Dear Mr. Harari and fellow tech elites:
Good luck milking your own cow, butchering your own chicken, and growing your own lettuce.
I'm sure you'll do just fine.
Sincerely,
Useless Class
21
All I know is that to start a true revolution all that's needed is for one charismatic leader to rise among the useless class, one that will make them realize that what really renders them useless is spending hours staring at their devices and when that happens Bezos's and Zuckerberg's heads will the first on the chopping block .
5
For many years I’ve been on a naive quest to find the one or two wrong turns that human culture has made, and the one or two levers that might be adjusted to get it back on a positive track (sorry about the mixed metaphor).
If one sifts through all the sturm-und-drang in social relations, politics, economy, international affairs, etc, etc, peeling away the accumulated layers of complexity, does it not all come down a deeply wired-in perception (now illusory) that we continue to live in a world of scarcity, leading to a perpetual fear of lack and inadequacy, resulting in a relentless, irrational need to acquire, accumulate, and control ever-more resources — at the expense of others and the greater ecosystem? (Euphemistically known as “profit”.)
Perhaps the crossroads we need to return to is this simple choice: does the non-living (AI and other technology, money, markets, public and private institutions in general) exist to serve the living? Or, do the living exist primarily to serve the non-living? … and thereby become a “useless class” when no longer needed.
Biophila or necrophilia.
6
I know it’s fashionable to blame the ills of society on the dizzying pace of technological change and the insular society that’s created it, but frankly it’s just an enabler for an already diseased culture. Too many are unable to read and write critically. Unable to discern that every outlet, every writer, every blogger has a point of view, whether it’s Google search results, a Facebook friend bubble, Alex Jones, FOX, NYT, or CNN. They’re all peddling something, including Harari.
Today’s technology revolution is certainly less jolting to society than the Industrial Revolution was in Great Britain, but like the Luddites who literally tore down the machinery of the Industrial Revolution, yet barely impeding that tectonic age of change, this era shows signs of the same backlash. Nonetheless, big data is here to stay. There’s no going back, only adaptations that society can make to better integrate it, starting with individual awareness of the limitations and consequences of that technology and the sources of information that flow through it.
Just as the useless class of spinners and weavers of the Industrial Revolution painfully adapted, so will we.
And.... a gull winged Tesla rental! Gimme a break! Is he trying to keep up with the Gulfstream mega church pastors? Welcome to the faux masters-of-the-universe clique of Silicon Valley.
9
The “useless class” are the ones who use subscribe and pay attention to the apps and services that ultimately fuel technology revenues. Company leaders are naive to think that consumer behavior won’t change if people reach a breaking point of feeling far too abused and trapped. Societal norms may adjust toward ingraining a habit of distancing ourselves from the immediate adoption each and every sparkly new thing dangled in our faces. There’s almost always a way to adapt to bad situations.
As for climate change, that is truly something to worry about. And yet I imagine 500 years from now life will still be going on. Just not, perhaps, life as we know it today.
34
Silicon Valley is also described as liberal and left leaning. Quick: How many African Americans live in Santa Clara? 3.5% of the population. Compare that with Oakland - about 28%
They'll talk a progressive game and sacrifice those who don't pay the same lip service and contribute. But when it comes to walking the talk, well many Trump supporters would be envious of the demographics of the area - Asians and Hispanics notwithstanding.
1
Why do we treat Tech CEO's as anything other than capitalists and entrepreneurs? They are not philosophers and they are not out to make the world a better place. They are good at making money (even if not for investors / shareholders than for themselves via IPO).
I've read Harari's first book, Sapiens and thought it was an excellent historical view. But I'm in no rush to read his futurists books, though I do like science fiction. We haven't figured out how to learn from our history yet so I don't get excited about thinking about our future.
His ideas on AI and the lack of free will might be correct. But the fact that Tech CEO's (or any CEO for that matter), are interested in it is of little consequence. They'll do what makes money whichever path that takes them. And that's OK with me.(subject to reasonable regulations and protections).
31
The problem with Silicon Valley and technologists generally is that they assume that what they've built is durable and will persist.
They seldom address the risks of system failure or acknowledge that their future vision is dependent on communications, data and trade networks and massive material supply chains, all of which that are vulnerable to political disputes, wars and civil upheaval, sabotage, and natural disaster.
History suggests that the larger the house of cards gets, the more likely it is that it falls.
52
Having just discovered Dr. Harari, I'm so excited to discover I'm on-trend with the technocrati!!
To all previous commenters who have pointed out that Dr. Harari's insights may not be particularly new: same as it ever was, forever and ever, amen. There are always new philosophers, historians, etc. as each generation/epoch/age requires it's own.
The thing I appreciate most about Dr. Harari's many interviews is his facility with both facts and figures and concrete examples drawn from life to illustrate those facts and figures. This is why he's so memorable, and perhaps why he's so in vogue at the moment.
Now, if only we could truly embrace the fact that we are animals, and that everything we worship is of our own invention. If and when we truly understand and embrace those truths, then we might be capable of proving ourselves worthy of continued existence in the universe.
Hip hip huzzah, Dr. Harari!
26
I read Harari's Sapiens and thought that it presented human history with a fresh angle. Then I started Homo Deus, but quickly lost interest. He is like a New Age mystic of the past, and his ideas do not hold water. The Silicon Valley elites turn to him just like Steve Jobs made a pilgrim to India at one time. In due time, they will go back to their day jobs of creating technology, with mixed impact on society. The fear of their power is overblown.
The elites and the mass of the world are united by a shared culture. They are not in opposing camps of pure economics. The elites are elite in relative to "ordinary" people. If the latter disappear, there will be no elite any more. That would put a dent on the whole superior experience of being on top. The tech moguls are not offended by Harari, because this has never been what they are trying to do.
20
When I gave up Face Book and Twitter, I started reading even more books. While social media, like much of contemporary life, is shiny, loud and "sweet"-it is, at the end of the day, digital empty calories. I've worked to organize fellow retired men to meet monthly over a restaurant meal for social health and to talk about our lives and views. It is wonderful to carve out a narrow niche that is not mediated by a digital device. As a result of these changes, my life has become much richer and more...sane.
84
I've been in the tech industry for 30 years working on the West Coast for most of that time. One observation: smart people in tech are, generally speaking, not all that smart in other domains, but they believe themselves to be. They think their privileged perch confirms their general genius. Many of the tech leaders were successful very young and have a stunted, distorted worldview that starts and ends with themselves and their technology at the center of everything important, where most problems can be solved better and more easily by themselves, with total clarity.
Ask yourself if you think Bezos is really thinking about the impact of Amazon on society and the social contract, whether Amazon's business plans equate to a future world you want to live in. Or Zuckerberg's. Yet the unaccountable tech industry is very much at the driver’s seat of massive change impacting us all, and other leaders and institutions are simply unable to keep up or exert any meaningful oversight. The U.S. can't even get it together enough to put in place a very basic privacy law limiting the collection and abuse of private data.
125
Kevin, that is an excellent observation you make about smart people in tech generalizing their reasonable self-opinion of extraordinary competence to areas where they are far less justified to do so. It has been my observation that this phenomena is pandemic among experts. For example, the brilliant neuroscientist, Sam Harris, considers himself a philosopher on the level of Noam Chomsky. Their debate was cringeworthy and Harris still has no clue why. We see examples of this all the time.
15
@Kevin Every business is fully controlled by its customers -- no business can force you to buy or use what they offer. That customers prefer or accept things you do not think good or wise is irrelevant. But you do have the power to choose which businesses you associate with, and if you feel you cannot make that choice, then Harari is right and your brain has been hacked.
5
A few years ago, Dr. Harari taught a course on the online learning platform, Coursera. The title of the course was "A Brief History of Humankind" and was based on his book of the same name. I've taken a number of Coursera classes over the years, and Dr. Harari was by far my favorite teacher. I'm not sure why. He sat very quietly in a chair during each session and scarcely moved during the entire lecture. He was very low key, and his presentations were far from being animated. However, he had a wit and magnetism that held my attention completely. Of course he's very intelligent, but it's his appeal and charisma that are difficult to explain. Perhaps Silican Valley is just the latest devotee of his intellect and unique personality.
65
I should also have mentioned that the subject matter of Dr.
I should also have mentioned that the subject matter of
Harari's lectures was fascinating and thought-provoking!
4
@Molly I took the Coursera course too, on which his subsequent book Sapiens was based: "A Brief History of Humankind." It was excellent! No bells & whistles, but always engaging & thought-provoking. I was disappointed though that at the very end of the course, when he started speculating about the future, he only focused on technology. He never acknowledged the environmental elephant in the room: pollution of air, land and sea; the sixth great extinction; climate change; exponential population growth paired with decimation of habitat for all living organisms including humans. It's unfortunate, in my view, that in looking to the future Dr Harari focuses on technology over ecology.
11
@Molly
I also took the Coursera course. I'm sure that course is what made Harari a star.
3
If I were Harari, I wouldn't worry so much about the Silicon Valley and its impact on the future of mankind. After all I live here though I don't do coding for living.
Most silicon valley companies make their money from advertising and when this saturates they seem to have no plan for a new foundation. It is true that the processes they employ to facilitate old technology be it viewing a cinema or storing bits of data for later retrieval are vastly more rapid and far less costly. But my gripe with these companies is that unlike the old AT&T there is no groundbreaking discovery by any of its employees. Nobel Laureates to-date from Silicon Valley companies = 0. The changes brought about by the steam engine were far more numerous and more far reaching.
So they gather all these data - mostly generated by the useless class - which is a summary of what happened in the past, not necessarily what will happen in the future. The data is used mainly for the useless class to buy more useless goods from China. Speaking of China, nobody in America cares about the fact that it is the country with the largest population whose entirety of action and thought is totally controlled by a single party, the Communists. How ironic then that America fought for 75 years against communism and is willing to abandon it for cheap plastics.
