The Evolution of Civilization: Getting Rid of Involution, From City Dweller to Digital Nomad

For now, the activities of digital nomads are more about awakening the original memories of urban residents, making everyone re-emphasize public life and community culture, and re-focus on publicity, inheritance, and sustainability. This is actually a people-oriented value measure. If urban residents can embrace this value scale and embrace leisure, there is hope to transform into digital residents, so as to gradually get rid of involution, restore public life, promote the transformation of social structure, and at the same time improve the sustainability of civilization development.

Written by: Feng Guangneng, contracted author of Crooked Neck Three Views, founder of Xiaoguang’s Cultivation World

Edit: Kaka

In the article “Habitat and Hope: From Inaction to Digital Nomads Who Light Up the World”, I have demonstrated that the most pressing problem of modern civilization is that public life is gradually disintegrating, and modern people immersed in the cycle of “earning money-consuming” are Coerced by the development trend of the industrial technology system itself, it is increasingly difficult to respond to various challenges raised by modern civilization, such as: rigid social structure, academic industrialization, financial bubbles, nihilism, war, population aging, climate warming, energy crisis , Species diversity decreased. These many problems have led to an unsustainable accelerated development trend of modern civilization. Of course, it is precisely such challenges that open up opportunities for dialogue.

01. Digital nomads and public life

As a social experiment, the actions of digital nomads are awakening people’s memories and possibilities of public life.

First, digital nomads demonstrate possible leisure time. When you are free, you don’t necessarily have to earn money and consume. It can also be that everyone gathers together without any clear purpose, just starting from nature, doing what you want to do in the environment you live in, or simply focusing on social activities. itself, and record these activities, let the time of living together become a memory in life, just like the DNA founding team did.

Secondly, digital nomads also demonstrate a way of living and learning together. For example, in the bread tree garden, everyone meets the basic material needs of life through the food freedom camp, and organizes reading clubs and other activities in the spiritual growth camp. Participants will pay attention Dialogue therapy, in the process of dialogue, care for each other, heal each other, promote the growth of each other’s spiritual life, or describe their ideal lifestyles.

Furthermore, digital nomads demonstrate a way of discussing public affairs, such as in Zuzalu, where the new environment weakens identity differences and makes the emergence of order possible, and people of different identities can communicate openly, without anticipating Set up a venue for free debate, association, opposition and construction, to inspire each other, and to sincerely discuss the challenges facing civilization.

For most cities, there are many transferable elements to the digital nomad lifestyle, in that many digital nomad activities simply re-discover the possibilities that those big city dwellers already had.

For example, when we chat about the story of Sheniu KC with our friends, we often feel that when a person realizes that death is the only certainty, he begins to choose to embrace uncertainty, and is willing to take the initiative to talk about topics that the other party is interested in. Your personality will become cheerful, and you will slowly share your memories with those around you, making life more and more interesting.

For another example, when we talk about the story of cher with our friends, we will have a sense of picture: draw pictures and write poems on the floor-to-ceiling windows, write on scraps of paper, and cut plastic bags into different shapes. Shapes, using ropes to create a sense of restraint… Similar actions can be transferred, and we can also use some simple objects around us to create an exhibition through inspiration and creativity to show the poetics of space.

It is not that there are such possibilities in urban life, but people often forget these possibilities in the fast-paced life, or it is difficult to get rid of the fierce competition atmosphere, and it is difficult to resolve the fighting spirit that is constantly generated every day, and it is difficult to calm down Enjoy life with friends; or carry too much burden, dare not let your spirit relax, habitually stare at the immediate target, and it is even more difficult to perceive other possibilities of the whole city based on the grasp of the overall situation sex. This is all normal, because history has a huge inertia, and urban residents don’t need to expect to break free from the huge inertia of history in a day or two.

But at the same time, we also need to be conscious and reflect on the inertia of history. It is undeniable that the accelerated development of modern cities is unsustainable, although every urban dweller is in the midst of such a trend. , although the ability of each of us is weak and insignificant, and although we are temporarily unable to withdraw from this trend immediately, the future is still created by the choices of each of us. Each of us should realize that promoting the structural transformation of society is a cause that requires everyone’s participation.

