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MindMap Gallery A Brief History Trilogy A Brief History of Humanity A Brief History of Today A Brief History of the Future Yuval Noah Harari
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A Brief History Trilogy A Brief History of Humanity A Brief History of Today A Brief History of the Future Yuval Noah Harari
"A Brief History of Humanity" begins with the signs of life one hundred thousand years ago to the history of human development where capital and technology are intertwined in the 21st century. "A Brief History of Today" focuses on the present and faces the issues and challenges that affect the destiny of each of us today. "A Brief History of the Future" In the future, humans will face three major problems: biology itself is an algorithm, and life is a process of constantly processing data; the separation of consciousness and intelligence; the external environment with the accumulation of big data will understand ourselves better than ourselves. How to view these three major issues and how to take response measures will directly affect the future development of mankind.
Edited at 2023-01-29 23:10:14
- One Hundred Years of Solitude Character Relationship Chart
One Hundred Years of Solitude is the masterpiece of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Reading this book begins with making sense of the characters' relationships, which are centered on the Buendía family and tells the story of the family's prosperity and decline, internal relationships and political struggles, self-mixing and rebirth over the course of a hundred years.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude Character Relationship Chart
One Hundred Years of Solitude is the masterpiece of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Reading this book begins with making sense of the characters' relationships, which are centered on the Buendía family and tells the story of the family's prosperity and decline, internal relationships and political struggles, self-mixing and rebirth over the course of a hundred years.
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Project management is the process of applying specialized knowledge, skills, tools, and methods to project activities so that the project can achieve or exceed the set needs and expectations within the constraints of limited resources. This diagram provides a comprehensive overview of the 8 components of the project management process and can be used as a generic template for direct application.
A Brief History Trilogy A Brief History of Humanity A Brief History of Today A Brief History of the Future Yuval Noah Harari
- One Hundred Years of Solitude Character Relationship Chart
One Hundred Years of Solitude is the masterpiece of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Reading this book begins with making sense of the characters' relationships, which are centered on the Buendía family and tells the story of the family's prosperity and decline, internal relationships and political struggles, self-mixing and rebirth over the course of a hundred years.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude Character Relationship Chart
One Hundred Years of Solitude is the masterpiece of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Reading this book begins with making sense of the characters' relationships, which are centered on the Buendía family and tells the story of the family's prosperity and decline, internal relationships and political struggles, self-mixing and rebirth over the course of a hundred years.
- Project Management Process Template
Project management is the process of applying specialized knowledge, skills, tools, and methods to project activities so that the project can achieve or exceed the set needs and expectations within the constraints of limited resources. This diagram provides a comprehensive overview of the 8 components of the project management process and can be used as a generic template for direct application.
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The fourth book of reading notes Can artificial intelligence and algorithms defeat humans - A Brief History of the Future
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"A Brief History of Humanity" Sapiens Brief History of Humankind From animals to god
Part One: The Cognitive Revolution
time
1. About 13.5 billion years ago, the matter, energy, time, and space of the universe became what they are today, forming physics.
2. About 3.8 billion years ago, molecules combined to form a fine structure - an organism, which made biology possible.
3. About 2.5 million years ago, humanoid creatures appeared.
4. About 2 million years ago, different human races existed in the entire world, including Rudolfus in East Africa, Homo erectus in East Asia, and Neanderthals in Europe and West Asia. However, it is only known that about 10,000 years ago, only Homo sapiens remained. This kind.
5. About 70,000 years ago, "Homo sapiens" began to create more complex structures, forming "culture", and culture continued to develop, forming history. There are three kinds of revolutions on the road of history - the "cognitive revolution" 70,000 years ago, the "agricultural revolution" 10,000 years ago, and the "scientific revolution" about 500 years ago.
reason
Natural genetic mutation
Features
unique features
There is a lion by the river
It can convey more and more information about the environment around Homo sapiens, and plan and execute complex plans, such as avoiding lions and hunting bison.
Gossip
Able to convey a greater amount of information about Homo sapiens social relationships, organize larger, more cohesive groups with sizes up to 150 people.
Community companies, social networks, military units and other groups are still affected by this.
fictional story
Able to convey information about fictional concepts such as tribal patron saints, nations, limited companies, and human rights.
In modern society, people and lawyers are wizards, setting rules and building communities.
A company is a collective imagination.
Homo sapiens
time
1 million years ago
Features
Big brain
Occupies a large volume and consumes a lot of space
cost
Muscle atrophy
Spend more time looking for food.
Walk upright
Evolution has a shorter time period and promotes that humans are all premature babies.
Outstanding social skills.
Strong plasticity.
use tools
middle of food chain
About 1 million years ago, although there were large-capacity brains and stone tools, they were still in the middle of the food chain and made a living by collecting.