So, don't worry about the yuge data. It contains nothing of value.
101
@SV, except that the huge data is how foreign governments monitor and control their societies.
6
He sounds like another pet of the elite class. Somehow all of this technology that makes us smarter and more skeptical is evil, but mind numbing television is okay? It seems that the closeted childhood and father selling weapons plays significantly into why this guy is so dystopian. Always goes back to upbringing, doesn’t it.
Of course the Silicon Valley elite love him. His dystopian fantasies depend on them being all-powerful, when the true reality is far closer to impotence. It is a symbiotic relationship.
103
@ZF well said.
3
@[email protected]
Homo Deus ends in absurd claims that ‘organisms are algorithms’ and the ‘quantified self’ movement expresses the hope for greatly extended life. Harari is a transhumanistist whose prose is beautifully expressive but he is the ultimate advocate of techical cetainty. He nevers mentions compassion or care
And knows nothing about european critical thought . He is trapped in his positivist scientism and claims that all traditions have been transcended by dataism .
The really interesting question is why do readers take this ultimate techno science view so uncritically?
9
@Trent schroyer I've read all three books. My lived experience tells me that Harari is more right than wrong. My first spark of recognition occurred at a restaurant. My party was entering and I noticed that the occupants of the first three tables were all looking at their phones. Complete silence. We see this all the time now. It's now normal. I look at myself and how I spend hours doing nothing but following links. The younger generation in my family won't return phone calls, but instantly reply to text messages. It's not one big takeover, it's a thousand little cuts. That's how it is happening.
You may be right that Harari does have a blind spot - he is not emotional. Maybe that's what I like about him the most. He does not have to wade through the emotional landmines most of us do in order to see what is right in front of us.
14
At least there are witnesses to the megalomania of tech valley combined with or in opposition to Nationalist Trumpisim.
The Circle by Dave Eggers.
And of course 1984 by George Orwell derived in part from his experiences in Myanmar as a British colonialist police officer.
I would add that if the world burns it will take the masters of the universe along with the useless. It will show no favorites.
6
An alternative to Harari, though with a dystopian future is Steve Fuller’s humanity 2.0. A study of Fuller is found in Knowing Humanity in the Social World:
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137374899
This supposedly philosopher fits the current formula that branding is more important that talent and intelligence. This is the reason why he watches so much TV. He says we humans are just animals. Tech companies might create artificial intelligence that is higher that human capacity, but there is something that technology cannot rob from us humans: art. We humans are not just animals, we are spiritual beings. I never heard of any other animals engaging in creative pursuits, including technology.
2
When we base our global interconnected economy on capitalism that drives ruthless competition for dwindling resources & champions privatizing gains & socializing costs, there is no economic incentive to solve global problems or reduce suffering.
As the world is presented as a zero sum game & every man is for himself, people are divided into winners & losers. With income inequality increasing, competition only becomes worse. The winners will only focus on winning & holding on. The rest of the people without money or power, are relegated to the useless class.
The capitalist train has created an artificial living bubble that has promised man-made progress & prosperity and lured everyone onboard while bulldozing our natural life-supporting ecosystems in its path.
How do you make sense of the tech titans who are the current engineers and beneficiaries of this capitalist train that they are:
capable enough to steer humanity to the supposedly promised land while continuing business as usual to the climate change wreck;
visionary enough to check their egos at the door & get down to the nitty-gritty of solving hard problems beyond their core competence while proselytizing about their higher social good and continuing practices that inflict social harm; or
altruistic or caring enough to give up their current privileges & help fellow humans while narrowly directing their current profits to their own cadres knowing well that their wealth will safeguard their own future?
1
For all his meditation, I’ll take the Dalai Lama’s attitude over this guy’s, although he’s certainly identified and brought to a wide audience important societal implications for our present and near future.
1
'By Jove, I think he's got it!' Finally, someone who's nostalgic about the future. Would love to have Harari & partner over for a dinner of silence, followed by some binge TV (while it's still permissible).
1
amazon-customer-service
How sadly fitting that someone with such a low opinion of humanity spends his free time watching television.
1
@Him That humans are advancing to the point of being gods is hardly anti-human.
Yes, it depresses Noodles to learn she is "useless." However, Noodles (and the rest of the "useless class") will have the last laugh when AI takes control and turns the last human tech elites into paper clips.
4
@Noodles Are there other tools that now control you.
The useless class is numerous and can overcome the elites in a revolution. This possibility frightens the elite who are bent to disarm the useless class.
1
@scythians The useless class had been revolt before they lose too much power. After all, the entire animal kingdom "could overtake humans" but they are too far behind intellectually to do so.
The ego of this guy. To anyone working in the Silicon Valley in the early 90's, does this profile not look exactly like all the 'tech gurus' of that time? His books (I read one, scanned another) are full of weighty philosophical speculation followed by baseless conclusions. His experience of life seems to prevent him from seeing anything other than hopelessness. Other writers have done a better job of singling out the class-divide problems looming about AI.
2
"...He had a way of dropping casual remarks in a mildly worried tone that carried conviction: "The Beast keeps asking us to build a mate for it." Or, with a kind of sad and resigned smile; "I wish the Beast didn't have such a low opinion of human beings." Or: "I just found out that the Beast is an atheist. It doesn't believe there is a Higher Intelligence than itself." That sort of thing.
Simon kept this kind of demonology circulating- and he knew a lot of other programmers were contributing to it, also- because the idea that 'the computers were taking over' was one that the programmers had a vested interest in reinforcing.
As long as people were worried that the machines were taking over, they wouldn't notice what was really happening.
Which is that the programmers were taking over."
from The Homing Pigeons: Vol. 3 of the Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson, 1981
1
Part of Harari's dystopia depends on the AI monopoly(ies) escaping the power of governments. While our governments are imperfect, sometimes blundering and corruptible, even 'useless' people won't give up their right to vote without a fight. We will need wise, brave heroes to marshal the power of government to temper the brute force of AI. 'Fingers crossed...
1
@Jim Over half of eligible voters don't even vote now. Government has rarely been on the side of the people over the side of the powerful (rich, educated, in control of the best weapons).
Mr. Harari sounds like what would be called an INTJ personality type according to MBTI personality theory. I note this because I share the personality type and immediately recognized him. Interestingly, I have the same vision regarding social and traditional media, controlled narratives, the elites vs. the useless people, why tech supports UBI, etc... and came to them on my own. It's always fascinating to see another person who's brain works like mine find all the same patterns.
2
@Stacey Kiedaisch Good call. Could also be INTP, but he sounds very disciplined, so I agree with you (from an ENFP).
1
Technology will make a lot of people useless, if we pursue a strictly rational course. But humans are not entirely rational. They are emotional. At some point, the uselss will rise up and attack the elites, whoever they turn out to be. If our ape history teaches us anything, it’s that people who are repressed by an elite, eventually rise up. Or it’s that every great power in the history of the world has ultimatelly failed. The US will fail and along with it, Silicon Valley. When that happens, who pays the elite for services no one needs? They will end up like the British aristocracy, with these large, expensive and irrelevant estates, that are no longer a source of wealth or power. It is more likely to me that the useless destroy the data collection and algorithms and those who hold them so dear. After all, no one needs Facebook.
7
@John Smith
The British aristocracy lost economical relevance because it was based on land and the industrial revolution, based on machines, not because the useless of that time raised against them. The new industrial elite, the industrial tycoons, as they were labeled, destroyed the land-based power. The useless never raise against anything because they don't even have a clue of what the world around them really is. They may turn into street gangs (the useless form the favelas in Brazil are a very good example), but that's the most we have seen. It is always some elite that leads the new revolutions (Lenin was a Russian aristocrat!)
2
@John Smith That governments can kill millions ("just a statistic") and attack foreign nations while journalists and religions applaud, suggest that the useless class isn't even up to revolution without someone who's not useless.
It's simpler. Silicon Valley likes dystopia. Finally someone who understands the creators of the Borg, or so Silicon Valley thinks.
4
Silicon Valley folk stereotypically skew towards the rational, and not towards the messy, provocative end of things, so It’s perhaps it’s easier to them think of humans as useless, or as “drones” a la Huxley than richly talented creative, even beautiful beings full of potential. I’d prefer my philosophy to come from someone who loves to live among fellow humans, not one who avoids them by going off and sitting in a cave, so to speak. Dry, sterile, loveless are words that jump to mind.
12
@Patricia Goodson Sadly, far too humans lack "richly talented, creative, even beautiful beings."
There is a very simple, primitive, and boringly human psychological trait that needs to be taken into account when attempting to rationalize the popularity of thinkers like Harari among the Silicon Valley elite, ego.
The technological deterministic point of view puts the engineer and its enabler center stage of the future of humanity. This is a much more exciting way of looking at one own's contribution to the world than having to face the difficult reality that so far, AI has been most successful at selling more shampoo and suggesting Netflix movies.
(For the record, I myself research AI and deeply care about this topic.)
10
I don’t agree at all, I think they need us very much: as customers and users. I mean who if not we is gonna send all those tweets? Or are they gonna tweet themselves? Who’s gonna make up the 2 billion or whatever users of Facebook if not we, the useless? We are very needed actually!
