Homo Deus by Yuval Noah
Harari
It is one of
the very good books i have recently read.
He bases his arguments of future on the biological evolution of human
beings then travels to the other such revolutions as agriculture and cognitive
evolution and ends with the revolution of artificial intelligence.
I
have given below some of the passages from the first and second chapter of the
book. He says that humans will realize
that there is no personality or individual as we assume today. We had assumed that there was ‘Soul’ within
us, and over a period of time it turned
out to be false. Similarly there is
nothing called personality or invidual. We are all executing what our genes
have decided. He says we are also ‘Algorithms’ which are a set of cascading command
and control mechanisms. Our genes and organs are only processing actions as in
a organised system, which has no central theme as we visualize it when we talk
of personality or inviduals. It is only
our assumption that we have a personality and character etc. Our internal processing systems are doing
everything as per the script written by the genes in coordination with other
genes or other chemicals surrounding the genes. There Nothing more. It is one of the stunning statements. It may take time to digest this.
Further,
in future, ‘machines/algorithms better than human beings, i.e. artificial
intelligence will perform all the actions function that are based on data and
data processing. These machines will
definitely perform these functions better than us. He mentions that the
computer ‘Watson” which defeated Gary Gasparov in a chess match, is now acting
as a ‘Medical practitioner’ collecting data about hundreds of patients and it
prescribes medicines keeping in memory the requirements of invididual
needs. Similarly another computer is a
‘Pharmacist’ which dispenses medicines to patients/customers keeping in view
the individual requirements of the patients.
In his view, the best data processing systems will rule the world of
tomorrow. And human beings are going to
be sidelined in this business by the artificial intelligence. Simultaneously he says slowly but surely
humans will defeat death in future. Human deficiencies either physical or
mental will be cured by injecting correcting chemicals or genes or parts of
genes which may renuvinate the organ of human body which fails. He says that now every death has a
technical/medical reason which can be cured in future and at least some of the
rich people may live longer or become immortal. Thus humans may become gods on
earth (Homo dues – Human Gods )
Very simple
style and occasional humour adds to the pleasure of reading the book. Science, history, geography, are brought in
to establish the past present and future. Highly recommended for any one who wants to
know the past and future of human beings.
Quotations from HOMO DEUS by
Yuval Noah Harari
Chapter I
The same three
problems preoccupied the people of twentieth century China, of medieval India
and ancient Egypt. Famine Plague and War were always at the top of the
list. For generations after generations
humans have prayed to every god, angel and saint, and have invented coiuintless
tools, institutions and social systems – but they continued to die in their
millions from starvations, epidemics and violence. Many thinkers and prophets concluded that
famaine, plague and war must be an integral part of God’s cosmic plan or or
four imperfect nature, and nothing short of the end of time would free us from
them.
But in the
last few decades we have managed to rein in famine, 0plague and war.
But they have
been transformed from incomplrehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature
into manageable challenges.
For the first
time in history, more people die today from eating too much than from eating
too little; more people odie from old age than from infectious diseases; and
more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and
criminals combined.
IF we are
indeed birnging famine plague and war under control, what will replace them at
the top of the human agenda?
When severe
drought hit ancient Egypt or medieval Inda, it was not uncommon that 5 or 10
percent of the population perished.
Provisions became scarce. Transport was too slow and expensive to import
sufficient food; and fgovernments were far too weak to save the day.
In April 1694
French official in the town of Beauvais dsscribed the impact of famine and of
soaring food prices saying that his entire district was now filled with ‘an
infinite number of poor souls, weak from hunger and wretchedness and dying from
want, because, having no work or occupation, they lack the money to buy
bread. Seeking to prolong their lives
little and somewhat to appease their hunger, these poor folt eat such unclean
things as cats and the flesh of horses flayed and cast into dung heaps.
About 2.8
million French 15 percent of the population starved to death between 1692 and
1694. 1695 Estonia – killing one fifth of the population – Finland quarater to a third of people died. Scotland in some
districts 20 percent of the population died.