The main purpose of early stone tools was to allow humans to eat large animals, walk into the few remaining prey carcasses, crack open the bones and eat the only edible marrow to make a living.
Top of the food chain
400,000 years ago, several human species began to hunt large animals. It was not until the rise of Homo sapiens 100,000 years ago that humans jumped to the top of the food chain.
Humanity has reached the top in a blink of an eye, catching the entire ecosystem off guard. Many ecological disasters stem from this too hasty historical jump.
Evolution at the top.
Between 70,000 and 30,000 years ago, Homo sapiens invented boats, oil lamps, bows and arrows, needles, and the first sculptures that could be called works of art, as well as religion, commerce, and social stratification.
Key Achievements of the Cognitive Revolution
form different languages and cultures
Part Two: The Agricultural Revolution
collecting society
The formation of the gluttonous gene
For ancient foragers, if they encountered high-calorie sweets, their best choice in order to survive was to eat them until they could no longer eat them. Today, with material surplus, humans are still unable to quit high-energy diets, leading to a widespread obesity problem.
monogamy
Evolutionary psychologists believe that ancient tribes had no monogamy and no concept of fatherhood. A group of people raised tribal children together.
Supporters of "ancient communes" believe that monogamy is responsible for the alienation of people in post-industrial society and the high divorce rate.
Life
The gathering society hunted about once every three days, and 3-6 hours each time was enough to feed the tribe, which was shorter than the working hours of modern humans.
Most live to be 60 or even 80 years old.
Omnivorous habits, no malnutrition.
War is a social phenomenon that emerged from the gathering society. Human beings are closely related but they still kill the old and the weak.
Agricultural Society
Domestication
animal domestication
9000 B.C. Goats
4000 BC, horses
3500 B.C. Camels
plant domestication
9000 B.C. Wheat
8000 BC, peas, lentils
5000 BC, olive tree.
3500 BC, grapes
3500 B.C. Cashew nuts
9500 BC to 3500 BC, wheat, rice, corn, potatoes
Impact: Food increases, human survival crisis weakens, population surges, and pampered elites emerge.
significance
1. The concept of home and territory emerges. After the awareness of the private domain of "home" is strengthened, hamster syndrome becomes more and more serious, and people are willing to hoard property.
2. The importance of “the future” has become increasingly prominent. Learning to look at the weather and predict the future affects the survival of Homo sapiens.
3. Text.
reason
Brain capacity is limited.
Human beings are bound to die.
The human brain has gradually become accustomed to storing and processing only specific types of information, and its ability to accurately store numbers has weakened.
definition
Text is a way of storing information using physical symbols.
type
Sumerian writing
The world's first written language and the first written records were financial documents.
Nature: It can only express part of the meaning, but cannot completely express it. From 3000 BC to 2500 BC, symbols were gradually added to become a completely ideographic script, that is, "cuneiform".
Features: Symbols in units of 6 are recorded on the stone tablet instead of numbers.
Andes Mountains
It is expressed by tying knots on ropes of various colors, which is called "knot language".
Different ropes and different knotting methods record a large amount of digital data.
Ancient Egypt and Hieroglyphics
Time: Between 3000 BC and 2500 BC.
Nature: Completely expressive
China and Mesoamerica: 1200 BC in China and complete ideograms in Mesoamerica between 1000 and 500 BC.
Post-agricultural revolution era: Humanity has developed rapidly through writing and common fictional stories, which has resulted in different classifications of social groups, free people/slaves, rich/poor, white/black.
Part Three: The Integration and Unification of Humanity
direction of history
What lasts a long time will inevitably separate. It is just a temporary situation. What will last a long time will inevitably merge. This is the general trend.
In 10,000 BC, foragers knew only their own island.
No one knew Tasmanians existed for 12,000 years before arriving in Europe in the 19th century.
In 10,000 BC, there were thousands of civilizations on the earth.
In 2000 BC, there were only two to three thousand human civilizations left.
Four worlds of considerable size and complexity.
mesoamerican world
Andis World
australian world
atlantic world
Today's world
The same geopolitical system.
The same economic system.
same legal system
The same scientific system.
currency
The conditions under which all human beings become "us" (the basis for cooperation between sapiens and strangers): the economic order of money, the political order of empire and global religion.
Gatherers have no concept of money at all
Self-sufficient, forming an economic system based on favors and obligations, and exchanging rare items from strangers when they cannot obtain them.
agricultural revolution period
Each village is self-sufficient and requires only certain services.
After the rise of cities and kingdoms
Improvements in transportation infrastructure finally provide an opportunity for professionalization
Dense cities begin to support professional workers
Specialized occupations: shoemaker, doctor, carpenter, lawyer.
Exchange goods and protect basic life.
How goods made by different experts are traded
Money works on trust.
The human world exists in the common imagination and is made up.
principles of money system
Everything is replaceable
Believed by all
With money as the medium, any two people can collaborate on various plans.
