8 Takeaways from Book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

An eye-opener for all the tech enthusiasts out there- book “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari presents the gloomy future and threat to liberal democracy posed by infotech and biotech. The rise of Trump and Brexit phenomena affirms his fear of how people are losing their trust in globalization because of the failure of democracies to deliver that is leading towards the rise of populism. Selective benefits of open markets, human rights, and international law have created an unequal world.

Yuval Noah Harari predicted that the rise of technology would soon make the man irrelevant as most of the chores and jobs will be AI-specific and will be performed by robots leading to mass employment all around the world. But this wave of unemployment will be more devastating for third world countries. We need to cater to this issue of creating alternative jobs to resist unemployment in the wake of AI as we did in the industrial revolution, but that would require much more effort, but there is no other option.

1-We Have No Actual Self

Yuval Noah Harari is also ambivalent about the idea of free will demonstrated in democratic processes. According to him, the free will of humans in the contemporary world is shaped by data algorithms; therefore, it can’t be trusted as exposed by the scandal of Cambridge Analytica. Data that we post online is secretly watching us and affect our choices and beliefs through malicious propaganda and advertisements. This digital dictatorship will create an unequal word and societies where influential people will use data to their advantage without caring how disastrous it can be.

2-Nationalism is Neo-Fascism in Contemporary World

Nationalism prevailing in the contemporary world believes in superiority rather than uniqueness. From Modi’s India to Trump’s America populism is one the rise. It is a significant threat to the peace of the world and identifies the failure of the globalization wave.

3-Questioning the Biases and Ignorance— Fear of Unknown

According to Yuval Noah Harari, it takes a lot of courage to fight biases and tyrant regimes. Still, it takes even greater courage to admit ignorance and venture into the unknown. According to Nazi propaganda master Joseph Gospel, a lie told once remains a lie but a lie told thousand times becomes a truth. Commercial firms aptly use this technique to grab the attention of customers that leads to commodity fetishism.

4-Secularism and Religion Are Not Mutually Exclusive

There are plenty of Jewish scientists, Christian environmentalists, Muslim feminists, and Hindu human rights activists. Secularism does not mean you have to leave your religion to be an ardent supporter of compassion, equality, and truth. People should be judged based on their behaviour rather than their clothes and ceremonies. Secularism does not mean indoctrination of thoughts that are against religion; instead, it teaches compassion, equality, acceptance of truth, and taking responsibility.

5-Why We Are Not Able to Identify Injustices in the Contemporary World?

Yuval Noah Harari identifies the structural biases that exist in the system that makes it challenging to identify the injustices in the modern world because they are systemic rather than individual prejudices and we lack both energy and time to discover them.

6-Deconstructing the Existing Theories — Only Way to Find Truth

Narratives are built based on power, and there is no absolute truth. We have no authentic self. Our personality is shaped by movies, novels, ideas and technology. If you want to know the fact you have to come out of the influence of power and seek truth by wandering here and there, this restlessness may trouble you but is the only way forward on the path of deconstructing dominant narratives into revelations and revolutions.

7-Society Where Truth Prevails is a Far Cry

Humans barely try to understand the world in which they live; instead, they are always making an effort to control the world. If they ever make an effort to understand the world, it is only done to have better control of the world, so the establishment of a society where truth reigns supreme is too much to expect from humans.

8-Change is the Only Constant

Rather than teaching our kids technical skills we should teach them emotional stability and how to cope up with the continually changing world and handling the pressure of skills up-gradation .4 Cs will be essential to survive in a constantly changing world: creativity, communication skills, critical thinking, and collaboration. Change itself is the only certainty. In 21st, you can hardly hold stability! You should make an effort to understand your operating system well.

To encapsulate, working together is the only way to fight against climate change, technological disruption and nuclear challenge. Decipher the mysteries of the mind and make an effort to understand it before it’s too late, and algorithms do that for us.

KNOW THYSELF!