November 20, 2025
The Historical Inevitability of the Mind–Body–Spirit Industry in the Post-AI Era
This paper proposes and examines a historical regularity: when technology eliminates a natural form of human activity, markets inevitably generate an “artificial compensatory industry” to meet the biological or psychological needs that persist.Based on this framework, the emergence of the modern fitness industry and the modern entertainment industry were not accidents or cultural trends, but structural outcomes of the Industrial Revolution and modern media revolutions.By comparing the historical transition from agricultural to modern societies—specifically the transformations from physical labor → fitness industry, and from ritual life → entertainment industry—this paper develops a Substitution–Compensation Industrial Model.Using this model, the paper argues that AI’s takeover of cognitive labor will cause humans to lose natural cognitive load and meaning-making processes. This will trigger a third substitution–compensation cycle: the rise of the Mind–Body–Spirit Industry, built around heart-mind labor, psychological resilience, emotional regulation, self-awareness, and meaning construction.
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