One of the most important decisive factors in the rapid development of human society.
empire
Conditions: The empire must have rulers from different ethnic groups, with different cultures and independent territories
Features: The territory can be flexibly adjusted and can be expanded almost infinitely.
common criticism
1. The imperial system has its own flaws, which makes it difficult to rule different ethnic groups efficiently in the long run.
2. Even if it can be ruled, the method must be immoral. Empire is the engine of all kinds of evil and exploitation.
religion
law
1. The superhuman order he believes in must be universal and true regardless of time and space.
2. He must firmly spread this belief to the public.
development path
From the pantheism of the forager society to the agricultural revolution, the religious revolution also emerged. In the values of the gatherers, humans and animals are equal, and every animal must be respected.
The original religious significance of the Agricultural Revolution: to transform animals and plants from beings equal to humans to belongings of humans.
The emergence of "gods": Gods can be kind to humans and communicate and negotiate with these silent animals and plants.
Part 4: The Scientific Revolution
discover one's ignorance
Time: In the past 500 years, human power has grown unprecedentedly. In 1500 AD, the population was approximately 500 million, and now the population is 7 billion.
The difference between modern scientific system and previous knowledge system
1. Previous knowledge systems were based on omniscience, while modern science admits its own ignorance.
2. Center on observation and mathematics.
3. Use existing capabilities to develop new technologies.
The criterion for value judgment of “knowledge” lies in its practicality, which is based on whether it can enable human beings to create new substances and gain power or rights.
Nationalism is the only modern ideology in which death remains central.
The influence of ideology on science: One of the conditions for the development of scientific research is to join forces with certain religions or ideologies, which may then affect or even influence research results.
The marriage of science and empire
Common mentality and starting point: admit one's ignorance.
The European imperial expeditions changed the course of the world: national cultures transformed from independent development to the gradual integration into a single human society.
The relationship between science and empire
Scientists provide the empire with practical knowledge, ideological foundations, and technological tools.
The empire provided material support, information, and protection to scientists, and ensured the widespread dissemination of scientific research results.
capitalist dogma
The role of credit: Capitalism uses human credit to implement the rules for small capital to operate into large capital.
Capitalist economic conditions: "Trust" is the backbone of money transactions.
The role of capitalism: Promoting the rise of modern science and also influencing the emergence of European imperialism.
The relationship between government and capital markets: reduce intervention and allow the market to operate freely.
giant ship of industry
finite theory
Are energy and raw materials limited?
Limited stages: When energy is almost exhausted, new replacements can always be found.
The phase changes and the energy changes with it.
Optimistically speaking, energy is inexhaustible.
a permanent revolution
After the Industrial Revolution, animals faced an existential crisis, and Homo sapiens became the global hegemon.
Homo sapiens isolated themselves from nature and created a set of standards to live by.
The state and the market are replacing the old ways of family and community.
Nuclear power has become the only standard and means of checks and balances in the new world.
happy happy days
Money is not everything, and the happiness that money brings has its limits.
Determination of happiness standards: the degree to which objective conditions such as wealth, health, and community are consistent with subjective expectations.
The biological explanation for "happiness": producing enough serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin.
Projected future: the end of Homo sapiens
Homo sapiens sustain life by connecting to machines and other biological creations, and the future of sapiens becomes a non-sapien existence.
Crisis consciousness: Intelligent machines develop independent consciousness and rise up to resist their human masters.
Two possibilities: Homo sapiens evolved or was completely wiped out, and the historical development remains unknown.
"A Brief History of Today" 21 Lessons For The 21st Century The big issue of human destiny
Part One: Technological Disruption
1. Disillusionment of Ideals: From Old Stories to New Stories
Humanity is organized by stories, which allow us to transcend animals and dominate the earth.
End of History Theory: In the 20th century, communism suffered a setback, liberalism defeated fascism and became the only story, and history ended.
current reality
Liberalism is facing challenges due to the rise of nationalism, Brexit, Trump's election, and the resurgence of religious extremism.
Nationalism and religious stories are back, but they cannot replace liberalism as the new story for all mankind.
real challenge
Biotechnology changes people's bodies and minds, destroying the cornerstone of liberal personality.
Artificial intelligence creates a useless class and undermines the political foundation of liberalism.
Only new stories that explain the biological and information revolutions can replace liberalism.
2. Employment: When you grow up, you may not have a job
Comparison of human and AI capabilities
Human beings have two abilities: physical abilities and cognitive abilities.
Physical abilities have been surpassed by machines since the industrial revolution.
Human cognitive and creative abilities are reduced to biological algorithms, which can also be surpassed by AI.
In addition to human capabilities, AI also possesses two important non-human capabilities: connectivity and updateability.
The advantage of connectivity allows computers to be integrated into a network.
