Author: EcoFi m&W Initiator Jerry
Research Support: Gemini
Looking back at history, every leap in productivity has demanded a complete restructuring of production relations. The establishment of the Renaissance and fundamentalism: At that time, it addressed the relationship between "man and God," liberating man from the church's interpretative authority; The Enlightenment and the bourgeois revolution: It resolved the relationship between "the people and the ruler." The thoughts of Voltaire and Rousseau preceded the gunfire of the French Revolution, establishing private property, the separation of powers, and the social contract.
So, as we enter the AI era, what kind of Enlightenment movement do we need? When models begin to monopolize the interpretation of truth, and computing power becomes a new hegemony, we must redefine: In the intelligent era, what does an independent person truly possess?
This article will discuss this theme in three parts—From Charter to Republic; Restoration and Turmoil; From Sovereignty of Existence to Sovereignty of Being, "the reinstatement of human divinity."
Part One: From Charter to Republic
Just as the class antagonism in France before the Great Revolution, the current AI ecosystem has deep-seated injustices:
Digital Serfdom: Giants unilaterally seize the data assets of all humanity for training, with the resulting trillions in value monopolized by a very small number of shareholders.
Black Box Theocracy: The decision-making process of AI is unknowable and uncontrollable, with algorithmic bias akin to the "interpretative authority of doctrine" of the past, determining individual credit, employment, and even cognition.
Computing Power Walls: Extremely high thresholds for computing power create new class barriers, causing ordinary developers and sovereign nations to lose the material basis for "thinking."
Technological Charter
If Enlightenment thought needed to be disseminated through printing, then equality and freedom in the AI era need to be executed through blockchain protocols. Web3 plays multiple roles in this movement:
- #### Data Sovereignty: From "inalienable human rights" to "private keys as human rights"
Web3, through decentralized identity (DID) and cryptographic technology, has achieved the "physical separation" of digital assets for the first time. This is akin to the Enlightenment establishing the sanctity of private property, making data no longer fuel for giants, but capital for individuals.
- #### Digital Rule of Law: Achieving "separation of powers" with ZK-ML
Under the Web3 framework, the combination of Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK) and Machine Learning (ML) (ZK-ML) provides a verification mechanism. We do not need to "trust" companies, but rather "verify" code. This achieves a balance of algorithmic power, ensuring that every decision made by AI aligns with the pre-established social contract.
- #### Computing Power Democracy: The rise of DePIN and sovereign AI
Through decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN), computing power scattered around the globe is consolidated by protocols. This breaks the computing power monopoly of giants, similar to how local autonomy countered centralization in the past, allowing every community to have its own, unimpeded AI agent.
Digital Republic
The endpoint of this movement is a "digital republic" where humanity coexists with AI. Here, code as law evolves into "sovereignty as protocol."
- #### Return of Ownership: From "data tenants" to "digital landlords"
Every contributor of data automatically receives royalties generated by AI through smart contracts, which can be extended into "Dynamic Contribution Weighting (Contribution-Based Equity)":
Automation (Royalty 2.0): Not only is payment triggered when data is called. Through protocols like X404, your data contributions can be transformed into liquid asset shares. If a large model becomes smarter due to your unique data, the "data shares" you hold will appreciate in value as the model's valuation increases.
Interactive: Through smart contracts, you can set the "granularity of data usage." For example: allowing AI to conduct public welfare research for free (non-profit), but for commercial reasoning, AI must pay micro-rent in real-time to your wallet through the x402 protocol.
- #### Human-Machine Boundaries: Building a "digital biometric" firewall
Through Web3's "Proof of Personhood" protocol, we protect human uniqueness and voting rights in a world flooded with AI. "Proof of Personhood" (PoP) is not anti-robot; it is meant to define "responsible entities":
Proof of Uniqueness: Using ZK-Proof (Zero-Knowledge Proof), you can prove you are human without disclosing any real-world identity privacy. This "digital identity" is your only credential for exercising voting rights in the republic.
Final Decision Authority: In the laws of the republic, a "Human-in-the-loop" switch is established. For decisions involving life safety and major resource allocation, AI agents only have advisory power; the final signature authority must revert to human nodes with PoP certification.
Protecting Human Creativity: DAOs can establish incentive schemes for "purely human content," automatically recognizing and rewarding human original content that cannot be simulated by AI, characterized by complex emotions and intuition.
- #### AI Agent Economy: From "individual combat" to "decentralized society"
Intelligent agents (AI Agents) operate autonomously on-chain, creating value for humanity, and the distribution rules of this value are governed publicly by decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). AI Agents are no longer tools but "digital legal entities":
Autonomous Balance Sheet: AI Agents have their own on-chain wallets and credit scores. They produce value by renting computing power on the DePIN network, and after deducting operational costs, the remaining value is either contributed to the "public treasury" or distributed to their citizen owners.