4
@Mr. Chocolate
Point well taken. Frankly, we are living in a commercialized utopia here in the USA... and in much of the developed world, I would say. I am not wildly in favor of all the commercialization, because it impoverishes us, and makes us become socially inept, or simply walking "mannequins" ... servants to our egos and our images. Well, the elites are making all their money from various forms of exploitation of the rest of us. I would guess that the entire world monetary system would have to change dramatically, if human 95% of humanity has become "useless" and obsolete. Who, indeed, is going to buy all those fabulous baubles that are manufactured for our consumption? The thought has, indeed, occurred to me in Mr. Harari's dissertations on the end of human evolution that our species may indeed, fail and wither. There are many ecological issues that portend it. We're killing our planet. Clearly, we must be among the casualties of our folly. But it's sad too. I have children and grandchildren. I don't want to think of them dying before they've had the opportunity to live a full life. Of course, who am I to dictate what shall be for the whole of humanity. For that matter, who are these wealthy economic Elites to dictate the fate of all humanity, or the life of our planet? We need to deal with these issues, but we don't need to commit suicide on a global scale to do it.
5
@Mr. Chocolate Indeed, as wealth is created, not dug out of the ground. Where's the profit to come from? If demand drops, supplies will drop and thus revenue will decline. And a UBI sounds nice, but redistribution of wealth doesn't create wealth either, so it's not a solution.
@Bonnie Jacobson Just know that Jewish people have been declaring the end of the world since they became a people.
Or this grumble can just be one of a long line of predictions of doom that have failed to materialize, and instead has been replaced by the largest human population ever, the richest, smartest, most traveled, best communicating and longest living ever.
Space.
And Time.
The internet has robbed us of what were. until recently. two of the most desirable of human commodities spiritually, intellectually and physically.
7
Mr. Harari may be a deep thinker but he is a naive deep thinker. Human beings are unpredictable, creative, disorganized and often chaotic thinkers with behaviors to match. I don't believe a word of this article. Nobody can predict the future.
17
@A. Hominid I tried to get through a couple of his books; lots of 'visionary' speculation backed up by nothing.
1
@Erich Richter Predicting the future is impossible -- which Harari admits to while then making more predictions -- and predictions of the end of humanity is age old and always wrong, and more wrong than just wrong because most humans are living better lives now than ever before.
It seems nearly evident that the excitement the bright tech world has for Dr Harari is not only the visionary brilliant prose but that it begs the question of economic system change. One wants to then ask the questions such as 'What changes or system do we need for a happy majority when many no longer need work'. It should be a good problem to have and one that results in a far more Utopian society. It is this tech that gives this wonderful potential given the huge population. The tension should be a pressure felt by political leaders as people should wish to throw out a system only good for top elite vs the tech that can allow health and long youth and lifestyle full of self actualizing leisure and healthy stimulation (even if it also further condenses wealth in our dystopian system)
3
@david the article mentions that the tech world would like to help those put out of work by technology. Ha, what a joke, just look what happened in Seattle recently when the local government tried to pass a more realistic minimum wage. All the large tech companies rebelled and threatened to pull out of the city. As they say in Jersey, “give me a break.”
@Bill Except Seattle passed the minimum wage law, now $15.45/hour. But that just shows how little people understand economics.
This interview was interesting in showing Harari's special place in the Silicon Valley world.
It does not however indicate one major reason for this, his flattery of this world. He does criticize but he also makes it clear that he considers the Tech culture the dominant element in the human future.
The interview also fails to provide another important reason for Harari's popularity not only in the hi- tech world but in general. He is an especially learned person, a historian who can provide time and again esoteric interesting and original information.
He is also not a yes- man in anyway and responds it seems to me with frankness and honesty to whatever questions are addressed to him.
All this said there is a tremendous amount to question and criticize in his thought. He has a kind of demeaning attitude to humanity in general and a quite simplistic understanding of many aspects of history and religion including Jewish history and religion.
But he is as the interview indicates and as he hopes to be a wonderfully stimulating and interesting thinker.
8
Bread and Circuses (ie virtual reality and legalized pot?) could keep the Empire "satisfied" for some time yet, but WTSHTF, the narrow focus and imagination of any elite increases the likelihood of a catastrophic downfall when facing multiple systemic threats. Probably even more so in a modern, interdependent, highly specialized and intricate civilization.
One of the major contributions of the western liberal democratic model to Homo Sapiens adaptability has been the increased 'pool' of talent and thought that it has gradually brought to the table. It was, and continues to be, a classic struggle of our minds trying to manage our simian instincts.
Prompted by planted, false fears, the masses may indeed surrender their freedom to tech elites and/or fascists in exchange for the illusion of temporary stability...again.
How will this time be different?
Stay tuned to Rome/USA 2020...the Drama continues to unfold...
4
In his review of '21 Lessons' Bill Gates wrote, "So far, human history has been driven by a desire to live longer, healthier, happier lives. If science is eventually able to give that dream to most people, and large numbers of people no longer need to work in order to feed and clothe everyone, what reason will we have to get up in the morning?"
My reason is my children and everyone else's children. I wonder how Yuval Harari's views would change if he had offsprings.
6
@MTA But if there are no jobs in the future, why would you want to have kids? Oddly, the richer and better educated people become, the fewer children they have, which begs the question whether humans really love kids more than anything.
For years I didn't pay much attention to the Silicone Valley phenomenon. They made cell phones and computers. So what?
But in the last year many articles and movies, not to mention lawsuits, have come forward about the hubris and disconnection from reality of these young CEO's, and their despicable frat boy workplace cultures. I now perceive the whole lot with disgust. They are just people who are willing to to sell their souls for money, and could care less about the consequences of their 'wonderful inventions ' on the wellbeing of the planet. They are not gods - they are demons. They are not 'good people'.
Thank god for a 'prophet' like Mr. Harari who is here to warn us about ultimate consequences of following these new Hitler Youth types over the abyss. How can the idea of a 'useless class' not remind us of the Nazis term 'useless eater' . I doubt Mr. Harari can be co-opted by the false praise of these modern day fascist technocrats.
I don't want Silicone valley 'building my future', and neither should you.
15
@Gwen Vilen Hatred of others is the solution? You will return to your happier self if you once again stop paying attention to them. If you fawn over tech, then don't expect tech to ignore your interest that makes them wealthy.
Rather than hate them, just try not using services where they ask you to communicate with others through their platform (uh oh, I just did this on the NY Times web site -- is this tech nor not tech?).
Harari might have gotten plenty of things right, and might be correct that "civilization" might have gotten plenty of things wrong. But as a gay man, if he can't figure out why societies in the past had a problem with homosexuality, then he's not anywhere close to being as smart as many give him credit for.
I'm not homophobic, and I'm not talking about today. But just a couple centuries ago- before antibiotics, knowledge about infectious disease, the development of asepsis in operating rooms, vaccines, modern sanitation methods for waste disposal and providing clean water, refrigeration so food didn't spoil . . . the average human life expectancy was rather short. Every society on the planet struggled just to maintain its numbers, the population was rather stable and certainly not increasing by leaps and bounds. Sexual reproduction was crucial, a society with declining numbers would be invaded and taken over by a neighboring one whose numbers were stable. Life was Hobbesian- short, brutal, nasty. (We'll leave out the obvious contributions of war and violence to that fact of life.)
In short, we humans, like most animals on the planet, were in some steady state with the environment. One could argue that it's the rather recent inventions of the industrial revolution and modern medicine that are going to be the death of us all due to overpopulation and climate change. Ironically, to come full circle, we need less reproduction than ever.
8
@drdeanster So, "the end is near" is your "novel" howl?
One more thing demanding my attention by offering to prepare me for a scary future. No thanks. I’ll be working in the real world on my real life with real people to create real satisfaction.
9
I'm surprised that with his knowledge of human evolution Dr. Harari does not live the Paleo lifestyle -- running barefoot, fasting, exposing himself to extremes of heat and cold -- all to "optimize gene expression." One thing our Primal ancestors didn't do was meditate for two months.
1
@Craig Willison It's likely he has hacked his own brain, believing that truth can be found by listening to your already hacked brain, to give profound meaning to your emotions, etc. Typical narcissistic thinking that goes well beyond "know yourself" into "I am the only important thing to think about."
This is so close to the writings of Zigmund Bauman, who talks about "surplus people." While the executives may say kind things, Bauman refers to the disposition of surplus people as "the surplus human waste disposal industry." And we can look around as see it in action in refugee camps, prisons, etc. It also reminds me of Richard Brautigan's poem. It's a good thing Agent Smith has a use for us :-(
5
Zigmund Bauman was a sociologist whose insightful writings on liquid reality predates Harari by several years. His work is much more humane and grounded in actual social processes and structures.
2
@Robert
Bauman's book Modernity And The Holocaust amounts to an investigation into how the Nazis exploited "virtuous" social behaviors like trust, obedience and loyalty, and "respected" social structures like the news media, legal institutions and compartmentalized bureaucracy, to hack the minds of most of the German populace, including the German Jews targeted by the Nazis as the scapegoated victim population. Bauman wrote the book with the purpose of debugging the program, to prevent a repetition of that sort of insidious mind-warping, with all of its attendant horrors.
Harari, on the other hand, simply espouses resignation to the prospect of humans- all of us- having our minds thoroughly hacked by algorithm-wielding super-intelligent machine overlords. As if it's an inescapable inevitability, a natural consequence of the human condition. He's advising his audience to surrender.
If people can't see the con game there for themselves, I don't know how to help them. Other than, I guess, to remind the readers that c.2018CE, even the most advanced computers programmed with "Emergent Self-Learning Artificial Intelligence" have yet to demonstrate any more sense of self-aware consciousness than that possessed by a can opener.
Why would you write such a gushing post about absolutely deplorable sounding person? Talking about a "useless" class and the futility of people voting? What an ominous, fascistic view of the world. And is it really a surprise, dear author, that every Silicon Valley CEO, eternally contemptuous of the non-privileged, just itching for a future ruled entirely by technocrats, buddies up to him? Read between the lines.