For example, human drivers cannot share information in real time, but autonomous driving connected to a network will be safer.
Updatable makes it very easy to change the rules.
For example, if traffic rules are changed, humans will learn in sequence, and autonomous driving can be updated simultaneously, which will make it safer.
How to deal with your job disappearing
Possible solution one: Prevent jobs from disappearing.
Forcing governments to give up the huge potential of AI and robots is the least attractive and most unachievable strategy.
Possible option two: Create enough new jobs.
After even the service industry and creative industries are replaced by AI, humans as producers have nowhere to go.
When customers become algorithms, such as the advertising industry’s customers being Google search algorithms, humans as consumers no longer matter.
Possible solution three: Protect people, not jobs.
Provide universal basic income or universal basic services.
How to divide "all people" It is the rich countries that can provide basic income, but it is the people of poor countries who are the first to lose their jobs.
What is "basic"? People will always take what they have for granted and be aggrieved by what they cannot get.
Providing an economic safety net, combined with strong communities and meaningful purpose, will keep humanity safe
3. Freedom: Data Hegemony and Social Justice
In the past, divine authority was established through religious mythology.
In the liberal story, human authority comes from human free will.
Politically, liberalism believes that "choice makes the best choice."
Economically, liberalism believes that "the customer is always right."
Personally, liberalism encourages everyone to "listen to your heart and do whatever you want."
In the future, belief in individual freedom is overturned and authority comes from big data algorithms.
Individuals lose decision-making power.
People no longer need to make moral decisions, algorithms pre-set options.
People no longer need to make decisions based on preferences, algorithms know you better than anything else.
Data hegemony may emerge, with citizens facing total surveillance beyond "1984."
People will be domesticated into data-producing animals, and no one will care about your feelings and mind.
4. Equality: Who owns the data?
In ancient times, there was too little property and the issue of equality was not prominent.
A class society emerged after the Agricultural Revolution, which regarded inequality as a natural state.
Since modern times, both communism and liberalism have regarded equality as an ideal goal.
In the future, inequality will tend to solidify.
The biological revolution allows the wealthy to turn inequality into biological disparity.
The information revolution has rendered ordinary people useless and deprived of their political and economic power to negotiate.
If we want to avoid excessive concentration of wealth and power, the key is to regulate data ownership.
In a natural state, large companies will accumulate more and more data and become dominant.
Nationalizing data can inhibit companies, but it can also lead to data hegemony.
Putting data in the hands of individuals sounds good, but data is not land. How to implement it?
Part Two: Political Challenges
5. Community: The value of the human body
Human beings need to deal with the body, the senses, and the real environment. But technology has made us farther and farther away from our bodies.
The decline of the cohesion of the country and religion is not the main reason for the separation between people, but the loss of contact between people and the body.
Facebook's online community cannot replace real-world community life, and its business model also requires people to stay online for a longer period of time.
Tech giants are still developing devices like VR glasses that will one day manipulate our entire bodies in the same way they currently manipulate our eyes, fingers, and credit cards.
6.Civilization: the unity of the world
The analogy between the clash of civilizations and the competition between species is wrong.
Civilization is different from the same species, it has no "essence", and human behavior defines each civilization.
Animals split into different species and never merge again, but humans merge all the time.
Modern civilizations are interlinked.
Politics: Even if the independence and uniqueness of each country are emphasized, the premise is still that there is a consensus on the boundaries of the rights of sovereign countries.
Economy: Everyone believes in pretty much the same version of capitalism, and ISIS fighters don’t burn dollars.
Science: There is no special "subject science"
7. Nationalism: Unable to solve global problems
Nations formed because humans faced challenges that no tribe could solve alone.
The common enemy around the world allows mankind to form a common identity.
Nuclear war, no single country can control the outbreak of nuclear war.
Ecological collapse and environmental externalities mean that it is naturally a global problem that requires international cooperation to solve.
Technological subversion, nationalists have no answer to the scientific revolution, this is not within their scope of thinking, and humans need recognized ethical principles to deal with these problems.
We already have a global ecology, a global economy, a global science, and political globalization has become a necessary option.
8. Religion: Gods only serve the country
The role of traditional religion
Technology, religion lost out to science and had almost no influence in the field of technology.
Economics, modern society will only use economics to explain religious events, and will never use religion to explain economic events.
Identity, religion can use rituals and rituals to draw boundaries between people.
While many countries use modern tools and structures, they also rely on traditional religion to maintain their national identity.
Traditional religion, which could have been the solution to humanity's problems, is now part of humanity's problems.
9. Cultural identity: development and tolerance
Immigration is an agreement with three clauses.
Article 1: The host country allows immigrants to enter.
Pro-immigrationists see this as an obligation.
Anti-immigrants see this as a favor that can be revoked at any time.
Article 2: Immigrants need to accept the core values of the host country.