02. Pyramid Illusion

We often have an illusion that our social structure is a pyramid structure, and we classify classes through hard indicators such as education and capital. For example, when looking for a job and submitting a resume, education often constitutes an efficient filter. talked about. The same is true for civil servants, so in recent years, we can see an upsurge of all people taking postgraduate entrance examinations and public examinations.

Such an illusion seems to be in line with reality, but also has a certain historical precipitation. There are two reasons: first, in the era of feudal dynasties, power was transmitted in one direction from top to bottom, and the social power structure tended to be static. The pattern of the pyramid; second, as far as the current society is concerned, there is indeed a gap between the rich and the poor in the whole society. If we only look at the dimension of capital, the capital distribution of the whole society is indeed approximately pyramidal.

This illusion does not belong to a certain person, but is rooted in the hearts of most people and becomes a collective illusion, or ideology. The so-called ideology, according to Adorno’s definition, is “necessary social illusion” or “necessary false social consciousness”. It should be noted that ideology is not a general wrong social consciousness, but a social consciousness that is widely believed to be correct but is actually wrong. At the same time, the ideology, while wrong, is necessary unless there are better alternatives.

On the one hand, the pyramidal social structure is real as an illusion, that is, most people would think that our current social structure is pyramidal and understand their place in that way. On the other hand, this is really an illusion again, and this illusion has bad historical consequences, so we will emphasize that it is wrong.

First of all, the pyramid-shaped social structure is rooted in the ancient technological environment. In that era, there was no Internet, no concept of democracy, and communication between people was inconvenient. The operation of power was purely top-down, and the structure of power tended to be static. , social class tends to solidify. In modern society, we have the Internet, the speed of information communication has been greatly improved, and everyone’s education level has been improved. Every family, every business, and every government agency is a small pyramid. The scale of the pyramid is different, and each person with appeal is an important node, and different nodes connect the inside and outside of the pyramid. In this sense, it is an illusion because our social structure is not a pyramid, but a group of pyramids, and this group of pyramids is composed of small pyramids of different sizes.

Secondly, this illusion has brought extremely bad historical consequences. On the one hand, everyone imagines that there is an extremely powerful pyramid tip, and the pyramid tip has the final say on everything, and all responsibilities are borne by the pyramid tip; on the other hand, The ability and influence of the top of the pyramid are limited, and the consequences of many problems are difficult to have a direct relationship with the top of the pyramid, whether in terms of logic or actual impact. So, in the end, we found that many of the problems we are facing today are debts that have no owner, and there is neither a responsibility bearer nor a solution. At the same time, the operation of the entire society has formed a huge inertia, which will overwhelm all attempts to change for the better. The reason is that there is no single pyramid tip that can turn the tide. Compared with the historical inertia condensed by the entire pyramid group, each individual small pyramid is extremely fragile.

In this sense, the consequences of the pyramid structure as an ideology are devastating. If everyone lacks sufficient awareness of this ideology, they still hope for a “superhero” to appear, and are still eager to find a solution once and for all. If there is no solution to the problem, then everyone is a sinner who is innocent on the surface but actually hinders the transformation of the social structure.

If historical inertia itself is good, then it doesn’t really matter, everyone can just settle for the status quo. The problem is that the modern social form is a form of industrial civilization, governed by the logic of efficiency, in a state of continuous production, which has developed to the limit and cannot be stopped at all. This dissolves people’s public life: everyone suffers from introversion, knows that this pattern cannot continue, and sees no hope of getting out of the predicament.

For each small pyramid, it is also very uncomfortable in this historical trend. The reason is that if the small pyramid does not follow the logic of efficiency, but tries to express feelings, then it cannot survive at all. Once the logic of efficiency is followed and everyone starts to pursue the proliferation of capital, then there will be a competitive relationship between different small pyramids. This competitive relationship will stimulate the vitality of the small pyramids to a certain extent, but it will also bring a lot of unnecessary losses. . In addition, there is also fierce competition within the small pyramid, which has brought a lot of internal friction. The more deadly problem is that there is no upper limit to digital capital, but there is a Matthew effect, so if the foundation is not stable, the living environment of the small pyramid will become very harsh.