13
@Paul Those are his predictions, not his preferences.
One would hope that the contents of his books are more illuminating than his pedestrian comments for this article. Otherwise, it's hard to see why anybody at all is paying attention.
10
@Aria You could read his books rather than wonder and comment about how you wonder without reading any. He's the first to admit that predicting the future is a fool's errand, but he'd like us to discuss the future today so we can decide how best to move forward.
Like, do you allow a kidney to be sold for profit? Some say it's bad, while doing so saves another's life and helps enrich another's. You have to discuss issues to address them.
Today, we carry on in life in a blissful state of unquestioning disregard for the bigger questions - what is life, what is the purpose of life, etc. We have concocted different answers to these questions, with no way to ascertain the truth. Thus, we are in no position to say what policies are good for humanity, since the goal of policies is to achieve a desired steady state in society, and we all have different opinions and ideas as to what that state should be.
At some point, humans should unite behind one goal - and that goal should be to discover the meaning of life. This means, our goal, in the absence of answers to the big questions, will become the pursuit of knowledge which we hope will eventually provide us the answers we seek. Thus policies enacted by governments should all be in support of this goal. Free speech and easy dissemination of knowledge will be important. Discouraging violent and destructive behavior will be a necessity. Research and free thinking will be the most important activities of life. The only purpose of innovation will be to either directly or indirectly support the pursuit of knowledge. And knowledge will not just be all STEM, it will be a wave that advances on all fronts.
Will such a liberal paradise come to be? I am optimistic...
3
@RajS We'd never agree on things like the purpose of life because most who think clearly realize that there is no purpose, no rights, just things we invent (stories) because they seem to confer an advantage we like.
That you hope to find answers to such questions by using a weak human brain (think brain diseases, brain disorders caused by consuming things, brain injury, mal-education, social pressure)
Is AI going to make California firefighters part of the useless class? No doubt some techies are on it: How to save one’s parents from nursing homes and push trophy cars away from burning Malibu mansions?
3
What an amusing little man to invite to the Court. 'Yuval' and 'Mark' and 'Larry'
3
Plug us in Agent Smith!
2
Mr. Harari in some ways, seems to be seen as a kind of jester, warning of the dangers in an entertaining manner to the amused kings of Silicon Valley. He is predicting exactly what they want to happen: the 'useless' will become unnecessary and essentially erased and only the rulers will remain. We plebeians find it horrifying but the tech billionaires cheer.
Frankly, I think that climate change will severely disrupt life before this happens but if that calamity doesn't happen first, these tech wizards just might get their wish.
12
@Ali Litts That you think humans can't resolve global climate change shows you have not been following humanity for very long. Every doomsayer has been wrong before, and you'll find you are wrong about the death of humanity from climate change.
At the turn of the century, in 2000, I was at a lecture given by a psychic/mystic. He said that within two human incarnations (about 200 years) we would no longer have religious beliefs as we know them, there would be no kings or "single government rulers", people would only have to work if they wanted to, the United States would be broken up into 3 separate countries, and there would no longer be large countries per se. He said all of this would be due to technological advances. He expressed this through a fairly positive utopian view. I thought he was crazy. After reading this article I think perhaps he really did know what he was talking about.
2
@Helen Clark No, just two people agreeing on a future they have no idea about. Clearly, change in 200 years will be great, but we'll never predict what new things will happen. Did anybody 200 years ago predict: trains, planes, cars, rockets, nuclear weapons, computers, A/C and toilets and in-home plumbing, phones, TVs, antibiotics, gene therapy, Internet, solar power (ok, they had wind power!), MRIs, nanobots....
"Humans can get used to anything"
That quote has stuck with me. It is from the book Miracle in the Andes written by Nando Parrado. If you don't know the story it is about a group of teenage boys whose plane crashed into the Andes and to survive they had to eat the bodies of their dead companions.
I like disaster stories....POW camps.....the Holocaust....the Russian Revolution......who are we really? What can we do? What will we do?
The sad truth is anything. We will do anything. We might not like it. You will see suicide rates spike but other than that we will get used to any situation. We will embrace it....to survive.
A smart culture sets positive goals......to help its fellow human beings.
A stupid culture sets stupid goals.....
Khruschev gave a speech after Stalin's death.....the secret speech......he spoke openly about not sending people who disagreed with the Communist Party to the Gulag anymore......they should be denied promotions instead. That was a better way to handle things.
It is not all bad. 500 years ago in the UK one person (the monarch) had serious conversations with a straight face that he was appointed by God as his representative on earth. Many people in Europe were burnt at the stake for their beliefs.....hence the rush to the new world and religious freedom.
Humans will get used to anything.
So let us give humans goals that elevate them. That honour them. If we can work this out in time and build communities focused on this there is hope.
14
1) Is this some Spinal Tap parody? He leaves Silicon Valley to enter an ashram for 60 days of silence. He seems to take pleasure in this insider-outsider performance mocking his adorers.
2) On a different note, if there was one upside to the election of Trump, it is that NYT readers, intelligentsia, and tech illuminati quickly came to see the pernicious affects of tech. If there were a President Clinton, we'd be years out from recognizing the downsides of tech.
3) Tech sought disruptive technology. Should it surprise anyone that it disrupted society?
15
@Ming . To extend your comment -- the younger generations are all in love with all these "disruptors" be it Uber or Air B&B. The same people will claim they are all for workers rights, equality, good paying jobs, company benefits -- and yet they roundly support the very goods and services that undermine them.
Conclusion: People literally cannot think anymore; they cannot look down the road at the consequences of today on tomorrow.
16
Thanks, WAY better than reading about, once again, your very American village idiot. On the other hand, is Harari an apologist for a ( now technocractic) plutocracy? Aren't all these tech companies like lemmings to a sea we don't need to go to?
5
This article, and most of the comments appended thereto, are gobbledegook.
Most digital technology, and many of the technologists in charge, are malignant. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out.
The emperor has no clothes.
8
@Dave It does take a genius to include evidence over rantings.
1
The useless class showed the tech titans (and coastal elites - of which I am one) the power they still wield when they elected Trump. Intense focus+competitive streak+just enough insecurity = A tech titan.
Wouldn't being a member of the 'useless class' also open up a whole new vista for thought..... kind of like being in the middle of a Samuel Beckett play and asking oneself, "Now what?"
Now what indeed. The sky's the limit.
3
The autor is surprised that opposites are in dialogue. She should rethink her thougts.
Mr Harari speaks the language of tech and has something to adress that is essential to our future. The vision of Huxley is a kind of 'End of history' idea, so it will not happen. On the other hand there will always be large groups of people willing to implement a temporary Pax Romana, Great Society or 1000 years Reich. This tension is of all times and now translated to big tech. The fact that he is embraced as a dialogue partner means that there is still considerable future for technological development in the US. A system needs to correct and adapt itself to survive, and he is now part of this correction mechanism.
Beware of the moment when people like Harari are pushed aside and silenced. Or being ripped off the microphone when asking unwanted questions to the powerfull. :-(
4
Re: The Google employees who were asking whether their work would make people more or less free.
This is not really the question to ask. Question #1 is whether their work will make the world (*) better or worse. The proper "world" to consider is the planet with all of its life, not just humans. Humans have a terrible record of acting first in self-interest, and then cleaning up the mess we make for everything else.
Question #2 to be asked is whether humans have the capacity to absorb and properly use the technologies being developed. I would say in the case of social networks with their capacity to incite mob behavior, the answer is 'no'. The answer for AI is probably 'no' also; the abuse potential is just too high.
7
Well, at least he's not corrupting the youth of Athens. Sounds like Marcus Aurelius as drawn by Giacometti. Sigh. Sapience is a gift of deflation wrapped in entropy and tied with a bow of meh. Are you coming to the after-party?
it's so much fun entertaining audiences at TED talks about why the stuff they've being doing to afford TED talks will someday end TED talks
5
He is a lot less irritating than I expected. I usually cannot stand these one day wonders who in their arrogance think it is up to them to explain the world to their fellow mortals. And they are always men. It takes a kind of male over-confidence apparently.
9
Budda reborn
1
To me there's a simple answer to why SV is courting him:
If there's one superpower that investors are dreaming of possessing, it is the ability to predict the future.
1
Why do they love him so? In these uncertain times people are especially vulnerable to the idea that they belong to the tribe of the blessed, the important, the only people who should really count. Mr. Harrari offers that signal to the tech elite as Trump does (more skillfully) to his base.
7
This article and the reader comments seem to want to believe there is something underhanded and self-serving in Silicon Valley's interest in this man. There may be some of that, but also people in Silicon Valley are naturally drawn to ideas and different ways of thinking. There are a lot of smart people there, but they (mostly) know they are not infallibly prescient. Many are just as uncertain about the future as the rest of us. After all, the apex of this new brave new world doesn't need silicon valley either.
1
Harari is popular with Silicon Valley for 2 reasons:
1. His dystopian message resonates because subconsciously Silicon Valley knows that what they are creating is an ever growing problem and what we create as humans we end up despising.
2. His message about the extent to which Silicon Valley has and could in the future alter the social and political landscape plays right into the ego of Silicon Valley. They believe they are building a brave new world for better or for worse.
In the final analysis, playing to someone's ego and exaggerating their importance is always a good way to find a larger audience.
6
@JeffB
One of the best lines from this article is: "He worries that because the technological revolution’s work requires so few laborers, Silicon Valley is creating a tiny ruling class and a teeming, furious “useless class.”"
I think what he's saying is that artificial intelligence (A.I.), if perfected, will cause epic changes to society. Personally, I can see no other political outcome than a massive switch to a communist worldview. And in my opinion, that will be the ultimate form of the dystopian society.
