——写给所有关心人类未来的人

（This letter is followed by a text translated into English using online resources. Please refer to the Chinese text of this letter while reading it.）

——作者：金谷雨

今天，几乎所有关注科技的人，都知道埃隆·马斯克经常提到一个词——第一性原理（First Principles）。

在马斯克看来，无论是火箭、汽车、电池还是人工智能，一个真正复杂的问题，没有良好的解决方案时，那么不应该停留在已有经验、传统做法或者既定答案之上，都应该不断拆解，直到找到最基本、不可再分解的事实，再从那里重新建立解决方案。

正是这种思维方式，使他完成了许多人认为“不可能”的事情。

马斯克的方法，是不是能启发我们思考另一个问题。

如果第一性原理能够帮助我们重新理解物理世界，那么，人类文明本身，是否也存在自己的第一性原理？因为人类文明，本质上就是人类社会合作共同做的一件事，只是一直没有做得理想。

如果存在，那么历史与今天人类面临的许多困境，是否正是因为我们还没有真正理解它？

我不是科学家。

也不是哲学家。

我曾是一名中国法官。

我的思考，并不是从抽象哲学开始，而是从具体案件开始。

但随着时间推移，我越来越意识到，法律、制度乃至文明，都不是孤立存在的。

它们同样是自然演化的一部分。

如果答案是否定的，那么，人类文明的发展也许只能继续依赖经验、不断试错。

但如果答案是肯定的，那么，人类今天最重要的任务，也许不是某一种政策，或者某一项技术，也不是继续发明新的制度，而是首先找到文明运行的第一性原理。这样才能再建立的新的人类社会合作制度，能达到人类文明的理想，如同日月星辰，在人类社会合作中，人人都一生熠熠生辉而整个人类社会合作链接一直和谐可持续，这实际就是实现了世界永久和平。

基于此，尤其在现在全人类都再次感到人类文明已经来到一个涉及生死选择的十字路口而迷茫时，集全力先探索主宰人类文明的第一性原理及其演绎规律，应成为每一个人都应当予以最高度重视的大事。

所以我已经写了系列的《致全球每个人的信》，发在网上，呼吁所有人关注并参与。我的经历与思考情况，请网上搜索我已经发布的文章《致全球每个人的信（6）：看一位中国前法官花了二十多年时间给北京写信的故事，以及他最终想告诉全人类什么》。

事实上，不同文明都曾试图寻找一个统一解释世界的底层规律，使社会合作可持续。

我自己的思考是，人类文明本身，就是因为人类比其他动物更善于合作所创造出来的一种演绎现象，这个现象本身本质，也是广义上的物理世界中，宇宙能量演绎大范畴框架内的自然演绎现象。因此中国很早就有天人同一的基本理念。直到量子理论的形成和人工智能的出现，更是引动了人类关于意识的自然本质新思考。而实际上人类文明有史以来，人类社会各种信仰的建立，即从宗教到各种主义，推而至数学界一直想用一个简约化公式来描述一切物理现象，以及爱因斯坦确信物理界存在一个统一场和哲学上第一性的探索.......等等这些人类思想与探索行为，本质上都是人类基于自身来自宇宙而对宇宙本质是同一的本能感知所产生潜意识感应，促使人类在各个不同视角都在探索天人同一即第一性原理的表现。即人类天然知觉到：人类及其面临的一切，都是按照同一个演绎底层规律演绎出来的不同表现。因此，实际人类一直本能地认为，一定有一个全时空同一底层承托一切演绎现象的规律。

所以，贯穿于整个人类文明历史，人类实际早就本能确认人类文明本身，有其赖于产生和存在的全时空支撑万象演绎的同一性底层规律，因而一直都在探索人类文明的第一性原理，从来都没有停止过。

基于此，我想，我们完全可以将人类文明，看成是人类因为比其它动物更善于合作才做成的一件事。那么我们可以这样思考人类文明踉跄前行的历史，就像马斯克造火箭过程中总是失败，而一直用第一性原理来快速解决问题终于成功一样，人类文明发展不顺，也是人类也一直还没有能力将人类文明这件事做好，总是使得人类社会合作链接断裂而需要平时用军队、警察等强制力捆绑合作而甚至合作崩溃时又用战争来重组合作.........。

