Started: February 25th Completed: March __

This book aims to inform any readers of issues and debates that are raging through todays 21st century times. From the authors previous books, 'Sapiens' and ' Homo Duex', the author attempts to outline the struggles that man kind will deal with in the coming future days. The title of the book lays out an explicit number of lessons and topics this book covers. These topics range from our future work, AI, evolving human experiences, political landscapes, human data governance, nationalism, religious issues, war, humility, God, education, and meditation.

In an attempt to capture the interesting bits, I'm going to pick and choose all the things I found interesting that I want to retain in this post.

Chapter 2 - Disillusionment

Humans do not think things through to the infinite amount of possibilities could exist. We are clever to invent tools, but unable to find sensible ways of using the tools. From the invention of technology of days past, to computers, to AI, to the common day struggle of just relying on algorithms, mankind is set to suffer the fate of an ever-changing technological landscape.

Chapter 2 - Work

What used to power and enable the work force is changing as I write this. From the purpose work gives us down to the meaning of it's implications in the religious atmosphere, work is ingrained in humans. The shift of power from technology seeks to imbalance this precious system for humans. What will the implications be?

Chapter 3 - Liberty

We need to seek to protect our freedoms - the greatest virtue mankind has placed value on. How will we know what absolutel liberty is? Will we hold that to our own view, or can mankind expand it's consciousness to include all in it's quest for liberty? Who will define that ultimate truth of liberty?

Chapter 4 - Equality

There is no true absolute way to define equality. The second we try and define it, we must be cognizant that it is from our subjective viewpoint. Can mindkind find equality in an every changing world focused on selves?

Chapter 5 - Community

Community has been disrupted by technology. When before we used to gather collectively to solve problems, now we just look from our cellular devices or computers to feel connected to others. The author cites Facebook, with their jumping to bridge the gap from the digital world to the physical world. Is this possible? Has technology disrupted the one uniquely human trait, to be connected?

Chapter 6 - Civilization

The author begins to beg questions about religion and the merging of the 'western' ideals of christianity and judaism with the 'islamic' ideas of the middle east. Can there be one civilization? Is mankind doomed to have one side arguing and pointing fingers at the other?

The author begs the question if religions can put aside their dogma and ideals to focus on the greater picture - humans on a planet focused on our next biggest threat. If not, we are doomed.

Chapter 7 - Nationalism

The author brings up some ideals that at one point, nationalism was fading a bit from the globalization of the economy. With the fear of globalism, nations are pulling back their borders and tightening up immigration to maintain purity. Does purity really exist? How many generations does it take to shore up what makes one a 'national' citizen.

Chapter 8 - Religion

The author brings up thoughts about algorithms and AI's controlling the future. With this sentiment comes the action needed from religion and their leaders - can they cope their ideals to fit with the coming changes from technology?

No where in the koran does it state how to handle technology and it's changes - the leaders will then be faced to go to their advisors and come up with solutions to shore up support for the changing times. Can the leaders do this successfully? The bible only answers questions from the past, it cannot be adapted to answer questions in the future.

Chapter 9 - Immigration

When does immigration work? Can countries put down tight rules in place for who is allowed to immigrate? The question the author poses is this - if a country puts rules in place for who a model citizen is, and their own citizens do not follow that - what does the country do? Can states keep up with controlling their society of beliefs and social commons? Are countries sealed to fates of limiting their cultures or enhancing it with others?

Chapter 10 - Terrorism

The author brings up the idea that terrorists have no real cards to play, but they only play theatre tricks. Their goal is to stir up enough dust that the state powers must take action. This action may expose more opportunities for the terrorist organizations to play out their fears on society.

The author reveals that more lives are lost to transportation systems with cars, trains, and airplanes. However, the media focuses more on terrorism. The author begs the question that the media - with their message to the public - relies more on the shock effect to sell advertisements and their viewers than exposing the truth. Traffic accident's are not as 'sexy' to talk about when there are shocking videos to be shown of terrorism and their adventures.