2
Silicon Valley has two problems: the profit motive, which is unrelated to wisdom or responsibility; and the domination of machine algorithms, which are fast and cheap, but also far from incorporating wisdom and responsibility.
16
I thought this would be about the effect that Dr. Harari is having on Silicon Valley. But instead this belongs in People magazine.
10
So, i've read Ms. Bowles article and a few dozen of the largely most-intelligent comments, and i note, at risk of significant denigration, that no one has mentioned a perspective that includes a belief in a universal omnipotence that might influence future algorithms or technological outcomes.
Seems to me that, whether you're an atheist or an agnostic, the largest view of evolution is that mankind was never in complete control of its destiny. Accordingly, to assume that either the advancing technology or its controllers have anything close to majority influence on mankind's outcome might be fallacious.
6
In addition to "Brave New World," they might also want to re-read "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells.
3
The Singularity may come to mean something else.
The truth is that SV rarely understands the social and political consequences of their creations.
Many of them are accidents and so many of the billionaires are so young that they did not have enough experience dealing with the real world to understand that people are not machines. They simply don't behave or think that way.
Society is determined by the way people really are and NOT the way you wish them to be. Otherwise, the world today would be a different place despite all of our technology and the communications revolution. Every effort they put in place to control what cannot be controlled results in the opposite of freedom and the opposite of choice.
3
Zuckerberg needs to read up on his Roman history. The peace of Augustus was more propaganda than reality especially for those living on the fringes of the empire. They felt the might of Rome's desire to keep the "peace."
8
Yuval Noah Harari wants us to self reflect as we read human history. Everyone has a subjective existence. What seems purposeful (commenting on this article) may seem random to most. Humans are flawed and our egos distract us. We seek validation of external uncertainties thru the illusion of measurable social capital. (likes, tweets, followers, comments, friends, family) We are distracted by three different types of networks within social capital: bonding, bridging and linking. Bonding relates to common identity, for example ties among people who are similar to each other within communities., which include family members, individuals sharing the same ethnic groups or clubs. While ‘Bridging’ can be described as the social cohesion between individuals and groups, bringing people together who would not normally relate to each other, Lastly, ‘Linking’, where the associations between those gaining independence and democratic lifestyles due to status are linked with those in authority, it “Relates to power, for example ties with those in authority or between different social classes between communities and organizations and with structures outside communities.” We mustn’t let our egos become a controlling factor in the way we act and make decisions. Self awareness starts by knowing your opportunities because of wealth, skills of labor you possess, abilities to learn, apply & utilize your knowledge. Finally, success is rooted in work, creativity, persistence, and luck. One love!
4
He's become, as of late and for very good reasons given the brilliant streak of books released since 2011 a fashionable intellectual doubled up of a bad-boy / whizz-kid who emerges in a hazy field of contemporary studies prone to combine and stir in a same pot philosophy-anthropology-biology and so forth which, in and for itself, also reminds of the now obsolete term "naturalist" before this term did split into subcategories and gave way to modern day terminology 'philosopher', for instance. Indeed, back then a breadth of scientists would rather invest the bulk of their in-depth research not in one but several fields of study overlapping at once. There is some of that multifaceted approach and broader vision carried by Harari's posturing these days.
As to addressing the reasons his theories are so palatable and appealing for CEO's who seem to tag along with his ideas (though don't have to put them into effect) is perhaps because, in the big picture those top-of-the-chain figureheads still are being depicted overlooking the scene from the top of the hill or pyramid, potent rulers of an impending doom awaiting the entire world unless they decide to work it out otherwise act pro bono Publico instead which seems unlikely...
3
I have not read Harari. The web is full of dystopian futurists. Perhaps it is a sign of the times of massive change beyond the impact of AI and computerized propaganda on social and political systems that evolved under very different conditions.
China is attempting to apply technologies such as are being offered by the U.S. tech giants by political choice to create a stable society marked by pervasive surveillance and use of social value credits controlled by a single party system. That experiment has much to teach as to the limits of the approach. It appears doomed based on the failure to address the Houkou system that relegates half of the population to a sub-useless, but exploited class.
The future that Harari sees ignores the possibility of creating alternative worlds each structured to enable human being to achieve higher potential. Steve Wolfe in his book "The Obligation" presented space settlement as a kind of reproductive process for Gaia, for Earth's biosphere with humans being the most conscious part thereof. We have worlds to create. Many futures lie ahead for humankind.
1
@Vid Beldavs Don't you think it would be a good idea to first read Harari's books before offering your thoughts on the subject?
1
This will sound naive to many, but most people that I know in the Valley are driven by a genuine concern for doing good (in addition to the desire to make money). For them mingling with Mr Harari and learning from his unprecedented ability to think clearly about both dys- and utopian future tech scenarios would make perfect practical sense.
10
The problem with the thinking of techies and the thinking of Harari is that it doesn't consider the long game that produced all the species on earth: evolution. Techies and Harari think in terms of human societies, which are short lived.
Evolution of a species happens in an environment where the species reproduces by passing on its genes. Selection is the process where some members of the species are more successful at reproducing than others so their genes increase in the population and the traits those genes determine increase. Environmental change can change what will make for successful reproduction so different genes increase in the population. Mutations change genes at random, producing the variety required to deal with major environmental change.
Today climate change is making major modifications to the environment and we're in the middle of the Sixth Extinction and fires and hurricanes are more and more violent. Techies dream of AI replacing humans but have lost control of their own media and aren't raising a finger to save the world. What is their definition of intelligence? What are their values? Their manufactured AI could be as dumb as a box of rocks on human values.
Living a few hundred years would slow down evolution right when we'll need it. What does eliminating "useless" humans do? It trashes genetic variety so there's less chance for evolution. .
24
@Saint999 Sounds to me like you have not read Harari. He talks at length about evolution, as when he speaks of humans become gods. Evolution takes thousands of years, but humans can now manipulate genes to the extent that evolution takes merely years, or less.
The thinking that Silicon Valley is destined to rule the world strikes me as being subject to the fallacy of economic determinism.
Yes, Silicon Valley is immensely rich and has a lot of leverage to manipulate peoples hearts and mind.
On the other hand, look at what happened to the US in 2016 with the election of Trump: The political system asserts itself in ever so unexpected ways. It still rules the economic system more than tech rules the political system. The Trump campaign and its colluders used tech more than being used by tech.
Is tech going to amass more power in the long run? Probably. But that power will eventually be harnessed by the political system- for dystopia or utopia.
It is hard to forecast technology. It is hard to forecast the economic system. But it is even harder to forecast how human societies will govern themselves. There is choice, there is chance and there is premeditation involved. Very few foresaw Trump or the fall of the Roman Empire at it heights at the reign of Augustus.
The Political System will (re-)assert itself over tech. It will collude and be influenced by tech, though. In Europe this is underway, with legislation on Data Privacy, Hate speech and taxation - often rather clumsily, but it is still early in the game
6
Yuval Harari is a fatuous lightweight.
Yes, I've read Sapiens. Fortunately, it isn't the only book of social psychology, philosophy and futurism that I've ever read. I've also made the acquaintance of Spinoza and Weber and Heidegger and Whitehead and Chesterton and Chardin, and Alfred Adler and Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn and Isaac Asimov, and John von Neumann and Richard Feynmann and Lewis Thomas and Carolyn Merchant and Alisdair MacIntyre- and, for that matter, late 20th century popularizers of futurism like Tim Leary and Robert Anton Wilson. Leary and Wilson also sometimes lapse into fatuity, but they're capable of the sort of profound insights that elude a cornpone Nietzschean acolyte like Harari, with his dreary mundane certainty. Leary and Wilson keep it real. They don't proffer Mechanistic Logical Truths; instead, they insist on continual questioning. Also, Wilson's 1980s era futurist prognostications are currently chalking up an impressive track record. (His timing was a bit optimistic. So what?)
Yes, I've read Nietzsche and Marx and Darwin and Jared Diamond, too. Of course. (Too bad so many modern would-be intellectuals stop somewhere short of a Cliff Note's level of familiarity with those authors, declare themselves "educated", and stop there.) I've also read Sade and Crowley and Bakunin and Evola and Rand. I ain't afraid of no ghosts.
Come on, Silicon Valley. Erudition. I mean, F. M. Esfandiary (FM-2030) is as ridiculous as Harari, but at least he's funny.
21
When you drop names in Silicon Valley and there's no one to hear them fall, did you really drop them?
I read those *guys* too, and can config an Ubuntu server and build my own battery charger from discarded game controllers and make a mean sous vide peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
My take on it is that neither the Eloi nor the Morlocks depend on syllogisms, the hunter-gatherers didn't either.
We are the middle term in an Aristotelian cat's cradle, an abstract cascade of cuneiform stamped on melting ice. What our bones become is determined by where they fall, not by how we feed or name them.
13
Ho-hum. All worthy books I’m sure. Showing that one can write a book that remains valuable over time - even if is value is not recognized at the time. No reason to think this book is not one of those.
3
@Janet Savage
In the case of Harari's book Sapiens, I think we've encountered the opposite of what you've posited- a book that's hailed in the short run as possessing lasting value, when it's actually at best a rehash of history and speculation that others have already provided with considerably more insight.
For example: to me, the strongest part of Sapiens is Harari's effort to provide a historical summary of human progress in the material and technological sense. But both Jared Diamond's 1997 book Guns, Germs, and Steel and Daniel Boorstin's 1983 book The Discoverers do an incomparably superior job of providing an overview of the same topic matter. (The other two books in Boorstin's Knowledge trilogy are likely equally worthwhile, although I haven't read them.)
As an aside, I think Boorstin's 1962 book The Image has outstanding relevance to many of the current challenges that we're now facing in the advent of the Internet/social media era. To speak of books with lasting value that were overlooked at the time of their publication.