The reason why we are facing such a bad situation is that everyone did not face up to the technological environment, did not embrace the possibilities that the technological environment provided us, and was trapped in the past ideology and could not extricate ourselves. There is no doubt that the transformation of social structure is the general trend, and what this transformation requires is neither top-down instructions nor bottom-up feedback, but an active dialogue among many nodes. Active thinking and action is the consultation and cooperation between people. The premise of the transformation of social structure is the transformation of ideology and the emancipation of the mind.

It was the worst of times, and it was the best of times. There is no doubt that the transformation of social structure is possible, because the scale of each small pyramid is limited, and the boat is small and easy to turn around. As more and more small pyramids complete the structural transformation, the social order will improve, and everyone’s life will be improved. It will also get better. At the same time, in the process of social structure transformation, everyone can exert their influence, influence the people around them, affect the small pyramid they live in, and then affect more small pyramids.

03. Basic logic of social structure transformation

Whether it is a pyramid structure or a pyramid group structure, they all exist first as concepts in everyone’s intentional life. If many people believe it, they become ideologies. In other words, the key to the transformation of social structure is not the transformation of material form, but the transformation of ideology, the transformation of concepts, and the liberation of thought. As more and more people’s minds are liberated, public life can gradually be revived, and the relationship between different small pyramids may change from competition to cooperation, and many major issues can be gradually decomposed in the negotiation process. There is hope that society will show a trend of positive development and get rid of the huge historical inertia brought about by industrial civilization.

At present, the ideology of our society is still dominated by the pyramid structure. Under such an ideological background, the social operation mode has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is stability, and the disadvantage is that it is too stable, or rigid. Affected by the ideology of the pyramid structure, it is always difficult for new positions to find a place in the old value scale, and they will encounter resistance from various aspects during the gestation process, as Douglas said: “Everything that was invented before I was born Everything I took for granted; everything I invented between 15 and 35 was destined to change the world; everything after I was 35 was against humanity.”

It is difficult to create new jobs, and it is difficult for the society to respond to the increasingly diverse employment needs. For example, a college student who has studied cutting-edge majors may not be able to find a job that suits him. What has been learned has become a kind of qualifications, but it cannot play its due meaning. Similarly, due to the limited number of old jobs, if the number of job seekers exceeds the number of jobs, and ideal jobs are scarce, employment will become difficult and involution will be inevitable.

It can be found that in today’s society, productivity has been able to meet the daily needs of human beings, and most jobs are no longer related to actual production, but are only used to maintain class order. That is to say, the result of involution is not to create a better living environment for everyone, but to make everyone’s life more tiring, and the pressure on the bottom of society is increasing day by day. The tragedy at the bottom of society makes the middle class worry and fear. In order to prevent the class from falling, they involve more desperately, which in turn makes the involution more intense. The whole society is in a state of vicious circle.

Fortunately, more and more people are becoming conscious of this vicious circle, and realize that the way out for a better society lies in enabling the bottom class to live with dignity, to make their life rich and diverse, and to enable the bottom class to enjoy Leisure, or in other words, the most important thing is to let the “bottom” no longer be the bottom of the pyramid structure, but an organic member of a rich and diverse society.

That is to say, we need to be aware that our social structure actually presents a group of pyramids, and there are nodes that echo each other between different pyramids. In this sense, our entire society is more likely to develop into a kaleidoscope: each The small pyramids are like a mirror, reflecting the existence of other small pyramids and setting off the existence of other small pyramids. There are organic connections among many small pyramids, active dialogue and mutual cooperation, and ultimately allow everyone to achieve self-realization and present The mental outlook of “Three hundred and sixty lines, the number one scholar”. In a society with a kaleidoscope structure, everyone can rely on their own skills to demonstrate their excellence on the big stage of society.

In this sense, the kaleidoscope society is actually a social ideal that adapts to technological trends.

This kind of concept transformation is obviously not achieved overnight, and of course it is not impossible, because technology has the power to bridge the gap in material living standards. , there is not much difference in function. However, in the pyramid structure, the delivery guys are coerced by the system, desperately trying to improve their efficiency, and it is difficult to have leisure time. Many people who can’t find a job want to be a delivery boy.

