Social Sciences in China

Vol. 40, No. 4, 2019

A New Understanding of the Information Civilization “Key” to “Development”

(Abstract)

Wang Tian’en

The exploration of information civilization provides a new key to a new understanding of contemporary development. As a higher level of civilization based on material energy, information civilization represents the information development of human civilization, involving development from material energy to information, development of resources from individual portions to joint sharing, development of the relationship between humans and resources from ownership to use, and the development of humanity itself and its activities from material energy to information. The unfolding of information in human civilization presents the development of information civilization as a mode of human existence, as information ecology and as a dynamic mechanism of social development. Information civilization highlights the profound significance of the fact that in the final analysis, development is human development; the inherent mechanics of human development proceeding from external conditions to internal needs; and the basic manner in which social development proceeds from quantitative increases to qualitative progress. As a result, contemporary development presents a two-way cycle of accelerating human development and social progress, in which human development increasingly takes precedence; the renewal of the drivers of development and the development of human needs are more and more directly related; and the overall level of social progress becomes the key to development.

In the course of leading the rise of information civilization, China not only has unique advantages, but also faces the key task of liberating creativity.

Keywords: development, information civilization, human needs, sharing