In 21 Lessons For The 21st Century, Yuval explore so many topics: “the myth of free will,” the rise of robots, algorithms, hackers, how the Automation Revolution will impact the economy, your job, your quality of life and so on.
Plus, he also gives solutions. And they’re all worth contemplating. This interview is probably the most thought-provoking interview I’ve ever aired.
Here’s 3 things Yuval Noah Harari made me question:
A) Are we actually better off?
Yuval says “Life was much more colorful and rich 10,000 years ago.”
We foraged. We climbed trees. We weren’t sitting at desks or managing cash register machines. We were moving.
But history books have branded the Agricultural Revolution as a good thing. A “revolution.” But Yuval argues that farming and harvesting wheat was actually a negative to the species in many ways.
It’s both.
Positive: we can feed more people.
Negative: our diet changes to wheat-based instead of plants, vegetables, etc. And our brains might have shrunk as a result of us only be aware of the space around us and not the greater landscape, which lead to city-states and kingdoms and war. Because we fought each other for resources.
And Yuval says life as a hunter-gatherer is far more interesting than some of the mundane jobs of the 21st century.
And Yuval has other examples.
How many “revolutions” are actually net-negatives?
B) What happens if I’m not the main character?
Everyday, I think about my day. What am I going to do? What do I want to eat? Where am I going?
Yuval said, “Every time you change your perspective, you see a completely different world.”
“Don’t look at from the viewpoint of the king. look at from the viewpoint of the peasant. Don’t look at from the viewpoint of the human. Look at it from the viewpoint of the cow.”
C) Is free will a myth?
Yuval says free will is a myth.
“People know so little about themselves,” he said. “Both on the biological level, certainly. How many people really understand their brains? But even on the psychological level… we have an entire profession of therapists who are just trying to help us get in touch with ourselves because it’s so difficult.”
Yuval says that free will only exists if you know what your will actually is. But if you everything want in life comes from school, your parents, cultural manipulation, advertising, propaganda, etc., then do you really have your own desires?
“Once you realize, no, my desires don’t reflect my free will, they reflect all kinds of processes on the biological level, on the psychological level, which I don’t understand, then you start being very curious about yourself.”
His book and this interview leads to so many new questions. Which is the essense of growth. Learning comes from wondering.
Yuval will make you young again.
He’ll make you curious again.
Read my article below:
https://jamesaltucher.com/2018/09/391-yuval-noah-harari/
#yuvalnoahharari #21stcentury #21lessons
Links and Resources
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
https://amzn.to/2MGQeiK
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
https://amzn.to/2PLOkzo
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
https://amzn.to/2pfMADf
Yuval’s course on Coursera
https://www.coursera.org/instructor/~1804614
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