Chapter 11 - War

what is war anymore? War had an ending before - but now it's an endless slosh of interpretations of what winning and losing look like. There were clear winning victories of WW1 and WW2, but less so with the war of terrorism, the middle east conflicts, and modern day wars involving Russia. War is not popular for large states, however, it makes sense for the smaller powers who need the spotlight.

Chapter 12 - Humility

Humility is a quality that cultures are lacking more and more as time goes on. The author claims that many people are not racist, but culturists. He shares a story about two different personalities from 'coldland' and 'warmasia' - in that when migrants from one to the other have different mannerisms - like some beine warm and others being confrontational. We may view the other culture as being 'wrong', when in truth we just don't understand the core of the personality types of the cultures.

Chapter 13 - God

The author claims that we all have a version of God in our minds. There is no true one god, but manifestations of a god in all our minds. Which religion is right about god? What one true story is there?

Chapter 14 - Secularism

The author dives into what he sees his own culture of his home country producing Nobel prizes. He makes a claim that although there are many jewish people who have nobel prizes, he claims that the knowledge mostly came from secular colleges in which they were taught.

While religious followers trust more in dogma, secular people believe more in trial and error that leads to truth. Seek to dispel the dogma, seek more of the truth of knowledge, and to then trust more in the truth.

Every religion has it's 'shadow' - or false truths. Be on the look out for these shadows, as they can teach us more about the world and the truth.

"If you believe in a quest for the truth by infallible humans, be aware that there are mistakes to be made on quest."

Chapter 15 - Ignorance

Harari goes to to claim that with the current state, more information and knowledge are flowing than humans have time to understand. The authors claim is that everyone less than they think, as we all think we know more since others know that as well. This is the downfall of 'group think', we just accept others views and then remain ignorant instead of diving into the truth of knowledge.

Interesting points: * "People of power only know what their advisors tell them, since they themselves are busy ruling." * "When people have knowledge and try to share with people of power, they might bumble and blab and not share the real knowledge, due to their fear of people of power." * "You must have time to waste in order to learn the truth. The truth is on the periphery." * "Leaders are thus trapped in a double bind. If they remain in the center of power, they will have an extremely distorted vision of the world. If they move to the margins, they will waste too much of their precious time. The problem will get even worse - as the world will become even more complex than it already is today. Individuals will know even less about the technogical gadgets and other intricacies of the modern times. The best we can do is be honest about our individual ignorance. Without this knowledge, how can we guide morality without knowing the truth about justice or injustice."

Chapter 16 - Justice

The author suggests we are living in a world where we were not built to scale. The question is begged - is there anways in todays society that anyone can know just about everything? In the technology sector people generally talk about things scaling to the economies of scale to make something cost effective. The author aludes to a question that asks if mankind can scale?

The ideas shared are that our hunter-gatherer brains cannot comprehend the truly complex world that we live in. In such that the butterfly effect exists, can humans understand their cause and effects in a world driven by the needs of others?

Chapter 17 - Post truth

The author starts out stating we live in a post-truth era.

References here of Stalin, Hitler, and current Putin 'subvergence' of truth. Stating that for something to be true, many must believe it to be.

The idea here shared is money. It holds no value, but only when we all want it. The same with soccer, it's people chasing a ball, only a sport if everyone knows and understands the rules.

The author makes the statement that humans prefer power to truth. We spend more time about controlling rather than understanding it. We only attempt understanding only to control it. The author finalizes with - if you expect a world without myths or that a world of absolute truths, you will be disapointed with mankind.

We should recognize that fake news is the norm, and strive to find reality from fiction. Do not speak in absolutes - as not all news sources do fake news, but some may for their own power and business.

If you want valid information - pay for it. Otherwise, you are the product.

Memorable quotes:

  • "You can't play games until you suspend disbelief. The same with soccer, you must forget that this is simply human inventions." "Humans have remarkable capability to simultanously know and not know at the same time. They have the ability to suspend beliefs at any time."
  • "Truth and power can only travel together for so far. Sooner or later they go their separate ways. If you want power, at some point, you will need to spread fictions. If you want to know the truth about the world, at some point you will need to renounce power."

