Tang Renwu and Shi Xiaowen: Digital Technology Promotes Common Prosperity in Spiritual 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; it is a prosperity in which the people are rich in both material and spiritual life." Common prosperity in spiritual life is an inherent element of Chinese-path modernization, and the rapid development of digital technology has accelerated the realization of this beautiful vision. The debut of artificial intelligence products represented by ChatGPT at the end of 2022, and the subsequent "War of a Hundred Models" [1] that unfolded in China, have triggered widespread global attention and application of generative artificial intelligence (AI). As the engine and driving force for future economic and social development, digital technology is reshaping China's social structure, business ecosystem, and workplace culture. The effective utilization of digital technology not only significantly improves social production efficiency, stimulates corporate innovation, enhances employee effectiveness, and promotes individual career development—thereby promoting the people's material wealth—but also creates and invents more spiritual products, enriching the people's spiritual life, meeting their growing needs for a better life, and empowering the people's spiritual prosperity.
Digital technology possesses the inherent capacity to empower common prosperity in spiritual life
Common prosperity in spiritual life is a rich concept with multiple levels and connotations; it is a dynamic category relative to the requirements of social development and economic affluence. Although an exact definition has not yet been formed, it is indisputable that the vision of common prosperity in spiritual life must be realized through the continuous satisfaction of the people's growing spiritual and cultural needs.
"Spiritual need — spiritual production — spiritual enjoyment" constitutes the practical logic of common prosperity in spiritual life, while "need — satisfaction — new need — re-satisfaction" is the driving force of its development. Marxist theory holds that spiritual life is an important component of human life as a whole and is the soul of human existence. It takes material life as its prerequisite while simultaneously transcending it, possessing its own independence. Human spiritual needs are the direct impetus for the formation of spiritual life, while spiritual production and spiritual exchange are the two paths for its formation. Spiritual life reflects the existence and essence of human beings more than material life; only by observing this historical consciousness [2] can we give rise to human productive demands and practical results. From the perspective of human motivation theory, the satisfaction of spiritual needs is the core driver of individual behavior and self-development. Maslow's hierarchy of needs points out that once an individual's basic physiological and safety needs are met, they naturally pursue higher-level spiritual needs such as belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Therefore, the pursuit of spiritual life and the satisfaction of spiritual needs are inevitable results of human social progress, necessary requirements for individual development, and prerequisite conditions for social spiritual production and enjoyment.
Digital technology is characterized by high efficiency, interconnectivity, equality, and full-cycle coverage; it possesses strong anti-interference capabilities, good confidentiality, high versatility, and decentralization. It can effectively link different resources to form more efficient modes of resource allocation. By fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of the government, enterprises, social organizations, and residents to form new social connections, it can break traditional organizational boundaries such as household registration (hukou), regions, and work units (danwei) [3]. This forms new connection mechanisms and corresponding social structures between individuals, providing equal opportunities for different groups to acquire knowledge and resources, which helps empower the depth and breadth of spiritual life.
Through empowerment, digital technology creates more spiritual products that are "loved and heard" [4] by the masses, enriching their spiritual lives and allowing their senses to attain spiritual enjoyment and their souls to achieve purification and tranquility. As a decentralized parallel world combining virtuality and reality—a landmark product of humanity's transformation from carbon-based civilization to silicon-based civilization—the digital technology composed of "Artificial Intelligence + Machine Intelligence + Human-Machine Intelligence" has broken the limits of time and space. Integrated with social networks, it has been endowed with spiritual elements unique to humans, such as external perception, socializing, emotion, thinking, self-awareness, judgment, and even free will and pattern recognition. The behavior and thinking of AI can respond flexibly to various situations much like a human, engaging in emotional exchange and interaction.
The application of higher-order technologies such as brain-computer interfaces, machine perception, speech and language processing, intelligent search, complex system planning, emotional sensing, knowledge learning, and interactive algorithms brings people into a digital cognitive world where vision, hearing, touch, taste, and belief are integrated. This allows people to have immersive experiences and obtain spiritual pleasure that is infinitely close to reality. It not only extends the human brain, five senses, and limbs, achieving the "extension of man," but also replicates human consciousness and thinking, making humans "extended persons," thereby bringing new spiritual satisfaction and pleasure to humanity.
Realizing common prosperity in spiritual life is an important original aspiration and founding mission of the Communist Party of China
Marxist theory holds that spiritual life is unique to humans and is an essential human characteristic. The technical features of digital technology in empowering the people's spiritual prosperity are highly compatible with the CPC’s original aspiration and founding mission of seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. As a party guided by Marxist ideology, the CPC takes as its pursuit the communist ideal society envisioned by Marx and Engels—one where "material wealth is extremely abundant, the spiritual realm of man is significantly elevated, and everyone achieves free and well-rounded development." It is committed to leading the people toward common prosperity in both material and spiritual life, exerting the greatest effort to satisfy the people’s spiritual needs for the pursuit of science, the thirst for knowledge, and their own development.
During the years of revolutionary war, the CPC provided a rich and colorful spiritual and cultural life for the masses in the revolutionary base areas through establishing schools, illiteracy eradication, newspaper publishing, book production, broadcasting, theater, and lectures. Under arduous material conditions, it fostered a vibrant spiritual state, forming the Great Revolutionary Spirits such as the Jinggangshan Spirit, the Long March Spirit, the Zunyi Conference Spirit, the Yan'an Spirit, and the Xibaipo Spirit [5].
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the CPC proposed educating 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, feudal superstitions, and outdated customs, promoting the "weeding out of the old to bring forth the new" [6] in education, science, and culture. It guided the masses to actively transform old thoughts, concepts, and habits, laying a solid foundation for the people's spiritual prosperity.