If we pay attention to the situation of people and reflect on the current society around people’s living conditions, we will find that if we care about social well-being instead of surplus value, and the prosperity of civilization instead of individual efficiency, then we may find a new way out.

Leisure is essential to the public life of the inhabitants. If you get rid of the logic of efficiency first, many college students who have studied cutting-edge majors can also have leisure time after work. They can find some settlements in the city, imitate the digital nomads, hold various salon parties, and attract people from all walks of life in the city. People of class participate in the dialogue. In this way, college students did not learn their majors in vain, and public life in the city was restored. If the geographical distribution of settlements in the city is reasonable, and people in each community can go to the nearest settlement to participate in gatherings, then while revitalizing public life, it can also reduce traffic trips and reduce fossil energy consumption.

The settlement does not necessarily have to be offline. In the actions of digital nomads, we can see that through the live video function of conference software, offline activities can be combined with online activities, or purely online activities are also feasible.

In fact, the problems of buying a house and providing for the aged are not the most pressing issues that we are worried about now. The reason is that if we put these issues first, still act according to the logic of efficiency, and do not change the social structure, it will be difficult to create new jobs, and everyone will still be in a state of involution, and it will still be difficult to buy a house or provide for the elderly. In fact, the energy that everyone uses for introversion can actually be used to care for the elderly and children, caring for lovers and friends around them, and even creating a new life.

Conversely, when public life is revived, everyone can negotiate a new value scale through dialogue, and the economic order will gradually return to normal. At the same time, because our production capacity is already excess, once the economic order returns to normal, once the economic order can promote the rational distribution of social resources, social jobs will gradually become more diverse, so that more people can be employed and more people’s needs Can be satisfied, in this way, everyone’s life will lead to self-consistency, there is no doubt about it. Of course, creating such a positive trend requires the efforts of each of us.

It can be found that if we can see in the digital nomads those possibilities that we have forgotten, we have hope again. If we can conduct dialogues around hope, make hope more and more concrete, gradually build more and more consensus, gradually adjust our own way of life, and accept new ways of life, it is possible to gradually promote the transformation of social structure, so that The transformation of society towards the kaleidoscope structure as an ideal social form gradually eliminates many ills caused by the solidification of class, revives public life, and at the same time improves the sustainability of civilization development.

In fact, human society is always in the flow of time, and there are always various defects. What makes human beings feel at peace is actually a trend for the better. For example, in the 1970s and 1980s, people’s material living standards were not as good as we are now, but people’s spiritual outlook is different. Everyone can see hope, talk about ideas and do things actively. Of course, it is not impossible to look backwards, but it is pointless: in our time, the technological environment has become more complex, the degree of globalization has increased, and the structure of any one problem has become more complex. This also requires us to pay more attention to ideas and let more and more people join the conversation about ideas.

04. Leisure and dialogue: the highest form of urban life

Mumford, a pioneer in the history of technology, believes that dialogue is one of the highest forms of urban life, and the city is like a huge theater. The reason why urban life is interesting is that different people can play different roles, and different roles can have dialogues. During the dialogue, everyone’s personality has been fully developed. If there is no dialogue, the city will no longer be a city, but will become isolated islands, the city will lose its soul, and its residents will lose their public life.

In this sense, if we value dialogue and public life, then we can find that digital nomads can inspire us because they actively embrace the possibilities that the technological environment provides us, and these possibilities It is owned by both country dwellers and city dwellers. In other words, the key to the transformation of social structure lies in our understanding of the technological environment, so that we can realize the limitations of the past value scale, actively dialogue, and negotiate the cultural, political, and economic order from the possibilities provided by the technological environment. , and gradually explore a new value scale.

For now, for urban residents, the technical environment we live in actually has many obvious advantages, such as: 1. The production capacity is abundant and the products are diverse, which can meet everyone’s various material needs and make leisure possible; 2. .Information is abundant, and the speed of information dissemination is fast. The Internet can continuously provide us with various services to meet our needs in various dimensions such as knowledge, social interaction, and entertainment, enabling us to complete various forms of information through various software. Dialogue; 3. The transportation is convenient, whether it is traveling or visiting relatives and friends, it is very convenient…

However, affected by the ideology of the pyramid structure, the involution caused by class solidification makes us lack leisure, and it is difficult to embrace the many possibilities provided by the technological environment. For example, when we sink into the cycle of “earning money-consumption”, when we spend a lot of time learning new professional knowledge but can’t find a suitable job, when we feel anxious about buying a house, employment, and pension issues We all miss out on leisure, and with it, the rich possibilities that our technological environment offers us.