简而言，想做好人类文明这件事，使人类社会合作链接不再断裂而能稳定可持续发展，就一定要找到人类文明的第一性原理的演绎规律。

我依据从治理司法中有法不依现象一直延伸至人类文明本质的系列思考，尝试提出一个假说，它试图说明，人类能觉知的任何认知对象都是宇宙能量演绎相对独立的系统，且每个系统的性质，取决于它由什么组成只是一种表象，其本质是取决于这些组成部分如何能实现持续组织、合作并维持动态平衡并实现能量可持续交换更新。

我暂时把这个假说称为"程序定质规律"。并认为，我阐述这个规律是宇宙能量本质全时空演绎同一性规律，也即是人类文明所有事务全时空演绎的底层支撑规律，也即人类文明第一性原理的规律。其解析人类文明所有行为的同一性本质只有九个字：抓程序、做模式、求平衡。人类遵守这九个字做事的要诀也只有八个字：以序为纲、循序定度。故，与所有人类研究文明来指导人类社会合作链接的稳定可持续性的结论不一样的是，“程序定质规律”是从自然哲学视角归纳出来的具有具体做事抓手的应用理论体系。当全人类都因甄别而肯定地认知了这里的具体做事抓手，或许真就能简约化释解人类遇到的所有迷惑，这样人人都能轻松、顺畅地幸福生活一生。所以我个人认为这是目前全人类最重要的事，是需要告诉全人类的大事。

如果我的假说最终被证明错误，人类至少会因此更加接近正确答案。

如果它具有价值，那么它值得接受来自不同国家、不同学科和不同文明背景的共同检验。

也正因为如此，我呼吁国际学术机构、国际组织以及所有关心人类未来的人，共同推动一次关于"人类文明是否存在第一性原理"的国际讨论。

因为，无论答案是什么，这个问题本身，都值得全人类认真回答：文明是否也存在自己的第一性原理？人类是否可以由此简约化识别和解决人类文明遇到的所有疑惑？

当文明走到今天，我们是否仍然愿意认真回答那些最基础的问题。

这，就是我写系列致全人类每一个人的信的原因。

同时再次强调我的希望是，不需要关注我是谁，但一定人人都要关注我提出的课题。最好能尽快推动相关国际组织召开一次专题讨论会议。因为我认为这已经涉及整个人类在当前遇到的历史性生死选择。

   随后是本信的英文译文。

Letter to Every Person on Earth (7)

Why I Believe Human Civilization Should Also Be Reconsidered from First Principles

— A Letter to Everyone Who Cares About Humanity's Future

By Jin Guyu

Today, almost everyone who follows technology has heard Elon Musk repeatedly refer to First Principles.

In Mr. Musk's view, whenever a truly difficult problem lacks a satisfactory solution, we should not remain confined by existing experience, conventional approaches, or accepted answers. Instead, we should continually break the problem down until we reach the most fundamental facts that cannot be reduced any further, and then rebuild the solution from there.

This way of thinking has enabled him to accomplish what many people once considered impossible.

His approach naturally leads us to another question that may be worth asking.

If first-principles thinking helps us better understand the physical world, could human civilization itself also possess its own first principle?

After all, civilization is fundamentally a collective undertaking created through human cooperation. Humanity has built civilization, yet throughout history it has struggled to make that cooperation stable and enduring.

If such a first principle exists, could many of the difficulties that have confronted humanity throughout history—and continue to confront us today—stem from our failure to understand it?

I am not a scientist.

Nor am I a philosopher.

I am a former judge from China.

My inquiry did not begin with abstract philosophy. It began with real judicial cases.

Over time, however, I gradually came to realize that law, institutions, and civilization are not isolated phenomena. They are all part of the broader process of nature's evolution.

If the answer to the question above is no, then perhaps humanity can continue to rely only on experience, gradual reform, and trial and error.

But if the answer is yes, then humanity's most urgent task may not be inventing another policy, another technology, or another institutional design. It may first be discovering the first principle that governs civilization itself.

Only then might we construct new forms of social cooperation capable of achieving what civilization has always sought: a stable, harmonious, and sustainable human society in which every individual can flourish, much as the sun, moon, and stars each shine in their proper place while remaining part of a larger cosmic order. Such a civilization, in my view, would represent lasting world peace.

For this reason, especially at a time when many people sense that humanity once again stands at a historic crossroads, uncertain about its future, I believe that identifying the first principle of civilization and understanding the laws by which it operates deserves the highest priority.

This conviction is why I have written the series Letters to Every Person on Earth, which I have published online in the hope of encouraging wider discussion and participation.