During the new period of Reform and Opening-up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping emphasized that socialism must not only be materially wealthy but also spiritually affluent. He stressed the vigorous development of spiritual life in areas such as education, science, and culture, noting that we must "grasp with both hands, and both hands must be firm" [7]—promoting the development of spiritual life while simultaneously facilitating material prosperity.
Entering the New Era, the CPC has placed even greater importance on the common prosperity of the spiritual life of the broad masses. General Secretary Xi Jinping has clearly stated: "Without spirit, a person cannot stand; without spirit, a country cannot be strong. Spirit is the soul upon which a nation depends for long-term survival. Only by reaching a certain spiritual height can a nation remain upright and forge ahead in the torrent of history." The report to the 20th CPC National Congress explicitly identified "enriching the people's spiritual world" as an "essential requirement of Chinese-path modernization" and noted that "material abundance and spiritual richness are the fundamental requirements of socialist modernization." This means that common prosperity in spiritual life is gradually moving from practical exploration toward theoretical construction.
Empowerment via digital technology has further accelerated the speed of the great cause of common prosperity in spiritual life for all people, expanded its depth and breadth, and created a large number of unprecedented spiritual life scenarios. The spiritual life of the people is gradually becoming digitized and self-service-oriented, further promoting the emergence of new "buffet-style" spiritual forms. The people's spiritual life possesses stronger interactivity and is deepening toward directions that are "more embodied" and "more virtual," weakening the absolute difference between reality and virtuality. Common prosperity in spiritual life has essential significance for human development, reflecting the CPC's heightened sublimation of and theoretical consciousness regarding the laws of achieving common prosperity.
Effectively promoting digital technology to empower common prosperity in spiritual life
Common prosperity in spiritual life involves multiple subjects: individuals, groups, society, and the state. It particularly requires every individual to possess collective consciousness and a sense of responsibility and mission toward the country and society, forming a "community" with high cohesion and centripetal force.
The impact of digital technology on spiritual life is both profound and multi-dimensional. Through the two paths of the "extension of man" and "extended persons," it has profoundly changed the operational logic of traditional spiritual life. Science and technology have transformed "man is a machine" into "machines are people," extending human physical and mental strength, which in turn converts "man is digital" into "digital is people." Digital technology provides strong support for the richness and inclusivity of spiritual life, but it also faces various realistic challenges, including the imbalance between the supply and demand structure of spiritual products, the intensification of spiritual life differentiation, spiritual dilemmas caused by information overload, algorithmic bias, and systemic risks such as privacy leaks. These not only restrict the process of achieving common prosperity in spiritual life but may also further exacerbate inequality in spiritual life. Digital technology can empower common prosperity by using tools such as virtual reality and AI to extend the field of spiritual life from traditional physical space to virtual and digital space, and further into augmented space, thereby expanding the spatial boundaries and experiential forms of spiritual life. Digital technology acts directly on the human body, enhancing quality and level of spiritual life by perfecting, compensating, and strengthening bodily functions and providing perception and experience capabilities that transcend natural limits. This enhances the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security, realizing the free and well-rounded development of the individual. Digital technology empowerment can be effectively promoted in the following areas:
First, promote the inclusive development of digital infrastructure to bridge the digital divide in spiritual life. The government should increase investment in digital infrastructure, particularly in underdeveloped areas and among technologically lagging groups, and promote education and training in basic digital literacy. Through policy subsidies or tax cuts, it should reduce the costs of purchasing and maintaining smart devices, allowing more social groups to enjoy AI-empowered spiritual products on an equal footing.
Second, strengthen the regulation of ethical issues in digital technology to promote the coordinated development of technological progress and social ethics. The widespread application of digital technology must proceed in sync with the improvement of social ethical norms. Governments and relevant agencies should accelerate the formulation of legal and moral standards for digital applications, particularly on key issues such as algorithmic bias, privacy protection, and transparency in automated decision-making, establishing effective supervision and accountability mechanisms. By increasing technical transparency and fairness, social injustice caused by technological progress can be reduced and public trust in digital technology can be enhanced.
Third, construct a vocational safety net to facilitate the transition of the labor force to new technological positions. As digital and automation technologies gradually replace traditional roles, the government should strengthen protection policies in the labor market, improve the vocational safety net, and alleviate individual career anxiety caused by technological progress. Through vocational retraining and skills-upgrading programs, laborers can be helped to adapt to emerging technical posts, mitigating the spiritual pressure and social unrest caused by job displacement. Simultaneously, the government can encourage enterprises to assume more social responsibility by providing more employment support and transitional measures.
Fourth, optimize information allocation mechanisms to prevent information overload and the intensification of mental stress. Addressing the issues of information overload and "data deluges," the government and tech companies should strengthen the regulation and optimization of recommendation algorithms to promote a healthier ecosystem for spiritual life. By limiting the over-reliance on algorithms and the tendency toward content homogenization, they can ensure users have access to more diverse and high-quality spiritual products. Meanwhile, the development of more humanized digital tools can help users effectively manage information flows and reduce mental fatigue.
Fifth, reinforce the digital technology system to guard against systemic risks. The government should strengthen security supervision of technology in key areas (such as healthcare, finance, and transportation) and promote redundancy design and safety protection for digital systems. This ensures that social systems can quickly resume operation in the event of technical failure, reducing systemic risks caused by technological dependence. Simultaneously, emergency response mechanisms for technical failures should be established to ensure that timely measures can be taken to protect public interests when crises occur.
(Author affiliation: School of Government, Beijing Normal University) Source: Beijing Daily (February 24, 2025) Web Editor: Huihui