Against this background, if we can see clearly the logic of social transformation, value leisure instead of efficiency, let individuals, enterprises, and society form a linkage, and gradually transform towards a kaleidoscope structure, by embracing a new value scale, let the bottom of society If we can also live with dignity, then we not only hope to gradually eliminate the various evils brought about by the solidification of class, but may also find a new way out for modern industrial civilization.

The new way out is rooted in our understanding of information technology, that is to say, let us explore new value scales around information technology. The obvious reason is that information technology is more conducive to sustainable development than industrial technology. For example, I have a conversation with a friend through the Internet, which consumes a little energy, time, and electricity, but if I go to see this friend by means of transportation such as an airplane or high-speed rail, it consumes more energy and more energy. time and more fossil energy.

According to the traditional concept, this characteristic of the Internet will make the dialogue appear “cheap”, so that the dialogue on the Internet makes us feel that the “weight” is not enough, and everyone still retains more or less a kind of “important things need to be discussed face-to-face”. inertial thinking. But if we can feel the weight of the dialogue itself and respect the dialogue itself, then the dialogue on the Internet can also be formal. In fact, for many scholars, conversations via e-mail already carry more weight than face-to-face communication, and can explain things better. For relatives, many emotions that are difficult to convey by email can also be conveyed by voice in some cases. Years of separation have made the meeting more beautiful. For teachers, conference software can also replace classrooms to a certain extent. If the final form of assessment can also be conducted online, the effect of online teaching may not be worse than offline teaching.

Of course, this does not mean that the presence of the physical body is no longer necessary for dialogue. For dialogue activities, the field formed by the presence of the physical body is still unique. The breathing of the physical body, the rhythm of the physical body, the spirituality of the physical body, The interweaving between physical and modalities is difficult to achieve through the Internet. In a sense, it is precisely the absence of the physical body in Internet conversations that makes us pay more attention to the uniqueness of the presence of the physical body.

That is to say, valuing the dialogue on the Internet does not mean despising the dialogue in the flesh. On the contrary, when we value the dialogue on the Internet, what we pay attention to is the dialogue itself, which in turn will increase our understanding of the uniqueness of the dialogue in the flesh. know.

05. The value scale of social structure transformation

Theoretically speaking, in modern society, whether you are a rural resident or an urban resident, everyone is actually a potential digital resident, or already a digital resident to a certain extent. The reason for saying this is that people spend more and more time using electronic products such as mobile phones and computers, rely more and more on information technology, and begin to build relationships with people around them through information technology.

However, the key to the problem is not whether electronic products are used, nor is the time immersed in information technology, but the value scale by which we measure the meaning of life. If we still adhere to the logic of efficiency, then electronic products are only a tool to improve communication efficiency. It is a medium to promote dialogue and improve the quality of dialogue. The so-called digital residents are actually residents who make good use of information technology, that is, residents who base the basic logic of life on dialogue and information technology.

If everyone has an understanding and expectation of the many forms of public life, they will jump out of the cycle of “earning money-consumption” after satisfying their basic survival needs, pay more attention to the relationship between people, and regard public life itself as an ideal. know. People in the same gathering place can get to know each other by greeting each other, organize some public activities, and revive the community culture, just like the rural life in the past, everyone is very familiar with it. The difference from rural life in the past is that in the Internet age, everyone can record the process of these public activities and share them on the Internet platform as a public dialogue space and public memory space.

Since we focus on the public life of digital residents, we can take the community as the basic unit of concern during the transformation of the social structure. In this regard, the 706 urban plan has actually provided us with a reference. As early as 2019, 706 realized that with the innovation of the technological environment, the working, social and living styles of young people will undergo transformation in the next 5 to 10 years, and established three projects: 706 Shared Living Room, 706 Living Laboratory, 706 Youth Space. It can be found that whether it is a shared living room, a living laboratory or a youth space, the theme around it is public life, and the key technology is the Internet. What is quite unique is that 706 regards the organization of offline activities as an opportunity for dialogue. During the process of organizing offline activities, it provides a large amount of background information in the WeChat group to stimulate communication and sharing among group members.