2
How very compelling and how very peculiar.
I have friends, highly academic friends, very liberal and devoting themselves to a life of medieval scholarship and consumed by worry about teeming humanity all around them. And their views are essentially the same as Mr. Harari. Yet they perceive no disjunction or contradiction just as he does not.
This is strange. If humans individually and aggregately are biological automatons, complex ants, genetic accidents, and ALL we see around us is merely a fascinating termite mound, then 2 things -
1. Why are you concerned enough to be anguished and why write the books to persuade the Ants/chimpanzees?? That seems to be the very definition of futility.
2. How did so much change in the last 5000, 500, 100 years? Can evolution account for all this stuff and outpouring of ideas and art? Oh no (response) its our hard-wired interaction with the every-changing culture. What?! Where could the source of all this culture and its ever-changing content *come* from?
Culture didn't spring up out of the ground one day. And another a week later.
Yes, of course, human freedom is constrained by many things, and perhaps never more than now. And, yes, this dystopian highway we are accelerating down is catastrophic folly. But I guarantee neither the ants nor the chimps are staying up nights worrying.
If I have some small freedom to think and choose, then we all do. And if we all do, then the shape of today and tomorrow is ours. Right Mr. Harari?
9
I suspect the Silicon Valleyites are engaged by what he has to say as on some level they fear what they have spawned. For this same reason many of the Silicon Valley parents are going to extreme measures to ensure that their own children are leading a screen-free life. They earn their big bucks creating the software, hardware and interfaces that have essentially come to dominate most people's lives but they wish their own children to be free of it.
38
I think trump knows his base better than they know themselves. Trump in some ways represents the same future Harari mentions.
5
Yuval Noah Harari ideas are fundamentally undeserving of the wide acclaim and attention it has been receiving.
10
Dystopian futures are a lot less work. If people want positive futures based on their ideals it entails far more work. The idealization of defeat is essentially just a form of laziness.
73
The professor's books and my science fiction collection share many of the same themes.
8
It seems I may have missed my calling as philosopher, since I share a number of traits: Gay, (almost) Vegan. A long belief that humans are little more than fancy monkeys.
And detachment that enables me to avoid becoming distraught in the face of the likely environmental disaster we’re rushing towards; a detachment that comes from believing that one way or another all that we know of humanity will soon be just another sedimentary layer of rock, to be viewed by whatever creature is dominant 10,000 years from now.
Somehow that’s comforting to me....
16
I am always buoyed to discover someone else out there who does not imbue humans with some sort of secular or religious divinity. By the way, my moniker for humans is “monkeys in sweaters”. I apply the term particularly to those who—for a moment—entrance with shimmering reason and logic. Hopefully, real monkeys do not take offense at my trademark infringement.
I believe we are either born wired to think along the lines of Jonathan Swift’s critique of both the British and the Irish in his infamous essay “A Modest Proposal . . .” or to be enamored of sweaters.
4
Pax Technica!
or
Pox Technica!
9
I do not think the day is far off when there are plagues,
droughts, famines and those in control decide that we
"expendables" should be treated as such.
A less crowded, less tidy world is a better world.
People trust their computers too much, and they trust the
computers that manipulate the Stock Market as they should only trust their Creator.
Chinese, Indian and Greek Philosophy talk about how difficult it is to achieve wisdom. Those in Silicon Valley think they are
wise because they know how to program computers and make money in doing so.
I could be wrong, but I doubt any of the leaders of the
Silicon Nation have the extensive training in humbleness, learning, pondering, reflecting, practice that all philosophies
recommend for those who seek true wisdom.
Yet, they are given so much power,
too much power for even demi-gods
ends in tragedy as the Greek Playwrights warned us
2500 years ago.
Yet, our technological hubris, blinds us
and we drown our own-selves
via computation.
58
If not the USDOJ, possibly a coalition of state attorneys' general or maybe a European country with US extradition agreements will bring a criminal prosecution against the Silicon tech executives who profit off of Russian and other foreign influence sowing chaos and treason to interfere with US elections.
8
Harari is telling the world exactly what the Tech companies want the world to hear - that technology is taking over and there ain’t anything you can do about it. Of course they will embrace him!
94
Yuval Noah Harari rocks! This is how I think Harari's dialectic approach would be applied to promoting gun control legislation in the USA.
An objective phenomenon exists independently of our consciousness. Radioactive emissions, for example, exist objectively within nature. These emissions existed long before people ever discovered them.
Subjective phenomenon exists only in the imagination of a single individual. It can change as that single individual changes. Thus, a Senator who is for gun control legislation ceases to believe in it if a sought out campaign contribution materializes.
Inter-subjective phenomenon exists within the communication networks that link the subjective consciousness of many individuals within a community.
The inter-subjective is made up of the things in which many individuals, within the larger community, believe. Thus if a pro gun advocate changes his or her mind and starts to support gun legislation, it makes little to no difference to the beliefs of the NRA community as a whole.
The inter-subjective has no actual existence within the natural world in the same way that radioactivity does. The NRA spends millions of dollars on lobbying. If 1 or 2 NRA members change their minds or agree isn’t enough as a whole, since it makes little to no difference to the belief of the community. For this narrative to become a self fulfilling prophecy that leads to gun control legislation, it has to be accepted at a societal level by the majority of people.
1
@Jose Franco
It is called the "Bandwagon Effect"
nothing new under the Sun.
1
Thanks for this. I've read all 3 of Harari's books and they are brilliant and fun. What gets left out is his sustainability sensibility - he sees clearly that we need to focus on preserving natural capital partly seriously addressing climate change, and that tech fixes aren't likely to occur (requiring a miracle tech advance a week, he said). But because of our "sapien" weaknesses, we'll instead focus on lengthening lifespans. Similar good perspective available in Rebecca Costa's book The Watchman's Rattle - we humans designed to respond to threats right in front of us, not abstract ones, which sustainability impacts mostly remain. We have to ensure prices tell the truth, simply put, since that's our language of capitalism, and prices can easily be 400% wrong if social and environmental impacts are included. Thank you Mr. Harari.
6
We are not designed. To our ancestors, responding to immediate threats conferred a survival advantage. I’m not sure what will confer a survival advantage to humans in the future. But whatever it is, if it exists at all it will eventually become dominant. Human evolution is not over. One might even say it has just begun.
4
@P. P. Porridge
Very clearly put, thank you.
I would like to see the phrase ‘we are designed to’ replaced with the phrase ‘we have evolved to’.
5
He continues the tradition of Socrates in the Agora of Athens, and long may all sapient Philosophers be venerated.
3
@daunt2
You must be kidding! How could you possibly compare Socrates, so very deeply engages in human kind and human contact-at least if we are to believe what Plato tells us about him-, with this near recluse who primarily lives in his head and with what he sees on television?
As for me, I foresaw the destructive side of technology and the internet when they were in their infancy, just by observing their effects on me and on those around me.
3
Before I start, I have not read his books, so it is impossible for me to make an informed analysis. Given my limited understanding of his thinking, some ideas occur to me.
First, many people, including academics, have previously concluded human biological evolution has stopped. That point of view may still be common among the public, but modern genetic technology has demonstrated that humans continue evolve, in many cases more rapidly than ever, considering most humans today live in recent (within the last 500 years), novel environments that are very different from what most of our ancestors confronted over the past 200-300 thousand years. Furthermore, our most recent environments are orders of magnitude different from even 50 years ago.
An axiom of evolution is that changing environments engender more evolution, not less. In modern human environments, there is relaxed selection on infectious diseases and other health assaults that were sources of high morbidity and mortality in the past.
Most importantly, our social environments have radically changed. We constantly encounter thousands of different people, compared to the 10-100s in the past. And we encounter them as an afterthought, rather than as a source of danger. In fact, there is far less violence now than in the past, even if the sources of violence are far more lethal.
Finally, Dr. ? greatest concern involves cultural evolution is that our cognitive abilities lag far behind and are very easily manipulated. Me too
8
@Maurie Beck read his books, I did.
With time, the A.I. funded by the elites will subjugate them in the same way that the elites subjugate the workers in the present.
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@Enough Humans
Yes. The AI will stuff the 150 year old Bezos into a 3d printer and turn him into paper clips.
2
We have only just realized that we are a species (not a race). I am promoting 24 hours of complete silence on the last day of 2018. This will not happen, but if everybody reading this does it, a few people will ask why, and perhaps start to think about saving our species before we drive ourselves extinct.
Leaders such as Trump, Pence (worse than Trump), and Putin (hatched from Stalin) do not bode well for our species' survival.
8
How and where do you promote the day of silence?
Old saying: keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.
5
Maybe I’m missing something?
Yes the all encompassing narcissism in the tech industry, particularly among the self-professed titans. What you have done is confirm the omnipotence of these tech execs, and they love that. So they love listening to you, because in the story you tell these guys are extremely powerful.
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One thing I think is really funny about these self-appointed elites is their interest is life extension. Google has given Ray Kurzweil (a former computer scientist who takes 100 pills a day) hundreds of millions to come up with schemes for living forever. Larry Page with his own billions started a company Calico that he generously funds for the same purpose.
If you have billions, more than you could spend in an ordinary life time, you have two choices. The first is to spend most of the money for the betterment of all of mankind before you die (example Bill Gates). The second is to try and figure out how to live forever so you can spend all your money on yourself. In recorded human history, many tyrants (Egyptian Pharos, Chinese and Roman Emperors) have tried the second option. Fortunately, they have always failed. It is strange none of Silicon Valley’s current tyrants have noticed this.