Mass famines
still strike some areas from time to time, but they are exceptional, and they
are almost al;ways caused by human politics rather than by natural catastrophes.
In france 6
million i.e. 10 percent of the populations suffer from nutritional insecurity.
In 1974 the
first world food conference was convened in Rome and delegates were treated to
apocalyptic scenerious. They were told
that there was no way for China to feed its billions people, and that the
worlds most populous country was heading towardscatastrophe. In fact it was heading towards the greatest
economic miracles in history.
In 2014 more
than 2.1 billion people were overweight compared to 850 million who suffered
frommalnutrition. Half of humankind is
expected to be overweight by 2030.
In 2013 about
56 million people died throughout the world;
620000 died
due to human violence
War killed
120000 people and crime killed another 500 000
800 000
committed suicide and 1.5 million died of diabetes. SUGAR IS NOW MORE DANGEROUS
THAN GUNPOWDER.
In 2010
obesity and related illnesses killed about 3 million people, terrorists killed
a total of 7697 people across the globe, most of them in developing countries. How then do terrorists manage to dominate the
headlines and change the poltical situation throughout the world? By provoking
their enemies to overreact. In essence,
terrorism is a show. Terrorists stage a
terrifying spectacle of violence that captures our imagination and makes us
feel as if we are sliding back into dedieval chaos.
In most cases
ovoeroreaction to terrorism poses a far greater threat to our security than the
terrorists themselves. _
My comments –
This gives immense power to the governments that be to harass citizens .
Whe the moment comes to choose
between economic growth and econological stability politicians CEOs and voters
almost always prefer growth.
In the 21st
century humans are likely to make a serious bed for immortality.
We are
constantly reminded thata human life is the most sacred thing in the
universe. Everybody says this: teachers
in schools, politicians in pazrliaments lawyers in courts and actors on theatre
stages. .....Throughout history, religions and ideologies did not sanctify life
itself. They always sanctified something
above or beyond earthly existence, and were consequently quite tolerant of
death.
Just try to imagine
Christianity islam or Hinduism in a world without death – which is also a world
without heaven, hell or reincarnation.
For modern
people death is a technical problem that we can and should solve.
Human always die due
to some technical glitch. The heart
stops pumping blood. Etc etc.....
Traditionally
death was the speciality of priests and theologians, now the engineers are
taking over.
OM Kurzweil
was appointed a director of engineering at Google, and a year later Google
launched a sub-company called Calico whose stated mission is ‘to solve death’.
Google
Ventures Investment fund President, Bill Maris says ‘ If you ask me today, is
it possible to live to be 500 the answer is Yes’. Google has invested 2 bilion.
Paypal co
founder Peter THiel has said ‘I think there are probably three main modes of approaching death. You can
accept it, you can deny it or you can fight.
I think our society is dominated by people who are in to denial or
acceptance and I prefer to fight it.
..........
In the
twentieth centure we have almost doubled life expectance from forty to seventy,
so in the twneti first centure we should at least be atable to double it again
to 150.
In ancient
GReeced the philosopher Epicurus explained that worshipping gods is a waste of
time, that there is no existence after death, and that happiness is the sole
purpose of life. Most people in ancient
times rejected Epicureanism, but today it has become default view. Scepticism about the afterlife drives
humankind to seek not only immortality, but also earthly happiness. For who would like to live for ever in
eternal misery?
Countries measured
their success by the size of their territory, the increase in their population
and the growth of their GDP – not by the happiness of their citizens. Industrialized nation such as Germany, France
and Japan established gigantic systems of education, health and welfare, yet
these systems were aimed to strengthen the nation rather than ensure individual
well-being.
AMERICAN
Declartion of Indpependence guaranteed the right to the pursuit of happiness,
not the right to happiness itself.
In the stone
Age the average human had at his
disposal about 4000 calories of energy per day for doing everything.
Todaya Americans use on average 228000 calories of energy per person per day,
to feed not only their stomachs but also their cars computers, refrigeratos and
TVs.
