9. The Practice and Prospects of the Symbiotic Connective Economy

Money is both a treasury of human freedom and a yoke upon that freedom—a knotty existence that cannot be untangled by anything other than circulation. Modernity, which set out beginning with the attainment of freedom, has today seen the meaning of freedom fade and economic motivation disappear, leading to the loss of economic ethics, the collapse of economic ideology, and even a grave environmental crisis.

The symbiotic connective economy of the AI era, grounded in the four-gate cyclical principle of Wonhyo's Hwajaeng theory, proposes the following four practical tasks.

First, the Hwajaeng of freedom (Suchness Gate) and community (Pure Land Gate). When AI and humans form a relationship that is at once oppositional and mutually complementary (相補), human economic motivation is revived anew. Second, the Hwajaeng of labor (Arising-and-Ceasing Gate) and distribution (Three-Natures Gate). The economic ethics of the AI era require that the benefits of technological progress be fairly distributed across society as a whole. Third, the Hwajaeng of ideological conflict. An economics of Hwajaeng is needed that acknowledges the valid core of each ideology and integrates them cyclically. Fourth, overcoming the environmental crisis.

Korea possesses, from Wonhyo's thought of Hwajaeng, a tradition of integrating all things cyclically. The culture of bibimbap, the Korean Wave (Hallyu), and the cyclical theory of the tri-fold union of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism can play an important role in the flourishing of world culture and the realization of a symbiotic connective economy.