2026/01/13 星期二

UN Policy Chapter Life Value as the Core of Civilization A Civilizational Framework for Sustainable Development in the AI Era

知識 人氣：13

日期:2026/01/12   IAE 

UN Policy Chapter

Life Value as the Core of Civilization

A Civilizational Framework for Sustainable Development in the AI Era

Author
Frank Chen (陳俊吉)
Founder, Global Charity Economicism
GCWPA × NATS Think Tank | IAE Global

  • ✔ Written in UN-compatible policy language

  • ✔ Non-ideological, governance-oriented

  • ✔ Directly integrable into UN Policy White Papers

  • ✔ Fully aligned with SDGs and AI-era governance priorities

1. Policy Context and Rationale

Over the past century, global economic and governance systems have prioritized efficiency, growth, and technological advancement. While these priorities have generated material progress, they have also revealed a structural limitation: life value itself has not been positioned as the central objective of development policy.

This chapter introduces Life Value as a civilizational policy principle, responding to emerging challenges in public health, inequality, environmental sustainability, technological disruption, and long-term fiscal risk—particularly in the AI era.

2. Defining Life Value in Policy Terms

For the purposes of United Nations policy analysis, Life Value is defined as:

The immediately accessible capacity of individuals and societies to sustain life, health, dignity, safety, and long-term continuity.

Key characteristics of Life Value include:

  • Non-deferrability: delayed access results in irreversible loss

  • Non-substitutability: life value cannot be replaced by later compensation

  • Intergenerational relevance: loss today generates future systemic costs

This definition positions Life Value as a precondition for sustainable development rather than a derivative outcome.

3. Civilizational Misalignment in Contemporary Policy Models

Current policy frameworks often treat life-related outcomes as secondary effects of economic performance. This creates a structural misalignment in which:

  • Prices and incentives delay access to essential services

  • Preventive investment is undervalued relative to reactive expenditure

  • Social and fiscal costs accumulate over time

Such dynamics do not reflect market failure alone, but rather a mis-specification of policy objectives at the civilizational level.

4. Ten Life Value Domains for Civilizational Governance

This chapter proposes ten interrelated domains in which Life Value should be maximized as a core policy objective:

  1. Life survival and spiritual–psychological balance

  2. Equal access to education

  3. Charity-oriented economic systems

  4. Rights, freedoms, and opportunities within the charitable economy

  5. Planned and preventive social welfare systems

  6. Sustainable green Earth development

  7. Balance between technological innovation and humanistic values

  8. Global peace and conflict prevention

  9. Ethical orientation toward peace beyond national boundaries, including long-term planetary and cosmic responsibility

  10. Shared global spiritual civilization based on compassion and wisdom

These domains align with, and extend, existing UN development frameworks by emphasizing life accessibility and preservation as first-order policy goals.

5. Life Value and Sustainable Development

Positioning Life Value at the center of policy design strengthens sustainable development by:

  • Reducing preventable mortality and morbidity

  • Lowering long-term public expenditure through early intervention

  • Enhancing social resilience and trust

  • Improving fiscal predictability across generations

In this framework, sustainability is not defined solely by environmental or financial metrics, but by the capacity of systems to prevent life value loss before it occurs.

6. Life Value in the AI Era

The expansion of artificial intelligence introduces both opportunity and risk. From a Life Value perspective:

  • AI systems are legitimate insofar as they reduce life value delay and risk

  • Efficiency gains must be evaluated against their impact on access, equity, and human dignity

  • Governance frameworks should ensure that technological acceleration does not outpace life-preserving capacity

Life Value thus functions as a normative boundary condition for AI-enabled governance.

7. Policy Implications for the United Nations System

Adopting Life Value as a civilizational policy principle supports:

  • SDG 1 (No Poverty) through protection from catastrophic life risks

  • SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) via access-first policy design

  • SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) by minimizing price- and system-induced delays

  • SDG 17 (Policy Coherence) by providing a shared evaluative framework

Life Value offers a unifying lens for cross-agency coordination without altering existing mandates.

8. Concluding Policy Statement

A civilization cannot be considered sustainable if its systems allow life to be delayed, diminished, or deferred by design.

Positioning Life Value at the core of policy design enables development strategies that are economically rational, fiscally preventive, and civilizationally coherent.