It took just a
piece of bread to make a starving medieval peasant joyful. How do you bring joy to a bored, overpaid and
overweight engineer?Science says that nobody is ever made happy by getting a
promotion, winning the lottery or even finding a true love. People are made happy by one thing and one
thing only – pleasant sensation in their bodies.
The upgrading
of humans into gods may follow any of three paths: biological engineering,
cyborg engineering and the engineering of non-organic being.
In early 2015
several hundred workers in Epicenter high-tech hub in Stockholm had microchip
implanted into their hands. The chips
are about the size of a grain of rice and store personalised security
information that enables workers to open doors and operate photocopiers with a
wave of hand.
In
2000 Sharon Sarinen from West Bloomfield, Michigan, gave brith to a healthy
baby girl, Alana. Alana’s nuclear DNA
came from her mother, Sharon, and her father, Paul, but her mitochondrial DNA
came from another women. From a purely technical perspective, Alana has three
biological parents. A year later, in
2001 the US government banned this treatment, due to safety and ethical
concerns.
In the middle
of the nineteenth century Karl Marx reached brilliant economic insights. Based on these insights he predicted an
increasingly violent conflict between the proletariat and the capitalists,
ending with the inevitable victory of the former and the collapse of the
capitalist system. Marx was certain that
the revolution would start in countries that spearheaded the Industrial
Revolution – such as Britain, France and the USA and spread to the rest of the
world.
Marx
forgot that capitalists know how to read.
At first only a handful of disciples took Marx seriously and read his
writings. But as these socialist
firebrands gained adherents and power, the capitalists became alarmed. They too perused Das Capital, adopting many
of the tools and insights of Marxist analysis. In the twientieth century
everybody from street urchins to presidents embraced a Marxist approach to
economics and history. Even diehard
capitalists who vehemently resisted the Marxist prognosis still made use of the
Marxist diagnosis. When the CIA analysed
the situation in Vietnam or Chile in 1960s, it divided society into
classes. When Nixon or Thatcher looked
at the globe, they asked themselves who controls the vital means of
production. From 1989 to 1991 George
Bush oversaw the demise of the Evil Empire of communism, only to be defeated in
the 1992 elections by Bill Clinton.
Clinton’s winning campaign strategy was summarised in the motto “It’s
the economy, stupid’. Marx could not
have said it better.
As
people adopted the Marxist diagnosis, they changed their behavious accordingly,
Capitalistis in countries such as Britaian and France strove to better the lot
of the workers, strengthen their national consciousness and integrate them into
the poltical system. Consequently when
workers begain voting in elections and Labour gained power in one country after
another, the capitalists could still sleep soundly in their beds. As a result, Marx’s predictions came to
naught. Communist revolutions never
engulfed the leading industrial powers such as Britain, France and the USA and
the dictatorship of the proletariat was consigned to the dustbin of
history.
This
is the paradox of historical knowledge. Knowledge that does not change behavious
is useless. But knowledge that changes behaviour quickly loses its
relevance. The more data we have and the
better we understand history, the faster history alters its course, and the
faster our knowledge become outdated.
Today
our knowledge is increasing at breakneck speed, and theoretically we should
understand the world better and better.
But the very opposite is happening.
Our new found knowledge leads to faster economic social and political
changes; in an attempt to understand what is happening, we accelerate the
accumulation of knowledge, which leads only to faster and greater
upheavals. Consequently we are less and
less able to make sense of the present or forecast the future. .
Historians
study the past not in order to repeat it, but in order to be liberated from it.
Movements
seeking to change the world often begin by rewriting history, thereby enabling
people to reimagine the future.
Humans thereby came to identify
laws with political power, social status and economic wealth.
Grass is nowadays the most
widespread crop in the USA after maize and wheat, and the lawn industry
(plants, manure, mowers, sprinklers gardeners) accaounts for billions of
dolloars every year.
No
investigation of our divine future can ignore our own animal past, or our
relations with other animals – because the relationship between human and
animals is the best model we have for future relations between superhumans and
humans.
