，于是他作为这另一主体又加入直接生产过程。对于正在成长的人来说，这个直接生产过程同时就是训练，而对于头脑里具有积累起来的社会知识的成年人来说，这个过程就是\[知识的\]运用，实验科学，有物质创造力的对象化中的科学。”对于现代人工智能机器体系而言，其对简单、重复、持续性智力活动的替代，将为人们从事更有创造性、战略性的活动，进行更为全面、自由的艺术活动、全面生活提供可能。人工智能只是一种功能日益增强的脑力劳动的工具而已，其对人的全面替代只是一个文学命题、科幻概念，而不是科学命题。

Of course, just as the system of machinery in Marx’s era affected the survival and interests of ordinary workers and other subjects, leading to adjustments in social relations and the pattern of interests, modern artificial intelligence also affects the survival, life, and interests of some subjects, leading to adjustments in social relations and the pattern of interests. But these are two separate issues: one is the overall progressive effect of the system of machinery; the other is the issue of interest relations under specific institutional systems. As long as more complete public rules and social mechanisms are established, it is entirely possible both to leverage the positive effects of artificial intelligence and digitalization and to minimize their negative impact on real subjects and the existing pattern of interests.

当然，正如马克思时代机器体系会影响普通劳动者及其他主体的生存、利益，会引起社会关系、利益格局的调整，现代人工智能也会影响一些主体的生存、生活、利益，会引起社会关系、利益格局的调整。但这是两个问题，一是机器体系的总体进步效应，一是机器体系在特定制度体制下的利益关系问题。只要建立起更为完善的公共规则、社会机制，完全有可能既发挥人工智能、数字化的正向效应，又尽量减少其对现实主体、现实利益格局的负面影响。

Thus, for understanding and developing the intelligent, digital, and contemporary system of machinery, the following points need to be consciously affirmed.

这样，对于理解与发展智能化、数字化及当代机器体系而言，就需要自觉确认以下几点。

First, the deep essence of the system of machinery is the systematization of civilization; humanity is increasingly becoming an interactive community with a shared future. As Marx said, “The self-sufficiency and isolation of local and national life, which formerly existed, have been replaced by the universal intercourse and the universal interdependence of nations. And this is true of both material and intellectual production.” On the one hand, human civilization is increasingly becoming a complex organism composed of diverse and intricate fields, sectors, activities, and spaces. This organism inevitably gives rise to new intelligence, new finance, new materials, new technologies, and so on. On the other hand, as human civilization becomes increasingly complex and diverse, the correlation between its constituent elements and parts grows ever stronger; changes in any part or field can become the “butterfly’s wing” that stirs the whole.

其一，机器体系的深层本质是文明的体系化，人类日益成为相互作用的命运共同体。正如马克思所说，“过去那种地方的和民族的自给自足和闭关自守状态，被各民族的各方面的互相往来和各方面的互相依赖所代替了。物质的生产是如此，精神的生产也是如此”。一方面，人类文明日益成为由多样、复杂的领域、部门、行为、空间等构成的复杂机体，这个机体必然不断涌现新智能化、新金融、新材料、新技术等；另一方面，不断复杂化、多样化人类文明，其构成要素与部分间的相关度日益增加，每一部分与领域的变动都可能成为搅动全局的“蝴蝶翅膀”。

Second, conscious public adjustment is increasingly becoming an important foundation for the system of machinery to move toward a system of civilization. The current intelligent system of machinery and system of civilization still possess a considerable degree of barbarism, as Marx criticized in the system of machinery of his time. An important reason for the barbarism of the system of machinery and the system of civilization is the lack of public adjustment; the institutional settings and operational mechanisms of this system have not kept pace with the inherent demands of the development of this system of machinery, and have not achieved public interest as their goal. “Here, the universal law at work is that the material possibility of the later form of production — whether in terms of technological conditions or the corresponding economic structure of the enterprise — is created within the framework of the earlier form. The revolutionary factor of machine labor arises directly from the need that exceeds the possibility of satisfying that need with the previously existing means of production… Once a revolution in the productive forces has occurred — a revolution manifested in technology — the relations of production also undergo revolution.” Consciously adjusting the institutions, systems, and mechanisms of social operation, and continuously increasing publicness, is the fundamental guarantee for the civilization of the system of machinery and the system of civilization.

其二，自觉的公共调适日益成为机器体系走向文明体系的重要基础。当前的智能化的机器体系、文明体系仍如马克思对当年机器体系的批判，具有相当的野蛮性。机器体系、文明体系存在野蛮性的重要原因，是这个体系缺少公共调适，是这个体系的制度设置、体制运行没有跟上这个机器体系发展的内在要求，没有实现以公共利益为目标。“在这里，起作用的普遍规律在于：后一个\[生产\]形式的物质可能性——不论是工艺技术条件，还是与其相适应的企业经济结构——都是在前一个形式的范围内创造出来的。机器劳动这一革命因素是直接由于需要超过了用以前的生产手段业来满足这种需要的可能性而引起的……一旦生产力发生了革命——这一革命表现在工艺技术方面——，生产关系也就会发生革命。”自觉调适社会运行的制度、体制、机制，不断增加公共性，是机器体系、文明体系文明化的根本保障。