Image source: 706 Youth Space

It can be found that the resources used by 706 are actually the existing resources in the city, but the logic of the use of resources has been transformed to provide a dynamic form of public life. The revival of public life and the transformation of social structure are actually two aspects of the same thing. In this sense, the model of 706 can actually be imitated by many small pyramids in the city. For many small pyramids in dominant positions, this imitation process is not too difficult, and they are all expected to become the main force to promote the transformation of social structure.

Likewise, we can negotiate a scale of value around the digitization process of a community. The community here is not necessarily a community in the geographical sense, but it can also be a Metaverse community. For example, when we take face-to-face chatting, dancing, discussing self-government plans, stances, and martial arts as the main body of public life, the communities we discuss are mainly geographical communities. For geographical communities, the role of information technology mainly lies in Enhance, record, save and disseminate everyone’s public life; when we take online chat, online games, short videos, online community governance, etc. as the main body of public life, what we call a community is more of a Metaverse community, For the Metaverse community, information technology is not only a platform for public life, but also a medium for recording, preserving and disseminating public life. In fact, the geographical community and the metaverse community are sometimes the same, and sometimes the metaverse community will cross geographical barriers, allowing more people to have relationships and dialogues.

In fact, when information technology becomes the background color of our lives, the impact of geographical conditions on the meaning of our lives is relatively reduced. In this way, we reduce our dependence on the material environment, and it is easier to calm down and reflect on our life. The material environment in which the body lives, thus embracing a new value standard and gradually breaking away from the value standard of industrial civilization.

It should be noted that the value scale of industrial civilization is efficiency-oriented, so quantification is necessary, and quantitative indicators are well-deserved hard indicators. For us who are still living in industrial civilization, this matter needs to be conscious . In other words, if the value scale is still constructed around hard indicators, we will never be able to get rid of the logic of industrial civilization, and it will be impossible for society to transform towards a kaleidoscope structure. In this sense, we must pay attention to soft indicators, that is, qualitative indicators, or qualitative description activities.

Based on the grasp of information technology, we might as well regard publicity (through the Internet to transcend physical and geographical barriers to form a shared domain), inheritance (preservation through the Internet) and sustainability (reduction of fossil energy consumption) as soft factors for social structural transformation. index.

For example, publicity can be initially understood through factors such as the number of views, interaction status, and interaction quality. It also depends on community residents’ expectations of public life. Some community residents may expect a high number of attention, and some community residents may expect interaction. The quality is high, and what some community residents may expect is to have a brother community, where everyone follows remotely and grows together. Inheritance is also similar, depending on community residents’ understanding of inheritance issues. For example, some communities attach great importance to numbering and classification, and compile digital content, just like writing a book, so that future generations can read it easily. It is easier to inherit the memory of predecessors.

It can be found that these two attributes are soft evaluation scales, which are difficult to measure quantitatively and require community residents to reach a consensus through negotiation. During the negotiation process, the naming of the digital indicators of different communities can obviously also be personalized. For example, in the Metaverse game community, everyone can use their spare time to construct levels such as bronze, silver, gold, and diamonds. Order to measure the development level of the community, everyone discusses what characteristics each rank needs to show, and it is not necessarily limited to the publicity, inheritance and sustainability I mentioned. Similarly, cultivation communities that are more dependent on geographical conditions can use the hierarchical order of Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Jindan, Yuanying, and Huashen to measure the development level of the community. In such a process, the specific connotation of each noun does not depend on the definition of outsiders, but is confirmed through internal consultation within the community. Of course, whether this connotation is good or bad is left to people in the external community to evaluate. If a community does not reliably define the connotation of its own hierarchical order, it will be difficult to get everyone’s recognition and attention.

Relatively speaking, sustainability is an indicator that can be quantified, but the positioning of this indicator should also be soft. Take transportation as an example. If you stipulate how many times you travel in a week, it will kill the variety of possibilities in life. Reducing traffic trips should rely on attraction, not coercion. If offline gatherings in the community and online interaction in the Metaverse community become a way of life that everyone is accustomed to, then everyone will spontaneously reduce their dependence on transportation.

