— Artificial intelligence and embodied intelligent systems are reducing the dependence of some production and service processes on human labor time. This change may loosen the long-standing chain linking production, employment, income, and social recognition. The concept of "productive-force spillover" is used here to describe a conditional structural shift: when technological progress, distributive arrangements, and public provision jointly make basic social reproduction less dependent on every individual continuously selling sufficient labor, the main constraints facing society may gradually move from insufficient output toward distribution, recognition, cooperation, and meaning. Against the goals of Chinese modernization, especially coordinated material and cultural-ethical advancement, common prosperity, and the all-round development of people, an intelligent society needs a value language that goes beyond market pricing alone. A "civilization of the common good" is therefore proposed not as a new historical-stage label, but as an analytical description of a possible shift in value priorities. It rests on unconditional human dignity, expands capabilities and choices, connects voluntary contributions with real social needs, and gives greater visibility to care, knowledge sharing, emotional support, and public creation. The article further argues that AI may substitute tasks without necessarily reproducing the relational value of responsible, experiencing subjects, and outlines institutional directions including a resilient basic-security floor, community learning, voluntary public-good matching, and plural forms of social recognition.
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Guoping Hua (2026) studied this question.
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