Those who wish to understand how these ideas developed may first read my earlier essay:

Letter to Every Person on Earth (6): The Story of a Former Chinese Judge Who Spent More Than Twenty Years Writing to Beijing—and What He Ultimately Wants to Tell Humanity.

Throughout history, different civilizations have attempted to discover a unified principle capable of explaining the world and sustaining human cooperation.

My own reflection begins from a simple observation.

Civilization itself is an emergent phenomenon created because human beings cooperate more effectively than other animals. As such, civilization is also a natural phenomenon arising within the broader evolutionary processes of the universe.

This idea is not entirely unfamiliar.

Traditional Chinese thought long emphasized the unity between humanity and nature.

More recently, developments in quantum theory and artificial intelligence have encouraged new discussions about the nature of consciousness.

More broadly, throughout history humanity has repeatedly searched for underlying unity: through religions, political philosophies, mathematics, the search for unified physical theories, Einstein's belief in a unified field, and philosophical inquiries into first principles.

Although these pursuits differ greatly, I believe they all reflect the same intuition: that reality may ultimately rest upon a common underlying order.

In other words, humanity has long sensed that the countless phenomena we observe may all arise from the same fundamental principles expressed in different forms.

For this reason, I believe humanity has never truly stopped searching for the first principle of civilization.

If civilization is fundamentally humanity's greatest cooperative project, then perhaps we should think about it in the same way that Elon Musk approached the challenge of building reusable rockets.

Repeated failures did not persuade him to abandon the effort.

Instead, they led him back to first principles.

Likewise, the repeated instability of civilization may suggest not that civilization itself is impossible, but that humanity has not yet fully understood the principles required to sustain cooperation over the long term.

Throughout history, social cooperation has repeatedly fractured.

To preserve order, societies have often relied upon armies, police, legal systems, and other forms of compulsory authority.

When these mechanisms themselves fail, wars have repeatedly become the means through which cooperation is reconstructed.

In short, if humanity wishes to build a civilization whose cooperative structures no longer repeatedly collapse, then understanding the first principle governing civilization itself may become indispensable.

Based upon more than two decades of reflection that began with judicial practice and gradually expanded into broader questions about civilization, I would like to propose a hypothesis.

My hypothesis suggests that every object or system human beings can perceive is a relatively independent system emerging from the evolution of cosmic energy.

The properties of any such system do not fundamentally arise merely from the elements of which it is composed. Rather, they arise from the ability of those elements to organize, cooperate, maintain dynamic equilibrium, and continuously exchange and renew energy.

I call this hypothesis The Principle That Process Determines Properties (PDP Principle).

I further propose that this principle may represent a universal law governing the evolution of cosmic energy across space and time, the underlying structure supporting all human affairs, and possibly the first principle governing civilization itself.

From this perspective, the essence of civilization may be summarized in nine Chinese characters:

"Focus on process. Build patterns. Seek balance."

Its practical guideline may likewise be summarized in eight characters:

"Take order as the guiding principle, and determine appropriate limits by following proper sequence."

Unlike many existing theories of civilization, which primarily describe how societies function, the PDP Principle is intended as an applied theoretical framework derived from natural philosophy—one that aims not only to explain civilization but also to provide practical guidance for action.

If humanity were ultimately to recognize and verify the practical implications of this framework, it might offer a simpler way to understand many of the problems that continue to confront civilization.

Whether or not this hope proves justified is a question that should be examined openly.

If my hypothesis is ultimately shown to be wrong, humanity will nevertheless have moved one step closer to the truth.

If it contains genuine value, then it deserves careful examination by scholars and thinkers from different countries, disciplines, and cultural traditions.

For this reason, I respectfully call upon international academic institutions, international organizations, and everyone concerned with humanity's future to promote a global discussion around one question:

Does human civilization possess its own first principle?

Regardless of what the answer may ultimately be, the question itself deserves serious consideration.

Could identifying such a principle help humanity understand—and perhaps even resolve—many of the persistent challenges civilization continues to face?

As civilization reaches another pivotal moment in its history, are we still willing to ask the most fundamental questions?

That is why I have written this series of Letters to Every Person on Earth.

Finally, I wish to emphasize once again that I do not ask people to focus on who I am.

Instead, I ask that attention be given to the question itself.

I sincerely hope that relevant international organizations may one day convene a dedicated conference to examine whether civilization possesses its own first principle.

In my view, this question concerns one of the most consequential choices humanity now faces in its history.