Pro-immigrants believe in accepting others with tolerance.
Anti-immigrants believe that to maintain tolerance, immigrants must also accept such tolerant values.
Article 3: When immigrants reach a certain level, the host country will accept them as equal members.
Pro-immigrants believe that newcomers should be accepted quickly.
Anti-immigrants advocate longer probation periods.
In reality, authentic countries usually hold culturalism, and culturalism is not racism.
Compared with biology, culture is malleable and can be open to "others".
Racism is pure prejudice, culturalism contains part of the truth.
Part Three: Despair and Hope
10 Terrorism: Don’t Overreact
logical conditions for terrorism
Terrorists know that they are weak, so they hope that terrorist actions will disorient their opponents and give them a chance to reshuffle their cards.
Homeland security becomes a source of legitimacy for modern states. In order to protect this legitimacy, the government will respond at all costs.
Far more people die in car accidents than in terrorist attacks, but they have nothing to do with legality and receive much less resources and attention.
The right way to respond to terrorism.
First, secretly crack down on terrorist organization networks, especially financial networks.
Second, the media must remain objective and avoid hysteria.
Third, the public must curb excessive fear in their hearts and not let their imagination be captured by terrorists.
11 War: Never underestimate human stupidity
In ancient times, the main economic assets were land, population, mineral deposits, etc. War plunder was a matter of low damage and high profit.
nowadays. The main economic assets are technology and institutional knowledge, which cannot be plundered by violence. War has become a high-damage, low-profit affair.
Occupying Silicon Valley doesn’t get Apple
Nuclear weapons turn war between major powers into collective suicide. We cannot expect to obtain sufficient benefits by reshaping the trade and financial system among major countries.
Even if war is unprofitable, do not underestimate human folly and remain humble.
12 Humility: The earth does not revolve around you
All cultures tend to be self-centered.
Taking Judaism as an example to criticize cultural centrism
Argument 1: Judaism has influenced world history by influencing Christianity and Islam, so it is special
Rebuttal: Freud’s influence is great, but history does not belong to his mother.
Argument 2: Judaism makes a special moral contribution through the Bible.
Refutation: Various civilizations in the world have their own moral traditions, and animals also have their own behavioral norms, showing qualities similar to caring for the weak.
Argument 3: Monotheism is Judaism’s special contribution to the world.
Refutation: Monotheism has no special advantages, but is fundamentally inclusive.
Argument 4: Jews have made contributions to science and culture that far exceed their population ratio.
Refutation: Jews value learning, which may be related to this, but this is not a function of Jewish teachings.
13 God: Do not take God’s name in vain
We need God as the ultimate interpreter of nature’s mysteries.
Refutation: The Big Bang is not a sufficient condition for the existence of a god. Such a god cannot deduce that he has a say in secular rules.
We need God to guide us morally.
Rebuttal: The point of morality is to reduce suffering, not to obey a certain commandment.
The behavior of the believers determines the value of the god. If the believers are peaceful and friendly, it does not matter which god they believe in or whether they believe in a god.
14 Secularism: Face Your Imperfections
Secularism is not the opposite of belief in God. He has his own positive ideals
Truth: Truth must be based on observation and evidence, not belief alone.
Compassion: Secular ethics come not from commandments but from an understanding of suffering, especially the suffering of others.
Equality: Secularism questions all presupposed class systems.
Freedom: Without the freedom to think, investigate and experiment, it is impossible to seek the truth and get out of pain.
Courage: It also takes courage to fight prejudice and oppression, and to admit ignorance, especially the latter.
Responsibility: No matter what you decide to do or not do, you need to take responsibility for yourself.
Secularism acknowledges imperfection and is willing to change various realities. It does not believe that a perfect society can be achieved by adhering to a certain dogma.
Part 4: The truth
15 Ignorance: You know less than you think
The rational individual, the foundation of liberalism, is a myth.
Behavioral economics and evolutionary psychology have proven that most decisions are not based on rational analysis.
Humans rarely think on an individual basis, but on a group basis.
Rights do not help get more truth.
The closer you get to the center of power, the more distorted the information becomes.
Looking for revolutionary knowledge at the fringes requires a lot of time, and time is the scarcest resource for powerful people.
16 Justice: Humanity’s Moral Dilemma
Humanity's sense of justice evolved from ancient times and cannot adapt to the modern world.
Cause and effect in a globalized world are highly differentiated and complex. For example, if my pension is invested in a sweatshop, are we responsible?
Humans simplify the world to fit their stone brains.
Reduce the size of the problem, such as by thinking of war as a fight between good guys and bad guys.
Focus on personal stories and replace entire events with personal touching stories.
Weaving conspiracy theories and substituting fantasy for reality.
Create dogma. Leave decision-making power to a leader or agency that claims to be omniscient.
17 Post-truth era: Lies will last forever
Even though the complete truth is constantly missing, deception can still be reduced.