All in all, for the process of community digitalization, soft indicators are more important. If hard indicators occupy a dominant position, then the development of the community may be far from the purpose (improve the happiness of public life, enhance the publicity of activities, and the inheritance property), and towards the measurable direction, the development prospects of the community are likely to be locked by many quantitative technologies, and once again dominated by the efficiency logic of industrial civilization. If we want to talk about sustainability, the way of life of the East African savannah people is the most sustainable. They have lived for millions of years, but such days are almost endless repetitions, which are hardly life. Only when soft indicators dominate, and only when the public life of the community becomes a desirable public life, can our talk of sustainability make sense.

In fact, judging from the existing conditions of modern cities, the vast majority of urban residents can gradually become digital residents, and the important thing is actually the transition process itself. If we adopt hard targets for transition, the public awareness of urban residents will still not be awakened, and they will still be unable to respond to the challenges facing modern civilization. If we aim at revitalizing public life, guide the community through stories and ideas, and allow the community to spontaneously form internal soft indicators, we hope to develop a variety of unique communities, allowing the diversity of community culture to emerge naturally.

There is no doubt that this matter cannot be accomplished overnight, and it is by no means an overnight effort. After all, everyone lives in history and in the existing value scale, and the change of lifestyle cannot be done overnight. The key to the problem is not to realize the ideal immediately, but to let the ideal exist as an ideal, so that everyone can communicate and talk about the ideal, so that the ideal of public life becomes more and more fulfilling, so that everyone’s life can gradually approach the ideal condition.

In any case, what we want to create is actually a positive trend. If more and more urban residents become digital residents, reduce the consumption of fossil energy, start to pursue their own excellence through speech and action on the basis of meeting basic survival needs, and pay attention to records and inheritance, then the modern people The quality of public life will gradually improve, everyone’s anxiety will be reduced, and the sustainability of modern cities will be greatly enhanced. In this way, our ability to respond to the challenges of civilization will become stronger and stronger, and our room for living in the world will become wider and wider.

06. Immediate hope and distant ideal

In the process of transforming urban dwellers into digital dwellers, the biggest problem we face is not a question of possibility, but path dependence and nihilistic attitudes.

The so-called path dependence means that everyone is used to competing on the original track. The reason is that they are accustomed to the scale provided by this track and are unwilling to accept new things and the new scale brought by new things. This is a human being. common phenomenon. The nihilistic attitude is what Keynesians say “in the long run we are all dead”, or what modern people often say “I’ll let him be flooded after I die”. Although we can say that in the long run, the life of digital residents in digital eco-cities is more desirable and sustainable, but in the short term, this means the transformation of social structure, and means that urban residents explore and adapt to the new environment. This matter itself is painful and needs to be adjusted. The path dependence phenomenon and nihilistic attitude will undoubtedly provide relatively large resistance during the running-in process, which needs to be faced squarely and resolved seriously.

The crux of the problem lies in the “hope in front of me”. What we have to do is to reveal the hope that can be seen in front of us, and connect this hope with a distant ideal.

The immediate hope may not necessarily be connected with the distant ideal, but may also be connected with the master’s instinct and desire. For example, fitness is a typical “immediate hope”-anyone can achieve immediate results by lifting iron, that is, the muscles become developed. Perhaps, martial arts practitioners will be more cautious in the process of fitness, because the local training method of fitness is a huge threat to “integrity”, and excessive emphasis on muscles may lead to neglect of the membranous muscles, bones, viscera and marrow. Perhaps, Chinese medicine will say that fitness is often about strengthening the body, pouring qi into the limbs, which leads us to neglect the life skills of nourishing the internal organs. But these cautious gazes are often completely overwhelmed by the immediate effects of fitness, and detailed expositions and discussions are reduced to marginal discourse. At the same time, with the continuous expansion of mainstream consumerism discourse, muscle and sex are linked, fitness and sex have established a relationship, and young people are more motivated to exercise. By exercising well, attracting a sexual partner, and making the partner’s sex life more enjoyable, this is also a manifestation of altruism. With the confluence of consumerism and reproductionism, compared with the seemingly distant question of whether civilization can continue, in daily life, most people are more concerned about when they can fall in love and when they can live a happy life. Sex life. This is understandable. In fact, most people fall into a similar logic when they want to buy a house, a car, cosmetics, and skin care products.

