The development of human civilization is a process of constantly liberating productivity. Traditionally, productivity refers to social productivity, also known as "material productivity", which is the ultimate outcome of people's practice ability and one aspect of the production mode. It refers to the relationship between natural objects and natural forces that people use to produce material goods, indicating the relationship between human beings and the nature. Productivity is a function of the productivity system, and the elements that make up the productivity system include laborers, means of production, and objects of labor. Among them, production tool is a core element in developing productivity. Production tools refer to all the specific devices that animals use in their production behaviors.
The human development process, especially the development of production tools, is a process of constantly liberating "hands" of laborers, for example, the development from simple tools in the early days to the use of machines, and to the use of semi-automatic and automatic tools. Such process of liberation is accompanied with constant "joy" and "fear" of human beings. For example, in 1865, when the British businessmen built a 0.5-kilometer railway in the suburb of Beijing for trial operation, it caused a great sensation in Beijing. Railways which were considered as essential for development by western countries at that time were seen as monsters in the eyes of Empress Dowager Cixi and the Manchu officials, who then ordered to demolish them. The first railway project in China thus ended up in failure. Even on December 28, 1895, when the Lumière Brothers' film L'arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat was publicly screened in a café in Paris, it showed a train being pulled into a train station in the French coastal town of La Ciotat by a steam locomotive. It is said that when the film was first shown in Paris, the audience thought the real train was going to rush out of the screen and were scared away. Likewise, the emergence of initial automobiles also made many people feel frightened. The emergence of initial automobiles had a strong impact on the traditional carriage industry, and carriage merchants perceived it as a crisis for survival. In 1865, the British Parliament approved the “Motor Car Act”, which was later ridiculed as the "Red Flag Act.” It was stipulated in this Act that every motor vehicle traveling on the road should be driven by three people, one of whom must guide the vehicle with a red flag waving to clear the way 50 meters ahead and the speed should not exceed 4 miles per hour. In all these cases, the emergence of these tools was accompanied by human "fear". However, when these means of transportation and robots became mastered by humans, they no longer caused "fear" but became a great source of "joy". Today, it takes only 5 hours to travel from Shanghai Beijing by high-speed train, and less than 10 hours to travel from Shanghai to San Francisco by taking a jet plane.
The development of computing tools has been a continuous process of liberating the "mind" of laborers. From the abacus to slide rules, to calculators, and finally to computers, it has been a process of constantly freeing the mind of human beings. From February 10-17, 1996, an extraordinary chess tournament was held in Philadelphia, the USA, with the participation of both the computer "Deep Blue" and the world’s chess champion Kasparov. Kasparov defeated the computer "Deep Blue" by 4:2, winning a high prize of $400,000 in the six games of this human-machine chess competition. The victory of humans over computers marked the end of the first man-machine chess battle. However, the chess champion did not have the last laugh. On May 11, 1997, Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM's computer program "Deeper Blue" with a score of 2.5:3.5 (1 win, 2 losses, 3 draws). "Deep Blue" was a super-computer developed by IBM technicians. IBM's super-computer "Deeper Blue" defeated Kasparov and triggered a sensation all over the world. Because of this game, 1997 was considered as the beginning year of artificial intelligence. In 2016 and 2017, a new artificial intelligence program named AlphaGo defeated the world's two top Go players, Lee Sedol from South Korea and Ke Jie from China, for two consecutive years. The Go battle between AlphaGo and the world’s champions caused a sensation around the world again. People were shocked by the events realizing that artificial intelligence had reached a new height. However, there has always been a mix of "joy" and "fear" about the technology from the first day when artificial intelligence was invented: Will artificial intelligence replace human jobs? Will artificial intelligence assist humans to work? Will artificial intelligence surpass humans? Will artificial intelligence enslave humans?