I also don’t understand why these tyrants who embrace the idea of that everyone else in the world is useless feel so safe. The world is awash in guns and cheap bullets, especially here in the United States. A lot of these weapons are used by the so-called useless to kill each other. But there are still plenty around to dedicate to the cause of tyrant demise.
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Because someone could ultimately crack the code to longevity via a combination of nutrition, environment and genetic manipulation whereby a human life span could be doubled or tripled out to, say, 200 years or longer. I have a cat which is at least 20 years old. The average lifespan of a man in the U.S. in 1900 was 48 years. How much would people pay for that doubling their useful lifespan for themselves, or their children?
Of course, the fountain of youth won’t be widely available to all.
It remains to be seen whether Bill Gates spending will accomplish much in the long run. The populations of Europe and Africa were about the same in the late 90s, but by 2100 Europe’s organic population is expected to decline by 100 million, whereas Africa is projected to have a population of 4.5 billion.
As one of my trainers used to say: “You can’t outrun a bad diet.” All the tech you can imagine isn’t going to save most from gross human overpopulation. And thank God it won’t.
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@Duane Coyle, unless you want to be a tree, no animal lives for centuries. There is some undiscovered, inherent natural law that seems to prevent this from happening. We are literally programmed to die.
I presume the focus on AI and neural networks is an attempt to bypass our biology.
7
@sguknw
Wealth allows for trailblazing.
The luxuries of the elite in one generation become the lifestyle of the middle class in the next.
A proposal for our transition period: heavily tax the wealthy, and use the money to bribe the "useless" into infertility, yet still have enough left over to provide basic services. (No one suffers from being poor, but they get MORE support if they don't pass along their bad habits. The most useless of the useless fade away in a few decades.)
The greatest issue is that the powerful, due to their constitution, use their power to acquire more power, indefinitely. Few know when to say "enough's enough" and turn their attention to bettering the broader human condition.
We can't get this ball rolling when the wealthy fight progressive taxes. They need to be convinced that wealth transfer reduces the need for walls.
This requires an end to identity politics among the aggrieved masses. Guaranteed basic income, in exchange for few kids. The 1 percent releases its surplus, while the 99 percent dismisses its umbrage.
I am the most intrigued by the ashram you go to for 60 days of silence. I was wondering if we couldn't ask Mr. Harari to take the President along with him.
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@richard wiesner He would have to have his mouth taped shut and no Internet access whatsoever. Sounds fantastic to me (and I'm guessing quite a few other voters). And let's extend the time period beyond 60 days. How about say 10 years?
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@richard wiesner
I'd suggest a different ashram for Mr. Trump, one located in Fort Leavenworth, KS
13
@richard wiesner
All is Trump. Trump is all.
The homeless epidemic is the canary in a coal mine of the technological revolution. People made obsolete and disregarded in part because of their inability to access technology.
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@Jen I see many homeless at libraries. There is plenty of technology there.
1
Silicon Valley titans are so secure in their insecurity that they can't see their own critics. I'd bet that that will also make them incapable of seeing their inevitable falls from grace and relevance as well.
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Anyone that thinks this person is saying anything new needs to read The Question Concerning Technology (Die Frage nach der Technik) by Martin Heidegger published way back in 1954
"Enframing means the gathering together of that setting-upon that sets upon man, i.e., challenges him forth, to reveal the real, in the mode of ordering, as standing-reserve. Enframing means that way of revealing that holds sway in the essence of modern technology and that it is itself not technological."
We are all being enframed by technology and the only escape for all of us in to release the artist within and to authentically engage with the world and each other.
An infinitely better message for these CEO's and for all of us - regrettably, it does not come pre-chewed like Prof Harari's pablum
11
@SteveRR How, in practical terms, does one "release the artist within and authentically engage with the world" ???
I mean, that's such a lovely platitude, but it's totally worthless and utterly naive. The only real possibility is the technological system breaks down similar to the breakdown of prior civilizations, freeing humanity and preserving the biosphere... or else it races on, obedient to its own logic and without regard to long-term human values or interests. It's really that simple.
2
@Ari Paul Au Contraire, Mr. Paul (and to some degree Steve,) i've never been able to "color between the lines," so i'm doubtful that the technology can ever totally "enframe" me, and i'm even more doubtful that i need the technology to breakdown to assure my free will re my values. i need only to pull the plug as i see fit. Y'all may be too "enframed"- take a break -go color.
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@SteveRR
Ari - thanks for taking the time to engage with my comment.
Interestingly Heidegger does have some interesting notions on how to do it.
But like Fight Club - you need to personally engage with the work and formulate your own response - in that way Heidegger is very much like Nietzsche.
Good luck!
Worth a revisit:
From Douglas Adams ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’
"Will you open the exit hatch please, computer?" said Zaphod
trying not to get angry.
"Not until whoever said that owns up," urged the computer,
stamping a few synapses closed.
"Oh God," muttered Ford, slumped against a bulkhead and started
to count to ten. He was desperately worried that one day
sentinent life forms would forget how to do this. Only by
counting could humans demonstrate their independence of
computers.
"Come on," said Eddie sternly.
"Computer ..." began Zaphod ...
"I'm waiting," interrupted Eddie. "I can wait all day if
necessary ..."
"Computer ..." said Zaphod again, who had been trying to think of
some subtle piece of reasoning to put the computer down with, and
had decided not to bother competing with it on its own ground,
"if you don't open that exit hatch this moment I shall zap
straight off to your major data banks and reprogram you with a
very large axe, got that?"
Eddie, shocked, paused and considered this.
Ford carried on counting quietly. This is about the most
aggressive thing you can do to a computer, the equivalent of
going up to a human being and saying Blood ... blood ... blood
... blood ...
Finally Eddie said quietly, "I can see this relationship is
something we're all going to have to work at," and the hatchway
opened.
11
Mr. Harari is not the first to write about a computer-generated dystopian world. Personally, I cannot think of one science fiction book that has predicted anything other than artificial intelligence leading to a dystopian society. This idea is also found among many biologists: that Homo Sapiens - as a species - are the sole survivors of a long genocidal war to eliminate less intelligent species.
Similar predictions were made against the mainframe computer makers a number of years ago. One appeared in the 1988 cult classic film "They Live", directed by John Carpenter. There we see a billboard advertisement for Control Data Corporation that says: "We're Creating the Transparent Computing Environment" (33:04) Then the main protagonist puts on his special eyeglasses and the billboard says "OBEY". This, of course, seems to be source material for the popular OBEY(R) brand of sportswear.
The film "They Live" is a modern myth from which we form conspiracy theories about the dark side of computing. In the film, we the mythical 'THEY' beings attempt to mess with humanity's minds using television and computers. But we can replace them with with other mythological 'THEY' that have appeared throughout history as: Angels, Egregores, Pleiadians, Qanon, Reptilians, Secret societies (Freemasons, etc.) and the Watchers.
All of these mythical beings have one thing in common: they exhibit psychological agency (anthropomorphic behavior) - just like artificial intelligence does.
5
@W THEY were capitalistic aliens from another world, not supercomputers or AI. Your basic alien invasion movie with the general greatness of Carpenter,
5
so I'm reading about thee guru now in your story and he checks all the boxes I expect, as predictably as the sun coming up in the east:
he's young
he's Israeli
he's gay
he's vegan
(in short, he's absolutely my opposite, except that both of our lives have been spent trying to understand the world)
But, to give him the credit he deserves, he's also brilliant at seeing the obvious and saying it in a way that the elites can look up to it...
he's an exact male counterpart to that lady David Remnick was interviewing about Russia at New Yorker dot com last week
and he's the blood brother of that other New Yorker writer, Malcolm Gladwell (am I spelling that right?)
now, okay, these three sapiens are clearly thee elite philosophers of the moment in urban western society.
but what do they know of animal life in the jungle surrounding where I live?
fast nichts -- almost nothing.
there's a Daniel Boone up in the woods near me who could hold all of them spellbound by what he's learned, step by step, in the wild...
As we like to say at coppers going the other way:
"Sayonara Suckers..."
17
The "useless class" isn't useless, for one very obvious reason. They are both the customer and the product, without which no merchandiser would exist.
That they are the customer is obvious. When millions of smartphones and other such devices are sold annually, who buys them? There aren't enough Silicon Valley "geniuses" to buy all of this hardware and all of these services.
That they are the product is less obvious. Alphabet is worth nearly a trillion dollars yet all of its consumer-facing products are free, so that's clearly a paradox, until you realize that the end user is not the customer, s/he's the product. And the true customers are the companies buying all of the data mined from Google searches and Gmail being sent and Google Docs being created.
So, point being, without end users -- simultaneous customers and products -- most of what Silicon Valley builds would simply not exist. Extend that: if these overlords decided to, in a genocidal stroke of cold calculation, simply kill everyone they deemed useless, they themselves would be dead and within a generation.
Consider what would happen if the libertarians in the Valley "went Galt," and took all of their fabulous inventions away from those they deem unworthy. They wouldn't live out their lives in a paradise. In fact the opposite would happen. They would starve to death. They really do need that useless class to be their market.
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@Andy
I would caution against the argument “With no employees, factory owners will have no customers, so they will never shoot themselves in the foot in this way”. Don’t count on it.
[Warning: Extreme dystopia ahead!]
I can easily envision a fully roboticized economy in which automated factories sell to each other. One factory produces semiconductors, another one produces motors, third one solar panels, etc. Very few consumer goods for humans are made, because factory owners are very few in numbers, and need relatively little in order to live in unlimited luxury. Vast majority of human population either starves to death, or otherwise is disposed of.
I do not find such situation desirable (understatement!), but it is foolish to pretend it is impossible.