In fact, establishing a relationship or even binding consumer goods with sex can indeed provide a strong consumption drive for the consumer society in the short term. Similarly, consumption drives production, and this consumption drive derived from sexual instinct will eventually bring about social The rapid development of consumer goods level. Of course, the rapid development trend of consumer goods, as a microcosm of the accelerated development trend of modern civilization, is also unsustainable. After all, both mineral resources and fossil energy are limited.

We have explained above that the so-called transformation of social structure lies in the transformation of ideology, that is, to recognize the development trend of the pyramid group structure and transform the social structure into a kaleidoscope structure. This means that everyone’s material life can be easily satisfied. Now, we should start to care about higher goals, such as “distant ideals” such as the happiness of public life, the inheritance of human civilization memory, and the sustainability of civilization development.

These higher goals are actually not only related to immediate hopes, but also to distant ideals. The crux of the problem is that everyone can regard these hopes as practical hopes, speak out these hopes in public life, and let such Hope to gradually surpass people’s desire to “earn money-consume”. For example, if a modern person has two million, he already has the financial reserves to plan an ideal life, but a person with two million will not automatically become an idealist. Because of path dependence, people with 2 million people are more likely to live in the original track, taking the people with 10 million people as an example and trying to surpass them. It is too complicated to plan life on a larger world stage. It not only requires continuous learning of new knowledge, but also the courage to face various uncertainties.

In addition, path dependence includes not only personal living habits, but also the fetters with people around you. When a person with two million wants to realize his ideal life, it means that he still needs to find If he does not realize the relationship between this ideal life and the people around him, otherwise he will completely break away from his original circle. According to this kind of thinking, it is not easy to see the hope in front of you, and it is even more difficult to explore the ideal life with practice.

But in fact, if we really see the hope in front of us, the road to practice may not be as difficult as we imagined, and the distant ideal is not out of reach. Because in fact, the uncertainty we face is itself limited, and sometimes the distance will narrow the relationship between us and the people around us. The reason is that when we realize that we have always existed as a node inside the small pyramid and between many small pyramids, we can find that the transformation of our own way of existence will affect the changes of the whole world. Of course, this also means responsibility. Before we bravely pursue our ideals, we need to torture our hearts repeatedly and confirm our path repeatedly, because life cannot be repeated. Before showing excellence in the public sphere, each of us has to go through a journey of questioning our hearts one after another. On the road of asking our hearts, people around us may play various roles and set us tests. We should cherish these precious tests , Cherish friends who are willing to set tests for us.

In this sense, by writing articles to record their own actions, digital nomads have formed small pyramids in the Internet world, or in other words, each digital nomad is like a small lighthouse, lighting the way for others: digital nomad The activities not only awaken the memory of urban residents on public life, but also let urban residents see a richer “immediate hope” through their own practice, revealing the public life that can bring everyone a sense of happiness. This kind of happy public life has a relationship with the inheritance of human civilization memory and the sustainability of civilization development.

That is to say, the key issue of ideological transformation is: what should we establish the relationship with the hope in front of us.

In the past, the consumer society established a relationship between sex and immediate hope, which provided a huge driving force for social development, resulting in a situation where the current trend of overproduction and accelerated development is difficult to stop and difficult to maintain. But now, we must consciously connect distant ideals with immediate hopes, thereby gradually changing the development direction of the entire modern civilization.

On the surface, this undertaking is like Nuwa mending the sky, Kuafu chasing the sun, and Jingwei filling the sea, but every time you say a true word, there is a kind of joy in responding to the challenges of the times, and every time you do a true thing, you feel There is the joy of making a real thing. Moreover, if we can make good use of technology and actively embrace the possibilities that modern technology provides us, then this task may not be as difficult as we think.

Perhaps when we find a suitable fulcrum, the entire huge chain of existence begins to flip, just like Copernicus worked around Ptolemy’s eccentric uniform velocity point in the past, and finally brought about a change in the human world.