21 Lessons for the 21st Century - Yuval Noah Harari

 I looked forward to reading this book as I had read and enjoyed the author's other book Homo Deus that I read back in 2015.  Once again he poses challenging and thought-provoking ideas, this time around looking toward the future of humankind.  I marked quite a few passages. While raising the flags of warning for the future, his personal prescription of meditation as a means of dealing with it felt flat with me.  Still, I recommend reading for its wide range of observations.

"Big Data algorithms might create digital dictatorships in which all power is concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite while most people suffer not from exploitation but from something far worse--irrelevance."

[Regarding Artificial Intelligence or AI] "AI is now beginning to outperform humans in more and more of these [physical and cognitive] skills, including in the understanding of human emotions.  We don't know of any third field of activity--beyond the physical and the cognitive--where humans will always retain a secure edge."

"This reliance on the heart [as a guide for action] might prove to be the Achilles' heel of liberal democracy.  For once somebody gains the technological ability to hack and manipulate the human heart, democratic politics will mutate into an emotional puppet show."

"If we want to prevent the concentration of all wealth and power in the hands of a small elite, the key is to regulate the ownership of data."

"The nationalist wave sweeping across the world cannot return the world to 1939 or 1914.  Technology has changed everything by creating a set of global existential threats that no nation can solve on its own.  A common enemy is the best catalyst for forging a common identity, and humankind now has at least three such enemies - nuclear war, climate change, and technological disruption."

"You cannot experience joy and harmony when you are boiling with anger or envy.  Long before you murder anyone, your anger has already killed your own peace of mind."

[The secular ethical code] which is in fact accepted by millions of Muslims, Christians, and Hindus as well as by atheists--enshrines the values of truth, compassion, equality, freedom, courage, and responsibility.  It forms the foundation of modern scientific and democratic institutions."

"We think we know a lot, even though individually we know very little, because we treat knowledge in the minds of others as if it were our own."

[Aldous Huxley's] genius consists in showing that you can control people far more securely thorough love and pleasure than through fear and violence."

"Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching 'the four Cs'-- critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity."

"In front of the amazed eyes of the assembled peasants the priest held high a piece of bread and exclaimed 'Hoc est corpus!'-- ' This is the body!'-- In the minds of the illiterate peasants, who did not speak Latin, 'Hoc est corpus!' got garbled into 'Hocus-pocus!'. Thus was born the powerful spell that can transform a frog into a prince and a pumpkin into a carriage."

"If by 'free will' you mean the freedom to do what you desire, then yes, humans have free will.  But if by 'free will' you mean the freedom to chose what to desire, then no, humans have no free will."

"When you are confronted by some great story and you wish to know whether it is real or imaginary, one of the key questions to ask is whether the central hero of the story can suffer."

Published: August 2018   Read: June 2021  Genre: History, Politics