Algorithmic Governance of DAOs: The "constitution" of the republic is written in the smart contracts of the DAO. Human citizens vote to determine the evolution direction of AI (e.g., AI's learning preferences, ethical constraints, profit distribution ratios). This is a "algorithmic democracy," ensuring that technological development does not deviate from the collective interests of humanity.
Cross-Agent Collaboration Protocols: Different agents owned by humans can automatically reach "service agreements" on-chain. Your "financial management agent" can hire someone else's "information gathering agent," with both sides settling in milliseconds through the x402 interface, forming a highly developed autonomous economic entity that requires no human intervention.
The "digital republic" is not a technical framework; it addresses the issue of "technological alienation."
Part Two: Restoration and Turmoil
The motto of the French Revolution was "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." In the AI era, these three words have new annotations: liberty (data free from monopoly), equality (computing power within reach), fraternity (shared algorithmic benefits).
This new Enlightenment movement does not require us to take to the streets; it occurs every time we choose open-source models over closed ones, and every time we vote with our wallets to support decentralized protocols. Code is law, sovereignty is freedom. However, achieving a digital republic is not a one-time technical delivery but a long-term, contentious evolutionary process.
Short-term obstacles: Relate to user habits and giant monopolies.
Long-term obstacles: Relate to technical performance bottlenecks and the fragmentation of the global governance system (e.g., differing AI regulatory standards among the US, China, Russia, and Europe in 2026).
Just as the French Revolution experienced restoration and turmoil, the digital republic is also likely to undergo a chaotic period of "algorithmic fragmentation." Achieving the "digital republic"—an ideal society where data sovereignty belongs to individuals, algorithms are transparent and auditable, and benefit distribution is fair—has a grand vision, but faces multiple obstacles in transitioning from theoretical physical laws to the nature of human power.
1. "Resistance" of Power Structures: The Moat of Existing Interests
The Enlightenment faced the old nobility, while the digital republic faces "data agrarian overlords" (Big Tech).
Monopoly Inertia: Giants that control computing power and data have strong network effects. For ordinary users, leaving centralized platforms means significant social and migration costs.
Regulatory Capture: The situation in 2026 shows that even with laws like the EU's AI Act, large companies can lobby to convert compliance standards into extremely high entry barriers, effectively excluding decentralized competitors through "high compliance costs."
Contradictions of National Sovereignty: Many countries advocate for "digital sovereignty," but often prefer to establish "national centralized brains" rather than "decentralized brains for all."
2. The "Impossible Triangle" of Efficiency and Decentralization
In computer science, decentralization often comes at the cost of performance, while AI is an extremely resource-intensive technology.
Computing Power Divide: Training top-tier large models (like GPT-5 level) requires thousands of tightly clustered H100 GPUs. Web3's decentralized computing power (DePIN) currently performs well in inference (using AI) but is limited by bandwidth latency in large-scale parallel training, making it difficult to achieve the efficiency of centralized data centers.
User Experience (UX) Barriers: Managing private keys, paying gas fees, and understanding data authorization logic remain overly complex for the general public. If the cost of "freedom" is "extremely difficult to use," most people will still choose "smooth enslavement."
3. The "Black Box" Dilemma of Algorithmic Governance
"Medieval believers interpreted God's will through clergy; today, users interpret model outputs through API calls. When large models are inexplicable, they become a form of 'digital oracle.'"
The significance of Web3: It is the "Reformation" of the digital world, reclaiming the "interpretative authority of truth" from giants and returning it to every individual who can verify code.
However, even with blockchain, the internal black box problem of AI remains difficult to eradicate.
The Explainability Dilemma: We can put the reasoning process of AI on-chain, but the current level of mathematics cannot fully explain: why does a trillion-parameter model give a specific answer? If we cannot fully understand the logic, the so-called "auditability" is merely formal.
Witch Hunts and Governance Manipulation: In the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) of the digital republic, those with more tokens may have more decision-making power. This could lead to the "digital republic" rapidly evolving into "digital oligarchic politics," where the voices of marginalized groups are once again drowned out.
4. The "No Man's Land" of Law and Ethics
As AI agents begin to autonomously trade and make decisions on-chain, the boundaries of legal responsibility become blurred.
Absence of Responsible Entities: If an AI operating autonomously on a Web3 protocol causes economic loss or ethical disaster, who is responsible? Code is law (Code is Law), but in the real physical world, victims seek compensation and justice.