29
@Andy This is already happening today in a smaller scale. The day to day experiences of the today's wealthy is unimaginable to most people. It's not hard to envision 30 years from now with enough iterations of data minding, Alphabet finding the "useless' class input unnecessary and opting for computer created algorithms from human data. These algorithms won't be perfect, but they will do a more objective job at being human than humans. The algorithms we have today will seem like kids play as they become less detectable.
5
@Ilya sort of like a perpetual motion conglomeration of factory-machines?
A very pertinent article on the matter of Silicon Valley’s tools appears in today’s NYT: “Social Media’s Re-engineering Effect, From Myanmar to Germany”, which includes Max Fisher’s personal experience with Social Media and the lengths he found necessary to avoid their very invasive effects. “Facebook, YouTube and others use algorithms to identify and promote content that will keep us engaged, which turns out to amplify some of our worst impulses.”
“Whether they set out to or not, these companies are conducting the largest social re-engineering experiment in human history, and no one has the slightest clue what the consequences are.”
30
I read this through.
A. Impressive that he meditates.
B. But it turns me off that so much of his life is apparently monitized. (Maybe that’s what Silicon Valley likes? That he’s an entrepreneur? Monetizing his own philosophy?)
9
@TheraP
He thinks, he writes, he speaks. People pay money for his books and speeches. Not unlike many high-profile academics and authors (Doris Kearns Goodwin, Alan Dershowitz, Howard Zinn, Robert Reich). The man has to eat and pay the bills and ashram donations. Give him a break.
2
Perhaps per Teilhard de Chardin and the noosphere, or Schrödinger's view of consciousness as a societal creation, the importance of the individual is as a participant in a community cultural enterprise. And when the community loses its ability to share and grow, humanity is on a downward spiral. By “creating powerful influence machines to control billions of minds”, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram have provided the tools to destroy the noosphere, the community intellect, and have no concept of its use beyond making money. They make money, while their tools are manipulated by their customers, dubious groups of billionaire would-be Oligarchs intent on bizarre Utopias of their personal imaginings.
13
I see no paradox here. The leaders of Silicon Valley are not worried about Harari's vision of machines taking over our autonomy. They throw him parties because they are orchestrating that vision themselves. In other words, they are bragging.
49
@Ashutosh maybe not bragging so much as reveling in an orgy of self-congratulation. Harari's observations that Silicon Valley may invent us into a new (non)existence simply validate SV's most fervent wish: to change the world. They are less interested in WHAT they change it into than in demonstrating the astounding transformative effects of technology. Analogous to a five-yer-old with a machine gun: In love with the noise and explosions, oblivious to the damage.
35
@Ashutosh . I know. Kind of disingenuous of Harari to take on this "What, me?" attitude and pretend to be sort of sad and bemused that Silicon Valley loves him: He's preaching to the choir! He's telling them their fantasies CAN come true.
I find the state of the "public intellectual" today really pitiful -- this guy, Gladwell . . .David Brooks, even, in his own lame way thinks he has something sensitive to say about humanity. No wonder people spend so much time following celebrity gossip. Or what -- these intellectual giants?.
And, look, people find it so impressive that he meditates. I find that right there hilariously funny. Doesn't anyone even get how funny it is that the public revers him for meditating? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oh, never mind.
1
Harari is a welcome voice of clarity and vision in our rapidly evolving world. As a fan and advocate since reading 'Sapiens,' my enthusiasm has only grown since. His way of putting complex topics into a clear and useful perspective is as rare as it is enviable.
My wish would be that every leader and lawmaker would read and digest his thinking on where we are, how we got here, and where we might be headed. As stated in 'Homo Deus,' ". . . traditional democratic politics is losing control of events, and is failing to present us with meaningful visions of the future." Harari's insightful efforts to fill this potentially catastrophic gap between today and our near-term tomorrow are desperately needed!
7
Harari is our new H.G. Wells, who was a versatile and productive writer, both of history and of science fiction, as well as an intelligent and almost-prophetic thinker. Did Wells influence us over the long haul? A bit, perhaps ....
3
Everything Harari says here, and has written about in his books, has already been covered in much greater depth and far more systematically and lucidly by Theodore Kaczynski 23 years ago in his manifesto "Industrial Society and Its Future" as well as in his two subsequent books "Technological Slavery" (Feral House, 2010) and "Anti-Tech Revolution" (Fitch & Madison, 2016).
What's happening here with Harari and the tech elite is very simple. As the Italian mafia would say: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Harari represents a ((potential)) threat to the technological world-view, in that his ideas could spark genuine diametrical opposition to technological progress. So the tech elite are trying to co-opt him, and render his ideas harmless. Championing Harari presents the facade that they are equally "concerned" with problems with technology that Harari points out and therefore share the moral high ground. Harari's potentially disruptive message is also neutered by corrupting Harari personally, and by keeping a "close-eye" on him.
This sort of thing has been going on since the dawn of civilization between the preachers of ((potentially)) revolutionary ideas and the power-elite that want to suppress or quite the potential for revolution. The first step is always to cozy-up with the preacher of the idea, co-opt his message--in it's style but not its substance--and then corrupt the thinker himself.
136
@Victor Vaughn
Thank you for mentioning the brilliant (and largely unknown) writings of Kaczinsky. A pity that he turned to violence. Imagine if he had taken a different course: his intelligent prophetic voice would have stirred some much needed dialectic today. Still, I recommend reading his works.
18
@Victor Vaughn This will sound naive to many, but most people that I know in the Valley are driven by a real concern of doing good (in addition to the desire to make money). For them mingling with Mr Harari and learning from his unprecedented ability to think clearly about both dys- and utopian future tech scenarios would make perfect practical sense.
4
@Victor Vaughn
Uh … let me get this straight. You guys are touting the Unabomber?
3
Mr. Harari is clearly a prophet alerting the world about the digital evolution of machines.
Evolution is ongoing and man clearly has had his hand in much of it. The Chihuahua and Irish Wolfhound dogs' ancestors were wolves. But man bred and cross-bred these animals for thousands of years ago.
Evidence to boast Mr. Harari's "doomsayer" mindset is as close as our bathroom mirror - look, your ancestors were once climbing trees.
Now, we vote and build machines to put other humans out of work.
What's next?
Let me ask Alexi.
5
@Raul Hernandez
LOL...let's provoke an intellectual discussion with Alexi, among others, human & non-human: I've often wondered how the human species would have evolved
(say, in the next millennium) without the interference of modern medicine. Left on its own, the human species could become extinct (much like dinosaurs) or could darwinistically evolve (no medical deus-ex-machina butting in).
Let's touch on something else. There seems to be an unreasonable worship of technology. Somehow technological progress has too often become equated with human progress. Show me the real HUMAN progress, that of the higher consciousness of a species, that intangible measure of a high civilization.
I understand the Mozarts, DaVincis, Einsteins, etc that emerge on a troubled planet, but beyond these tangible achievements, how does human psychological progress manifest itself? Indeed have character traits evolved?
3
in short, you've been hacked.. your actual brian has been hacked. these companies, and by extensions the corporations and governments and campaigns they sell your information to, know you better than you know yourself. Harari has a special gift for connecting dots, particularly dots that are right in front of us, like that we're just apes and that we actually have only the littlest bit of free will and are more slaves to our (easily manipulated) thoughts and desires
30
@WookinPaNub
Dude, all you have to do is hit the "off" button. Using your free will. Although that is hardly the only resort. It's both instructive and empowering to use one's own capability of human self-awareness to construct reflective feedback loops that override alien orders. The transcendence of robotically programmed drives and instincts is a primary purpose of human consciousness. (Not denial- acknowledgement, skeptical examination and interrogation, and option of directing the self-awareness thus informed toward transcendent purposes. Although that's predicated on the realization that transcendent purposes exist.)
There are also ways for ordinary users to glitch the system. Too bad that most of them require so much time and energy to maintain. But any amount of cyber-dry rot that can be introduced into an inhuman, manipulative algorithm is a plus. Even the tactic of not reflexively clicking through on ads and links messes with the intentions of the siren servers, for example.
Propagandistic algorithms tend toward static conceptions of human behavior; what's going to happen to them if large numbers of people burn out on having their buttons pushed and wise up? Good question.
Non serviam.
2
Yes, we've been hacked. To affirm this is not to assert that the hackers are in control and are themselves free from such processes. The grim observation is that our minds are being warped by people with warped minds.
2
My guess is that the tech leaders feel a need to have someone speak truth to power. They have power, he has various scenarios that contain a germ of truth. They hope that by listening to him they can avoid the worst part of his scenarios. If those scenarios come to be reality, they will be able to say "We listened to Mr. Harari and tried to avoid this but failed. Sorry for the inconvenience."
In the coming decades American society will be neither be utopian or dystopian. There will be pockets of utopia surrounded by various degrees of dystopia. Sometimes it seems that we are already there. Compare the gated enclaves of suburbia and the white-glove condominiums of major cities to the grinding poverty and despair in many rural and urban communities.
9
@Brad
We are already there. The richest, most successful, most powerful nation in the world, the cornerstone of civilization, the 'city on a hill' of Reagan's speeches, elected Trump, the worst, most immoral, most reckless President ever.
Harari himself makes some good points but is more than a little reductionist. There's a lot of space between 'elite' and 'useless' and always it seems the people at the top are the easiest to replace.
9
You are either at the table or on the table right? That is why they invite him. To control the narrative. Information technology needs to grow up and evolve. Instead of enabling the global economic divide, it needs to foster elevation of misery. It will soon. However, it won’t be by the FAANGs of today.
2
Much of technology, like Facebook, is a tool. It can be used for good or bad depending on the person involved. Maybe humans have not evolved enough to possess such tools?
5
@david sabbagh As Harari stated in '21 Lessons,' "Humans were always far better at inventing tools than using them wisely." (p.7)
5