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"Constructing China's Indigenous Knowledge System for Science and Technology Management and Its Global Outreach" Column

Theoretical Interpretation and Historical Logic of Scientific and  Technological Innovation in Promoting the Evolution of Human  Civilizations 

Chen Jin1, 2 , Fang Haochao1, 2 , Peng Gangdong1, 2 

(1.School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; 2.Research Center for  Technological Innovation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

Abstract: Scientific and technological innovation is an inexhaustible driving force for the  progress of human civilizations. However, existing studies have mostly explained its impact from  the perspectives of technological progress, economic growth, or industrial revolutions, while pay⁃ ing insufficient attention to its role at the civilizational scale. Drawing on innovation theory and  civilizational history, this paper develops a three-dimensional framework of "innovation actorsinnovation mechanisms-innovation effects" and applies it to four stages: primitive civilizations, agricultural civilizations, industrial civilizations, and information civilizations. The study makes  three arguments. First, the expansion of innovation actors reconfigures civilizational creativity. Innovation actors have evolved from anonymous groups to craftsmen and farmers, then to scien⁃ tists, entrepreneurs, enterprises, and research organizations, and further to users, open-source  communities, and platform ecosystems. This process shows that creativity has shifted from indi⁃ vidual experience and local practice to organized social capability. Second, the transformation of  innovation mechanisms reconstructs the pathways through which breakthroughs become civiliza⁃ tional forces. In primitive civilizations, trial-and-error combined with oral transmission domi⁃ nated; in agricultural civilizations, experience accumulation was coupled with writing and print⁃ ing; in industrial civilizations, experimental science integrated with institutionalized diffusion  through patents and enterprises; and in the information civilizations, data-driven innovation  combined with real-time diffusion through digital networks. Each transition expanded the path⁃ ways from breakthroughs to civilizational forces. Third, the accumulation of innovation effects  drives systemic changes across three interrelated dimensions: modes of production, social organi⁃ zation, and civilizational configuration. Production modes transformed from hunting-gathering to  agriculture, industry, and digital production. Social organization evolved from clans to states, en⁃ terprises, and platforms—new productive forces require new organizational forms. Civilizational  configuration reshaped as innovation centers shifted from China in the agricultural era, to West⁃ ern Europe and North America in the industrial era, and toward a multi-centric pattern in the in⁃ formation age. These dimensions interact and reinforce each other; when cumulative changes  reach a threshold, civilization transitions from one form to another. The theoretical contribution  of this paper lies in extending scientific and technological innovation research from the indus⁃ trial and economic levels to the civilizational scale, constructing a three-dimensional analytical  framework of "actors-mechanisms-effects", and elucidating the intermediary mechanisms and  structural effects through which scientific and technological breakthroughs are transformed into  civilizational forces. This research offers theoretical implications for understanding new quality  productive forces, new forms of human civilizations, and future technology governance. 

Key words: scientific and technological innovation; human civilizations; civilizational evolu⁃ tion; historical logic; innovation actors; innovation mechanisms; innovation effects; new quality  productive forces