The golden rule for individuals to obtain reliable information.
If you want reliable information, you will have to pay a high price.
If the question is particularly important, make an effort to read the relevant scientific literature
Human beings rely on fictional stories to establish cooperation, and Homo sapiens is a post-truth species.
rights depend on fiction
If you want power, at some point you have to start spreading fictional stories.
If you want the truth, you have to give up your pursuit of power at a certain stage.
18 The future is not science fiction: the inescapable matrix
The worst problem with modern science fiction is that it confuses consciousness with intelligence.
Works that worry about machines becoming intelligent always depict a war between robots and humans.
The real problem is that the human mind can be controlled by technology.
There is no real world in "The Matrix", there is still a matrix outside the matrix.
"Brave New World", soma satisfies all desires, and it is impossible for people to escape even if they are not willing to.
Part Five: Survive
19 Education: Change is the only constant thing
traditional education
Traditional education is the inheritance of information, but now there is an information glut.
Traditional education teaches people skills, but no one knows what skills will be needed in the future.
Education for the future
Education should teach people to think critically, communicate, cooperate, and be creative in order to cope with the uncertain future. .
People educate themselves ultimately to retain control over themselves in the face of algorithms.
20 Meaning: Life is not a fictional story
When we ask about the meaning of life, the answer we usually want to hear is a story.
Stories that give meaning to life need to meet two conditions.
Individuals play a special role in the story.
Nationalism emphasizes the particularity of the country.
Communism emphasizes class specificity.
Most religions emphasize the specificity of the letter.
The story does not have to exhaust the world, but it must extend beyond the personal horizon.
Stories that work don’t need to be true.
Any story is wrong because the universe doesn't work in stories.
Faulty stories can still run, not by a solid foundation but by the weight of a roof, because when the story collapses, it can trigger social and personal catastrophe.
Rituals are an important means of making stories real.
Of all rituals, sacrifice is the most beneficial; once we suffer for the story, we are more likely to believe the story.
The story of liberalism: Through choices, individuals give meaning to everything.
It’s not that the universe gives me meaning, or that I don’t give meaning to the universe.
But the self may also be a fiction, with no real choices.
21 Reunderstanding Yourself: The Mystery of the Human Mind
Mind and brain are two issues.
The brain is a physical network of neurons, synapses, and biochemical substances.
The mind is the flow of subjective experiences of pain, pleasure, love, and anger.
Meditation does not replace brain study, it is an aid to understanding our minds.
The stories are getting more complex, the algorithms are getting more sophisticated, and it’s getting harder and harder to observe yourself.
"A Brief History of the Future" Homo Deus A Brief History of Tomorrow From Homo sapiens to Homo sapiens
Prologue: New Issues for Humanity
defeat death
The emergence of eternal life will lead to fundamental inequality between people.
eternal happiness
Biochemistry re-creates Homo sapiens to provide endless pleasure.
man becomes god
path
Bioengineering: Human beings fully exploit their potential within existing organic body structures.
Cyborg Engineering: Combining various non-organic devices, retaining the organic brain as the core.
Non-organic bioengineering: intelligent software replaces neural networks, and inorganic life replaces organic life.
If the mind changes from carbon machine to silicon-based, the structure of the mind changes, Homo sapiens disappears, and human history comes to an end.
clarify
First, the above is talking about human beings as a whole, not most individual people.
Two, this is a historical prediction, not a political goal.
Third, you may not get what you pursue.
Fourth, predictions are not for the purpose of predicting predictions. After discussion, the future can be changed.
Marxism did not overthrow the rule, this prediction alone could make them change.
The meaning of history: Historical knowledge will change our future behavior, and studying history is to liberate ourselves from old meanings.
The paradox of knowledge: Knowledge (prediction) is useless without changing behavior. Once behavior changes, the original knowledge (prediction) immediately loses its meaning.
On the road to becoming a god, there are no brakes
The experts all have their own expertise, no one understands the entire system, no one knows where the brakes are.
The modern economy can only grow endlessly, and the brakes will collapse. It can only pursue sustainable goals: immortality, happiness, and divinity (the three are inseparable).
Part One: Homo sapiens conquers the world
How humans treat other animals (World)
fact
Humans exterminated and conquered other large animals and dominated the world.
Humans, like other animals, have a set of biological algorithms for reproduction. Emotions and desires help us find the path quickly.
idea
hunter gatherer
Hunter-gatherers do not feel superior to other creatures. Human survival depends on understanding and respecting the desires of the animals around them.
Hunter-gatherers tended toward animism, in which people communicated with all living things.
farmer
Farmers' quality of life depends on the animals they have control over.
Farmers downgrade animals from beings with feelings and worthy of respect to human assets.
Humans discipline animals according to their own needs and ignore the emotional needs of animals.