Chapter 18 - Science Fiction

Harari challenges us to think that many do will not go and research topics of today and draw their own conclusions for the future. People are too busy for this. Instead, we see the stage of life through stories told through science fictions - referencing the Matrix and Black Mirror. These shows tell the stories of when man kind takes science too far. These education by stories are what will help others understand the struggles mankind will deal with in the coming years.

The problem the author states is that people may take these stories as truth, when in fact they are predictions of the future. Harari argues that current science fiction is still confused by the intelligence vs consciousness, referencing Ex Machina.

The last point in this chapter that the author reasons towards is that science fiction assumes a strong prolateriate that controls the future with its AI and robots. In fact, Karl Marx and his solutions to what the common man may come against in the future. This future is one of the commoners losing their purpose, education, meaning, and drive in life.

The author makes another key point in that there is no authentic self in today's world. The selves we have are the ones we get from stories, either implanted from our parents or society. We should challenge to know what the truth is.

Chapter 19 - Education

The author builds to the education systems covering modern trends, most failing to look more forward in the future. Kids of now are not learning nearly the same amount of things that children will learn in the next 50 years. The author reasons that the things students should learn is adaptability, responsibility, and to find what is important or not important in the coming decades. He reasons that schools should move to the 4 "C"s: Critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Because of the changing technical sphere of influence, students should not focus on technical skills. The key is to teach children on how to learn effectively.

Harari brings up the idea of exploration vs exploitation - in when we are younger we prefer to find things we like. When we are older, we like to exploit the things, people, or places that we have explored to now be what we prefer. The mindset of stability vs change. We spend a life learning and making skills so that later in life they will help us hit our top potential. The author makes a call for the youth to ignore the adults, in that adults cannot accurately predict the future.

Chapter 20 - Meaning

The author tells of the human experience and the need to have meaning in our lives. The author points out a story about an old myth about the world sitting on an elephant that flaps his ears to create typhoons and stomps his feet to make earthquakes. When asked what the elephant is standing on, the story tells that it's a large turtle. When asked what the turtle is on, the answer is an even bigger turtle, which goes ad infinitum. The point the author makes is that human kind can never truly think things through, so we fall back to an open ended case. This open ended case can be driven forward as the truth so long as everyone accepts it.

There's also a call into the Lion King - in that the story that Simba plays out is the circle of life. That he must follow his story, and that when he doesn't, he isn't happy and in tune with nature.

The point here being the story represents a roof instead of a solid foundation, and that man kind puts more faith in the roof than the foundations. This is the opposite of what we expect, as humans.

To give a deeper meaning in human relationships, the author gives an example of a man who has many options in choices of a bride. To show himself the meaning and purpose of his love, his bridge and himself rely on the big deposit of love to be a symbol of the wedding ring. The bigger and more expensive the wedding ring, the bigger the meaning of love.

The stories we tell ourselves become our meaning in the world. The example given is when you inflict suffering on another, we may make a story about this. This story is true or you are an evil villian. We cannot see ourselves as the bad person in stories, so we accept the story as true. The stories we tell ourselves become powerful in our meaning in life.

A fun quote I liked from the challenge is a meaning I give myself, to help others. The quote goes: "I know why I am here, to help other people. I just do not know what the other people are here for."

Chapter 21 - Meditation

The mind is tricked into thinking of the world in absolute terms. Our mind fills in details that are someone far from reality. Meditation is the tool to bring is back to the ultimate reality - our perceptions of it in real time. The author reasons that many generations before us has suggested meditation

Harari tells of his story of being younger and learning that he doesn't have full control over his mind. When discovering that there is a difference in the brain and the mind - that consciousness comes from the mind and the brain is just a series of neurons firing - that there is great power in trying to tame the mind.

The author dives into some of my favorite topics of consciousness and our belief system around what reality is.

References