21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari (First Part)

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Yuval Noah Harari

Non-fiction, Science and Technology, 

Infotechnology, Biology, History

    This third book of Harari after Homo Sapiens and Homo Deus is a must read. I recommend that before one reads this, one should read the first two books in that order. Why? The macro-history of why Homo Sapiens, of all candidate sapiens, survived until now is explained and that foundation is carried over in the Homo Deus which may sound grand as we humans aim to be gods but actually after we have overcame famine and pestilence (At present, we are in pandemic and we need some insights in this book) more effectively and efficiently as compared to our forefathers, our aim is to live longer (somehow, a quest for immortality as hyperbole). 

     

    In this 21st Lessons, we are faced with immediate questions thrown to us whether we like it or not. If the 20th century applicable quote is "if you are not interested with war, war is interested in you." the 21st century must be asking us whether the liberal philosophy, political theory and economic  policy enough to rule our fast-becoming borderless world, not just for travels but for the social media in the virtual world.

 

 

    I paused because I read this book too fast. I processed Part I and II with gusto and intended to write this blog first to share my thoughts. Of course, I can only touch the tip of the iceberg here. Reading this is a must for everyone who lives in this planet, not just in your own country. 

 

    Part I is Technological Challenge which discusses four things, Disillusionment, Work, Liberty and Equality. In Disillusionment, one foundation laid since Homo Sapiens is that we humans think in terms of stories rather than facts, numbers or equations. Later, we thrived in the 20th century because, the simpler the story, the better. Three stories lead to war. The fascist, communism and liberalism. WWII knocked out the fascist and left us Communism and Liberalism. The communist story collapsed and the liberal story remained. The liberal story celebrates the value and power of liberty.  But liberalism has no answers to the biggest problem:ecological collapse and technological disruption. Our next decades, Harari suggests, might threfore be characterized by intense soul-searching and by formulation of new social and political models. 

    In work, Harari usually gets the attention of the populace. Given the discussions in Homo Deus, it is generally agreed that machine learning and robotics will change almost every line of work. We have no idea how the job market will look like in 2050. Humans have two types of abilities, physical and cognitive. In cognitive, humans possessed learning, analyzing, communicating, and above all understanding human emotions. However, AI or artificial intelligence outperforms humans more and more even in understanding human emotions. (I enjoyed reading this part as I find it interesting given the breakthroughs cited and though at first impression like a scifi story, it can really be the story of the coming generations). AI has two important nonhuman abilities, connectivity and adaptability. Interesting question posed and varied answers laid out.

    Liberty. The liberal story cherishes human liberty as its number one value. There will be a time in the future when it is not the human who must be listened too but algorithm.With this, we should watch out for the digital dictatorship. Liberty cherished political equality which gradually realize that economic equality is important. Big Date algorithms might extinguish liberty and might make people suffer not from exploitation but irrelevance. 

    Equality. Will globalization and new technologies lead us to equality? Though globalization and internet bridge the gap between countries, they threaten to enlarge the rift between classes, and it might divide the species into different biological castes just as humankind seems about to achieve global unification. The question is who owns the data? How do we regulate the ownership of data? This is the most important political question of our era. (Remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal)*

 

 

*Wylie oversaw what may have been the first critical breach. Aged 24, while studying for a PhD in fashion trend forecasting, he came up with a plan to harvest the Facebook profiles of millions of people in the US, and to use their private and personal information to create sophisticated psychological and political profiles. And then target them with political ads designed to work on their particular psychological makeup.).                             

                                            

                                            Part II on next post