Most agrarian societies also viewed people of different castes as assets.
Theism promises the dominance of Homo sapiens to the deprivation of all other creatures, like Christianity.
In theism, gods are responsible for mediating between humans and the ecosystem. The gods are responsible for protecting agriculture in exchange for human sacrifices at the expense of the ecosystem.
modern man
Theism uses the name of God as an excuse for traditional agriculture, while humanism uses the name of man as an excuse for modern industrialized agriculture.
Humanism is based on the fact that Homo sapiens possesses certain unique and sacred human qualities that animals do not have, so nature is unimportant.
human traits
People have souls
If the soul is evolved, then it is indivisible, an eternal entity which is contrary to the nature of evolution.
If the soul suddenly appears in a human being, it is unimaginable that he and his parents did not have any soul at all before.
People have souls
If everything is in our neuronal system, why separate the mind?
If the mind is higher than the nervous system, then where is it?
The web of human meaning
Animals can only imagine what actually exists.
And people can imagine intersubjective things, they have real and powerful power, such as countries, companies, laws, etc.
People organize large-scale collaboration through fictional stories. This is the fundamental reason why human power is amplified and dominates the world.
If you want to decipher the future of mankind, you must decipher the various fictional imaginations that give meaning to the world.
Part 2: Hopiens give meaning to the world
the power of fiction
Animals live in two realities: objective entities and subjective experiences. The world of Homo sapiens has a third reality, various stories about money, gods, countries and companies.
The cognitive revolution 70,000 years ago allowed humans to start talking about things that only existed in human imagination, which could lead to the cooperation of hundreds and thousands of people.
5,000 years ago, humans invented writing and money.
Words allow people to organize society in an algorithmic way. Each person completes a small step, and the final important decision is judged by the entire algorithm. This is the essence of the bureaucracy.
The state issues a piece of paper, and all citizens use this piece of paper to pay taxes. Citizens have no choice, but the market develops.
Story should be a tool, not a goal.
We should distinguish between reality and fiction. The status of reality is of course higher than fiction. The euro can depreciate, but he has no pain.
In the future, there will be more powerful concepts of fiction, and it will be especially important to better organize the distinction between reality and fiction.
Fictional stories make it easier for humans to cooperate, but the cost is that stories also determine the goals of our cooperation.
The debate between science and religion
religion
Religion is not the same as superstition. What you believe must be "truth"; only what others believe can be "superstitious".
Religion is not supernatural, it is nature for those who believe in demons, gods, and spirits.
Religion is not a matter of belief in God.
Religion is not the same as spirituality
Religion is about consolidating the secular order, spirituality is about escaping.
The spiritual journey is only suitable for individuals, not for society. Human beings need to cooperate, and there cannot be only problems and no norms.
Religion is an all-encompassing set of stories that gives human laws, norms, and values a higher than human legitimacy.
Religion should be defined by its social function, not by whether it has a god.
Christianity, communism, and liberalism can all be considered a religion.
The historical laws of communism are actually like the commandments of the Christian God.
science and religion
If science wants to create a viable human system, it will inevitably need the assistance of religion. Research facts, but do not make ethical judgments.
Religion is not just about ethical judgments, it always includes factual statements
Three parts of a typical religious story
1. Ethical judgments, such as "human life is sacred".
2. Factual statement, such as "Human life begins at the moment of conception."
3. The combination of ethical judgments and factual statements, with specific instructions, such as "You cannot have an abortion even if it is just one day old."
Science cannot refute religious ethical judgments, but science can refute parts of factual statements.
Science and religion are more likely to compromise and cooperate than imagined
What religion cares about most is order.
Science is all about power.
Modern history is actually the process of reaching an agreement between science and a specific religion (humanism). Modern society believes in humanism, and science is not for questioning, but for your realization of his dogma.
Contract with "Modern"
Premodern man believed that he was living within some grand cosmic plan, which limited human power but also made everything meaningful.
"Modern" is a contract, and its essence is: people give up meaning in exchange for power.
Without meaning, the reason why society is still developing today is because of the rise of a revolutionary new religion: humanism.
humanist revolution
The contract with modernity is to gain power and relinquish meaning. But there is a loophole clause, meaning and power can be both found if man finds meaning outside of the overall cosmic plan, man finds humanism.
dogma of humanism
Humanist politics: Voters can make the best choices.
Humanistic Economics: The customer is always right.
Humanistic aesthetics: If the person looking at it finds it beautiful, it is beautiful.
Humanist Ethics: If it feels right, do it.
Humanistic education: Think for yourself.
The split in humanism
Classical Orthodoxy: Liberalism
Everyone is a unique person with experiences that will never be repeated.
One part: social humanism. Socialism blames liberalism for focusing too much on one's own feelings and ignoring the experiences of others.
