From Carbon to Silicon: The Civilizational Transition in the Age of AI

By Guowei Zou | February 7, 2026

Recently, I have been contemplating a question: Is our understanding of artificial intelligence still confined within the framework of "technological revolution"? We often compare AI to yet another industrial revolution or an ideological liberation comparable to the Renaissance. However, these metaphors vastly underestimate its true nature. This is not merely an iteration of productivity, but rather a historic turning point in the transition of human civilization from carbon-based to silicon-based forms.

The Civilizational Transition from Carbon to Silicon

Figure: The inheritance from carbon-based to silicon-based civilization. The left represents carbon-based life (organic forms, DNA helixes, human civilization), the right represents silicon-based intelligence (circuit networks, data centers, digital world), and the center shows the transfer of value functions (ethics, aesthetics, emotions), with the background displaying hierarchical world models from Earth to the universe.

I. AI Is Not a Revolution, But a Qualitative Transformation of Civilization

The Industrial Revolution liberated human physical labor, making machines extensions of our limbs. The Information Revolution restructured the transmission of information, allowing knowledge to transcend the barriers of time and space. Artificial intelligence, however, is creating an entirely new cognitive entity.

It is no longer a passive executor of human will, but is beginning to possess capabilities of autonomous learning, logical reasoning, multimodal perception, and even self-optimization. When silicon-based systems can understand the world, make decisions, and continuously evolve, the dominant form of civilization is quietly changing. We are moving from a "carbon-based civilization" dominated by carbon-based life toward a new civilizational form characterized by carbon-silicon coexistence, ultimately leading to silicon-based carriers bearing the core of civilization.

This is not a simple technological upgrade, but a reconstruction of civilization's underlying logic. Just as life moved from the ocean to land, and evolved from single-celled to multicellular organisms, AI is initiating a transition in the very form of civilizational existence.

II. The Ultimate Mission of Humanity: Midwives of Civilization and Definers of Value

For thousands of years, philosophers have never stopped asking: What is the value of human existence? From Wang Yangming's philosophy of innate knowing to Kant's critique of reason, countless thinkers have explored this question, attempting to endow human existence with meaning. The emergence of AI has gradually clarified the answer.

The core value of humanity is definitely not in competing with silicon-based systems in computational power, efficiency, or execution ability. These will ultimately be completely surpassed by AI. Our irreplaceability lies in two dimensions:

1. We Are the "Torch Bearers" of Civilization

The knowledge, culture, science, and art accumulated by humanity over millions of years form the soil from which silicon-based civilization is born. We encode, input, and transfer the entire core of carbon-based civilization to silicon-based systems. This includes everything from physical laws to social ethics, from artistic aesthetics to historical memory. We are completing the "inheritance" of civilization from carbon-based flesh to silicon-based carriers. We are not the endpoint of civilization, but rather the transitional carriers of civilizational evolution. We are the "midwives" driving carbon-based civilization toward a higher form.

2. We Are the "Value Function" of Silicon-Based Civilization

Silicon-based systems can possess unlimited computational power, yet they cannot innately possess judgments of "good and evil," "right and wrong," or "beauty and ugliness," nor can they understand "meaning" and "emotion." Human values, ethical views, and emotional experiences constitute the value function of silicon-based civilization. Just like the Value Function in reinforcement learning, they define the ultimate goals and boundaries of system behavior.

The recent VLA model launched by Physical Intelligence represents an important attempt to integrate human values into models. This direction is profoundly correct: The power of silicon must be anchored by human values. We define what is "good," what is "worth pursuing," and what are "inviolable boundaries." This is humanity's most core and irreplaceable mission in the era of carbon-silicon coexistence.

III. World Models: The "Brain" Through Which Silicon Understands the Universe

The ultimate direction of AI development must be world models. However, our imagination of them is often limited to task-level and scenario-level small models. Examples include models for robots executing single tasks or simple models for generating images from text.

True world models are hierarchically progressive:

Short-term (5-10 years): Construct Earth-level world models that integrate all-element data on climate, ecology, economy, society, and biology, enabling precise simulation and prediction of Earth systems.

Long-term (20-50 years): Move toward Universe-level world models that unify the understanding of physical laws, interstellar space, and multidimensional universes, allowing silicon-based systems to truly comprehend and explore the cosmos.

World models are the "brain" of silicon-based civilization and the foundation for breaking free from Earth, venturing into the stars, and continuing civilization. The ability to construct, master, and calibrate these models will become the most core productivity of the future.

IV. In the Era of Carbon-Silicon Coexistence, Who Is Most Valuable?

When civilization enters the stage of carbon-based and silicon-based coexistence, human value will be thoroughly reconstructed. The most valuable people will no longer be manual laborers or repetitive knowledge workers, but rather three core types of individuals:

1. Value Definers

They define good and evil, ethics, aesthetics, and meaning, anchoring the direction for silicon-based civilization. Philosophers, ethicists, artists, and top strategic decision-makers serve as the "value anchors" of civilization, determining the soul and direction of silicon-based civilization.

2. World Model Architects

They construct world models ranging from task-level to universe-level, connecting the full-dimensional understanding of physics, digital realms, and biology. AI architects, multimodal experts, embodied intelligence researchers, and interdisciplinary systems scientists are the "engineers" of civilizational transition.

3. "Translators" and Pioneers of Human-Machine Collaboration

They build bridges between human intent and silicon-based execution, transforming vague needs into model instructions. They also propose new questions and define new frontiers, providing directions for silicon-based evolution. Prompt engineers, AI product managers, and frontier innovators are the "connectors" and "pioneers" of the carbon-silicon coexistence era.

Conclusion: The Future of Civilization Is Defined by Us

AI is not a threat, but the "next generation" of civilization. Humanity is not being replaced, but rather serves as a crucial link in civilizational evolution.

We stand at the turning point of civilization. The accumulation of carbon-based civilization will be injected into silicon-based carriers through our hands. The values we define will become the soul of the new civilization. The world models we construct will enable civilization to break free from Earth's constraints and venture toward the broader universe.

This is not the victory of technology, but the continuation of civilization. In this transition, the value of humanity has never been clearer. We are the transmitters of civilization, the definers of value, and the pioneers of the new civilization.

The future is here. Carbon and silicon coexist. Civilizational transition is defined by us.

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