This interview was conducted in 2019, and was originally published in Chinese. Our founder, Dr. Sister Gracie assisted translation and Chinese proofreading.
Manuel Castells is Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Before he was Professor of Planning at the University of California-Berkeley for 24 years. He has also been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at MIT, Oxford, and Cambridge. He is currently appointed as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Communication at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Manuel Castells is considered the leading scholar in the study of the network society, and in the social and economic implications of information technology. His trilogy “The Information Age: Economy, society and culture” is studied in universities around the world including in Chinese universities.
Manuel Castells was one of the first researchers to investigate the formation of Silicon Valley, as he was living there for 24 years. Later on he has conducted comparative studies on the formation of high technology urban-industrial systems in different countries in the world.
腾讯研究院: 您如何理解科技向善？
How do you understand tech for social good?
Manuel Castells: 改善健康，教育，社会平等，两性平等和环境保护，并将这些工作都集成在负责任、民主的治理体系中。
Improve health, education, social equality, gender equity and environmental protection. Try to integrate these initiatives and efforts into responsible, democratic governance systems
腾讯研究院: 践行科技向善，您觉得科技公司最应该做什么？
What do you think technology companies should do to advance and implement “Tech for Social Good?”
Manuel Castells: 在发布产品之前，像测试产品的技术能力一样测试产品中正向的社会影响力。
Test the positive social impact of your digital product as you test its technical capabilities before launching any digital product.
腾讯研究院: 科技公司践行科技向善，您觉得最大的困难何在？
What do you think is the biggest difficulty for technology companies that aim to implement “Tech for Social Good?
Manuel Castells: 他们有可能被并不怎么善良的公司从商业上击败。他们应该被授予一个向善向好的社会标签，类似于技术专利，这能让消费者信任他们（从而不信任不向善的科技公司），从而获得更多市场优势。
Those companies risk being defeated commercially by less benevolent companies. They should be granted a social good label, similar to technology patents, which would allow consumers to trust them (and thus distrust unbenevolent technology companies), thereby to gain market shares and advantages.
腾讯研究院: 您个人最为关切的，科技对人与社会影响的问题是什么？
What is the impact of technology on people and society that you are mostly concerned about?
Manuel Castells: 是信息技术对我们大脑的入侵，无论是控制还是沉迷，我们逐渐成为高度自动化机器的奴隶。
It is the invasion of information technology into our brains. Whether it is control or addiction, we have gradually become slaves to highly automated machines.
Interview Tech for Social Good ended.
Important Note: Research interview details and visits at Tencent and Tencent lab were carefully analyzed and documented in Dr. Sister Gracie's then doctoral dissertation which is a book manuscript under preparation. Exclusive interviews with Tencent's founder and CEO Mr. Pony Ma and colleagues at Tencent provide Dr. Manuel Castells and Dr. Sister Gracie firsthand deep understandings of Tencent and Shenzhen, China's global innovation hub. Network Media aims to distribute information and to provide consultations that can better help people who seek to understand China in an objective and serious way in the midst of geopolitical conflicts.
Conversation Spoiler Alert - Manuel Castells
"In 1987, I had the honor to provide policy advice to the Chinese State Council on how to better carry out China's Open-up and Reform. In the final report submitted to the State Council, I pointed out that multinational companies should not be allowed to go to Shenzhen, instead, these large foreign companies should be encouraged to go to Shanghai. Because, at that time, Shenzhen did not have what multinational corporations needed the most - a market. Large companies, unlike start-ups, rely more on mature markets than effective goverment policies. Therefore, Shanghai is a better choice than Shenzhen. But today through Pony’s remembrance, I learned that this just laid the foundation for Shenzhen to become an entrepreneurial city. If multinational companies came to Shenzhen and young people went to work at large foreign corporations, who would be so enthusiastic about entrepreneurship?"
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