Part Two: Evolutionary Humanism. The conflict of experiences and feelings is inevitable, and the fittest wins.
Part 3: Homo sapiens lose control
Time bomb in the laboratory
free will
The foundation of liberalism is that man has free will, and this is a factual statement.
Fact statement science can intervene
Every electrochemical reaction is determined by the previous event, so the final decision reached is definitely not free will.
If the decision is caused by the random movement of atoms, of course this is randomness, not free will.
According to the theory of evolution, all so-called "selections" of animals are responses to the genetic code.
individualism
Liberalism holds that each person has a single, indivisible self.
Split-brain experiment, self is physically separable.
In the ice water experiment, people have two selves: the experiential self and the narrative self.
great separation
A scientific response to the insistence that people are irreplaceable.
1. Biology is an algorithm, and every animal (including Homo sapiens) is a collection of evolved algorithms.
2. The function of the algorithm is not affected by the constituent substances. The beads of the abacus are made of iron or wood, and there is no difference in calculations.
3. As long as the calculation is correct, there is no difference between silicon-based or carbon-based.
Superhumans control the world, and humans lose their equality.
Algorithms control the world and humans lose their divinity.
Humanity as a whole will still have value, but individuals will no longer have authority and most choices will be governed by external algorithms.
Human beings have absolutely no value
Algorithms become entities like companies and countries that control humans.
What do useless people do? I can only survive on drugs and playing games.
Humans are likely to be in captivity or exterminated because the system is smarter than the person and you have no control over his motivations.
Whether algorithms or superhumans take over the world, liberalism will collapse.
The new religion of technological humanism
Still believing that humans are the pinnacle of creation, Homo sapiens upgrades to Homo sapiens, defying the most complex mindless algorithms.
Just like humans can only see a small segment of the spectrum, the spectrum in the mind is much wider than what we experience. Becoming a wise god can explore the new continent of the mind.
Technological humanism faces an unsolvable dilemma. He believes that human will is the most important thing in the universe and has always promoted human development and control. However, once it can be controlled and suppressed, human beings will lose their sanctity and cannot stand in the face of technology.
The new religion to dataism
Dataism believes that the universe is composed of data, and the value of any phenomenon or entity lies in its contribution to data processing.
economic system
The mechanism of the economy is to collect data about desires and abilities and then translate them into decisions.
Capitalism won the Cold War not because it was more ethical, or because God was angry with the Soviet Union, but because the decentralized data processing method at this stage was better than the centralized one.
political system
Democracy and autocracy are essentially two opposing mechanisms for collecting and analyzing information.
If data cannot be processed effectively, the noble institutions of the past such as elections, political parties, and parliaments may become obsolete.
Authoritarian regimes are also unable to cope with the speed and volume of data flows.
All mankind is a data system, and individuals are chips
He has four ways to improve efficiency
1. Increase the number of processors. A city with a population of 100,000 has a higher capacity than a village with a population of 1,000.
2. Add processor types. The dialogue between farmers, priests, and physicians produced ideas that would never have been discussed among hunter-gatherers.
3. Increase the connection between processors. Ten cities with trade have higher output than ten isolated cities.
4. Increase the freedom of circulation of existing connections, such as eliminating high-speed tolls.
Humanity has gone through four stages of development
1. Cognitive revolution, a large number of homo sapiens can be connected into a single data processing network.
2. The Agricultural Revolution resulted in a massive increase in population, an increase in human cooperation networks, and an increase in the number, type, and connections of processors.
3. From the invention of writing and money to the beginning of the scientific revolution, various connections have become very close.
4. The last stage, from the geographical discovery to the present, information flows freely in the global network, and the quantity and speed are getting faster and faster. The reason why today's democracy and market win is not because they are "good", but because they improve a global data processing system.
For dataism, freedom of information is the highest good
The first commandment of dataism: connect more and more media and generate more and more information.
The second commandment of dataism: Connect everything to the system, even the heretics who don’t want to join.
Dataism treats human experience as data patterns, thus destroying people’s authority and source of meaning.
Dataism believes that experience has no value if it is not shared. People do not need (or even cannot) find meaning in their own hearts. All we have to do is wait for the algorithm to find the meaning.
As long as there are better algorithms and data, human biological algorithms will naturally be eliminated.
The Internet of Everything itself has a sacred meaning
Dataism is as threatening to humans as humans are to other animals: data does not care about our subjective needs.
The three most important matters and corresponding questions
1. Science is converging on the all-encompassing dogma that all living things are algorithms and that life is data processing.
Question 1: Is biology really just algorithms, and life really just data processing?
2. Intelligence is being decoupled from consciousness.
Question 2: Which one is more valuable, intelligence or consciousness?
3. Unconscious but highly intelligent algorithms may soon know us better than we do.
Question 3: What will happen when unconscious but highly intelligent algorithms understand our society, politics and daily life better than we do?