Conflict Between Data Islands and Privacy Protection: The digital republic requires data sharing to break monopolies, but privacy laws (like GDPR) demand strict data protection. How to leverage data for collective value without disclosing personal privacy remains a high computational cost in ZK (Zero-Knowledge) technology.
Cognitive Load: Not everyone wants to be their own "data CEO." In an age of information explosion, many people would rather relinquish ownership in exchange for precise algorithmic recommendations.
Crisis of Authenticity: The proliferation of AI-generated content may lead people to lose confidence in any "authenticity verification." When the cost of misinformation approaches zero, the foundational trust required for the digital republic will face severe challenges.
Part Two: From "Sovereignty of Survival" to "Sovereignty of Existence"
In the history of thought, each enlightenment has made "ownership" more abstract and essential.
The First Enlightenment granted us the right to vote (political participation);
The Second Enlightenment granted us the right to consume (economic participation);
The Third (AI) Enlightenment must grant us digital sovereignty (existential participation).
Without Web3 providing technological contracts, and without philosophy providing a defensive line of thought, humanity would be reduced to a form of "advanced biological parameters." Therefore, the most precious thing you possess is that "soul that cannot be fully explained by algorithms."
1. Displacement of Existence: From "Human-Centric" to "Distributed Subjectivity"
Traditional philosophy, whether Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" or Kant's "Man is an end," places "man" at the center of cosmic cognition. However, the post-transition civilization will bid farewell to this isolated subjectivity.
Theoretical Model of Civilizational Transition: Distributed Symbiotic Consciousness.
Abstract Expression: In the AI era, intelligence is no longer "my attribute," but rather "the attribute of the field." When Web3 ensures the independent sovereignty of each node, and AI achieves ultra-low entropy communication between nodes, civilization will evolve into an intelligent network woven together by countless sovereign atomic individuals.
Significance of the Transition: For the first time, humanity is no longer an isolated, finite body, but rather a "civilizational organism" connected through digital consensus, capable of processing infinite information flows while maintaining individual independent will.
2. Reconstruction of Value: From "Scarcity Logic" to "Meaning Production Logic"
The logic of civilization over the past five thousand years has been based on "material scarcity"—the competition for land, resources, and computing power. This logic has led to zero-sum games and totalitarianism.
Theoretical Model of Civilizational Transition: Meaning Miners in Post-Scarcity Epoch.
Abstract Expression: As AI drives the marginal cost of material and algorithmic productivity to zero, the hard currency of civilization will shift from "resources" to "unique intentions." Web3 addresses the verification of "uniqueness" (through non-homogeneous protocols), while AI resolves the "production" issue.
Significance of the Transition: Humanity will be completely liberated from the alienation of "laboring for survival," shifting towards "existing to create meaning." The indicators of civilizational progress will no longer be GDP, but rather the "original thought entropy reduction value" generated by all humanity.
3. Reshaping of Time and Space: From "Linear History" to "Multiple Parallel Evolutions"
The historical perspective since the Enlightenment has been linear and singular.
Theoretical Model of Civilizational Transition: Protocol-defined Realities.
Abstract Expression: Through AI's simulation capabilities and Web3's consensus isolation, humanity can simultaneously live in thousands of "parallel social protocols." You can pursue extreme cyber technology in one protocol while living a decentralized pastoral life in another.
Significance of the Transition: Civilization will be liberated from the compulsion of "great unification," moving towards "extreme diversity." This diversity is provided with a foundational security boundary by blockchain and environmental support by AI. This is the ultimate evolution of civilization against heat death, maintaining vitality.
"Civilization tends towards heat death (mediocrity, homogenization) because centralized power tends to unify algorithms. The 'multi-protocol parallel reality' created by AI + Web3 essentially injects 'entropy reduction' into civilization. Independent individuals choose different protocols through private keys, thereby selecting different tributaries of civilizational evolution."
4. Ultimate Dialectic: Silicon as "Mirror," Carbon as "Light Source"
The essence of this transition is "the reinstatement of human divinity." In the past, we believed that humans were divine because they could create tools; later, we discovered that machines could use tools better than humans, leading humanity into nihilism. But this transition tells us: the end of tools is algorithms, the end of algorithms is protocols, and the end of protocols is that "unwillingness to be defined intention." The next leap of civilization is not that humans become gods, but that humanity finally discovers—when machines take on all logic, labor, and computation, the remaining, unique, and inexplicable "creative impulse" is the true soul of civilization.
Standing at the pinnacle of the transition, the combination of AI and Web3 philosophically completes a perfect loop.
"Divinity is not omniscient and omnipotent (that is the direction of AI); divinity is 'choosing to create after knowing the void and the finite.'"
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