Recently, ChatGPT as a new liberation of "mind" has continued to be excitably discussed and has attracted a great attention. Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates even stated that "The significance of the birth of this technology is no less than that of the Internet or personal computer." After using ChatGPT, Elon Musk commented that it was "terrifyingly good" and even said, "We are not far from an AI which is so powerful that it may be dangerous." At the same time, during the two months when ChatGPT got popularity, the entire education system seems to be facing enormous "joy" and "fear". Students are using it happily, while teachers have no choice but to launch a counterattack against ChatGPT, even resorting to extreme measures such as confiscating phones and shutting off network connections. In the United States, many university professors, department heads, and administrators are making large-scale adjustments to their classes to deal with the huge impact of ChatGPT on teaching activities. As a result, many universities have begun to revise academic integrity policies. including "the use of generative AI" in the definition of plagiarism. Nevertheless, many educators also hold a more open attitude towards ChatGPT, believing that it will be able to liberate many educators’ jobs , allowing them to focus on students' long-term development. Minjing Ni, the Deputy Director of the Shanghai Education Commission, believes that "The emergence of ChatGPT brings a significant opportunity to the reform of education itself, because education cannot develop sustainably by blocking ChatGPT if traditional educational methods do not change." Yonghe Wu, a researcher at East China Normal University said, "Although ChatGPT faces many setbacks, just like the birth of the Internet, it greatly reduces the cost for ordinary people to acquire knowledge. ChatGPT will not overturn the existing education system, rather, its benefits outweigh its harms to education."
Clearly, throughout the history, the emergence of new things has invariably been accompanied by both "joy" and "fear." However, when it comes to liberating productivity and freeing "hands," people tend to experience more "joy" than "fear," because it enables us to go further, higher, and faster. As only our "hands" are liberated, people still believe that the "brain" which controls “hands" is still commanded by human beings, and that humans can control these new "hands." However, the emergence of artificial intelligence has made humans realize that human brain can no longer keep up with artificial intelligence, for example, the "computing power" of the human brains can't match that of AlphaGo, and the "knowledge power" of the human brains may not keep up with that of "ChatGPT." These technologies that start from liberating the human "mind" have not only brought "joy" to humans, but also make more people "feared."
Therefore, our core concern is, what are the aspects of human "mind" that artificial intelligence cannot achieve? I believe the core is "innovation," especially "disruptive innovation." Artificial intelligence will undoubtedly replace repetitive, technical, standardized, and limited mental work. Nevertheless, artificial intelligence cannot replace "innovation," especially "disruptive innovation." For example, artificial intelligence can neither discover "Newton's First Law" from the fall of an apple, nor can it discover the "Special Theory of Relativity". Such innovation is currently impossible for artificial intelligence to achieve.
The every stage of human history has been marked with the continuous liberation of human “hands” and “mind”, from ancient hunting to agricultural societies, to industrial societies, to the electrical era, to the information age, and now to the age of artificial intelligence. The liberation has primarily focused on enhancing productivity. When this liberation of “hands” and “mind” reaches a certain level, when productivity has developed to a certain degree, where will human beings go forward? I believe the answer is "to reach the vast expanse of stars".
To reach the cast expanse of stars, we need to further liberate our "hands". Starting from travelling on foot, human beings have travelled all over the world and formed a diverse range of human civilizations. The emergence of horse-drawn carriages greatly expanded the area of humanity's activities which is followed by automobiles, trains, airplanes, and spacecrafts. However, until now, the farthest physical distance that humans can reach is the moon only. Humans cannot yet reach any other star in the solar system (excluding through space exploration). Therefore, there is still plenty of room for liberating human "hands". Humanity is still far from reaching the "vast expanse of stars" in the universe. To achieve this, we need to further liberate our "mind". For artificial intelligence, no matter if it is basic AI like Deep Blue and AlphaGo, or medium-level AI with a certain degree of "thinking ability" like ChatGPT and BARD, the innovation sense and ability are lacked. There is still a lot of room for humanity to explore in terms of awareness, thinking ability, logic, innovation and so on. Humankind is still far from the "vast expanse of stars " in terms of human brain exploration.
Humans don't have to worry that machines may control human thoughts and developments, just like the "fear" we faced when trains and cars were invented. Such tools will inevitably become human "productivity", bringing more "joy" and happiness. I believe that humans will also move from current "fear" towards "joy" when it comes to artificial intelligence which frees human "mind". With the advent of AI, humans will become happier and more likely to reach the vast expanse of stars.