Third, an important trend of the system of machinery and the system of civilization is that humanity is increasingly becoming the conscious core of the entire system. Since Aristotle, people have discussed the final cause, efficient cause, material cause, and formal cause. For the system of machinery and the system of civilization, a core question running throughout is whether the formal cause, material cause, efficient cause, and final cause can be centered on humanity, and whether humans can be both actors in and authors of the system of machinery and the system of civilization. In Marx’s view, under the logic of modern capital, the efficient cause and final cause of the system of machinery and the system of civilization are split. Humans, especially workers and laborers, are the spontaneous creative subjects who accumulate experience, skills, and knowledge for the system of machinery, and are also the subjects through which the system of machinery realizes value transformation. Yet they are not the purpose of the system of machinery’s operation; they are merely its appendages. The system of machinery and the system of civilization, including the intelligent system of machinery and the system of civilization, is a complex system co-created by multiple subjects, but the opportunities and possibilities for different subjects to obtain its effects and benefits vary enormously. Constructing a development system centered on people, in which multiple subjects can equally share the fruits, and achieving, in institutional and mechanistic terms, the equal status of humans as multi-polar subjects relative to the system of machinery, is of fundamental significance for the stable and sustained operation of the system of machinery and the system of civilization.

其三，机器体系、文明体系的重要趋势是人日益成为整个体系的自觉核心。从亚里士多德以来，人们就开始讨论目的因、动力因、质料因、形式因。对于机器体系、文明体系而言，一个贯穿始终的核心问题是形式因、质料因、动力因、目的因能否以人为核心，人能否既是成为机器体系、文明体系的剧中人也是剧作者。在马克思看来，近代资本逻辑主导下的机器体系、文明体系，其动力因、目的因等是分裂的，人特别是工人、劳动者是为机器体系生成积累经验、技能、知识等的自在性的创造主体，也是机器体系实现价值转换的主体，但却不是机器体系运行的目的，而只是机器体系的附庸。机器体系、文明体系包括智能化的机器体系、文明体系，是一种多主体共同创造的复杂体系，但不同的主体获取其效应与利益的机会与可能却存在巨大差异。建构一种以人为中心、多主体可以平等共享成果的发展制度，在体制机制上实现作为多极主体的人相对于机器体系的平等地位，对于机器体系、文明体系的平稳、持续运行具有基础意义。

In short, we are entering an era of machines that is changing ever more rapidly, an era of intelligent machines. Facing this era, it is especially necessary to conduct concrete historical research on the new contexts and new objects we encounter, rather than remaining stuck with existing knowledge and principles. This is precisely as Marx said: “As soon as a specific economic phenomenon appears before us, it can never be simply and directly explained by general economic laws. For example, in examining the above-mentioned fact, one must take into account many circumstances far removed from the object of our present study; and if we have not first conducted research on relations far more concrete than those we have here, it would be impossible even to explain these circumstances.” [3]3 This is a paraphrase of Marx’s methodological remarks in the “Introduction” to the *Grundrisse* (1857–1858), emphasizing the need for concrete analysis rather than direct application of general laws. If Marx were alive today, he would most likely use ChatGPT and other digital and artificial intelligence technologies to assist him with basic textual work such as literature retrieval, data sorting, and numerical processing, and works such as *Capital* would be written more smoothly. However, Marx would not rely on artificial intelligence; instead, he would most likely proceed from “real relations of life” [4]4 “Real relations of life” (*wirkliche Lebensverhältnisse*) is a key term in Marx’s historical materialism, referring to the material conditions and social relations that form the basis of human existence, as opposed to abstract ideas or ideologies. and conduct a study that unifies history and logic on the intelligent system of machinery and its impact on productive forces, relations of production, and human civilization.

总之，我们正在进入一个变化日益迅速的机器时代、智能化的机器时代，面对这个时代，尤其需要对所遭遇的新语境、新对象进行具体的历史研究，而不能停留在既有的知识原理上。这一点正如马克思所说：“一旦在我们面前出现某种具体的经济现象，决不能简单地和直接地用一般的经济规律来说明这种现象。例如，在考察上述事实时，必须考虑到离我们现在所研究的对象很远的许多情况；而且，如果我们没有事先对那些比我们这里现有的关系远为具体的关系进行研究，就连解释这些情况也是不可能的。”如果马克思生活在今天，大概率会使用Chat-GPT等数字化、人工智能技术帮助其进行文献检索、资料整理、数字处理等基础性的文字工作，《资本论》等著作会写作得更加顺利；但是，马克思不会依赖人工智能，而大概率会从“现实的生活关系”出发，对智能化机器体系及其对生产力与生产关系、人类文明的影响进行历史与逻辑相统一的研究。

The core of understanding the intelligent system of machinery and the system of civilization is to base oneself on historical materialism, enter into real relations of life, and grasp the concrete interaction between productive forces and relations of production. To grasp the new characteristics of contemporary civilization such as artificial intelligence and digitalization, and to grasp the contemporary trends of world civilization, it is necessary to conduct a more concrete and historical investigation of the system of machinery, the many component parts of civilization, and their interrelations. Otherwise, the review of Marx’s thought on the “system of machinery” and its methodological significance will lose its true meaning.

理解智能化的机器体系、文明体系的核心，是立足唯物史观，进入现实生活关系，把握生产力与生产关系的具体互动。把握人工智能、数字化等当代文明新特征，把握世界文明的当代趋势，需要对机器体系、文明的诸多板块构成及其相互关系进行更为具体、历史的考察，否则，对马克思“机器体系”思想及其方法论意义的回顾将失去真正的意义。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