Preface Two Intelligent Society,Creative Life and the Future of Macao's Cultural and Creative Industries
Xiang Yong[1]
Macao is a beautiful international city and a developed community with a high degree of urbanization and social networking. Here we have a small city but a large community. In the history of mankind,communities have changed from tribes,villages,streets,towns,cities,urban agglomerations to online communities. However,the function of connecting the lives of people has remained the same. In the unique urban community of Macao,people,streets,business districts and different cultures are all connected here. The communities are not only peaceful living space for the residents,but also a field of life experience for outcomers. In Macao,community is a complex space,an imaginary society,a highly empowering scene and a new paradigm of future economy. The “community economy” development measures recently proposed by the Macao SAR government are in nature a kind of vision reimaging,orientation upgrading and model innovation of traditional community governance in the new era.
Asa space for interpersonal interactions,community has accumulated valuable and unique information and data,like a huge “spatiotemporal data pool”. If these daily life data and interaction activities can be recorded through intelligent communication terminals,intelligent big data,intelligent cloud platforms and intelligent computing methods,if the information and knowledge of public communities can be effectively organized,so as to sum up the laws and forecast the trends,and provide more high-quality in-depth community experience,then we will be able to build unique intelligent communities and scenes,and make Macao the one and the only AI island in the world. We believe that Macao's economic base,geographical space,government ambition and resident accomplishments are all conducive to achieving such a goal.
The core resource of Macao's community economy lies in its unique cultural resources which are of great value in worship experience,display experience and interactive experience. Such value can serve to connect cultural forms of different levels (such as heritage,art,media and functional creativity),cultural industries of different kinds (such as culture expo,arts,performing arts,visual arts,audio-visual communication and digital creativity),industrial categories of different forms (such as cultural tourism,creative exhibitions and cultural technologies),as well as development areas of different sizes (such as communities,cities and the Greater Bay Area). Both the 16th-century Medici effect in Florence,Italy and the 20th-century Andy Warhol economic phenomenon in New York,USA prove that culture and arts are of great significance in accelerating the economy growth,urban development and industrial transformation of a country or region.
Community economy is a new stage in the transformation of Macao's cultural and creative industries at the spatial level. The core of community economy is the construction of community scenes. Generally speaking,a community scene involves shared values,diverse stories and perceived experiences. Among them,values are the core of community economy and the psychological highland of community construction; stories are the carrier of community economy and the core value of community construction; and experiences are the representation of community economy and the means of implementing community construction. To promote artificial intelligence and community construction in Macao is to enable the AI functions of connecting people's lives and empowering their values through the communities,and ultimately achieve the comprehensive benefits of the community economy.
To develop artificial intelligence and community economy,the Macao SAR government needs to create suitable soil,sunlight,moisture and air for their growth by means of reasonable macro planning and appropriate governance policies. As Mr. Robin Li the founder and chairman of Baidu puts it,after “Internet+” comes “intelligence+”. For the emergence of an AI-driven new economy,we need to have a series of basic conditions such as unimpeded channels that ensures the access to data,open and shared tool platforms,market mechanisms for product incubation,the continuous upgrading of applied research and an education system that keeps producing needed talents. In order to develop an AI-driven community economy,Macao also needs to make both current action plans and long-term blueprints to nurture these development elements.
Every change in human society is driven by human beings. In the great intelligent age that we are about to live in,when every detail in our lives is recorded,analyzed,digitized,calculated and intelligentized,beautiful concepts such as intelligent society,creative life and community economy will no longer remain empty rhetoric but a practice of life. They are,in nature,for the better life and existence of human beings. They are the telling portrayals and driving forces of human progress.
[1]Xiang Yong,Vice Dean of the Institute for Cultural Industries,Peking University.