(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Yuval Noah Harari has written a number of bestsellers in recent years, so many that he has been called the most influential public intellectual of our time. After achieving international fame with Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind (2016 [2011]), a history of humanity of just over 500 pages, in his next book Harari ventures into the treacherous terrain of future research, with an emphasis on the consequences of technological development.
I Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2017 [2015]) the Israeli intellectual saw potential risks of a growing inequality in a humanity divided between a caste of superior people whom medical advances make practically immortal, and a great mass of redundant people for whom there is no work in a hyper-technological world , and who spends his time on video games and drugs. Many would think that this is a dystopian vision, but Harari presents it in a rather detached way. It is thanks to these strong visions that Harari, perhaps ironically, became a darling of the Silicon Valley galaxy and among many of its prophets who extolled the endless possibilities of technological development.
Autonomous information networks
Harari's last book Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to Artificial Intelligence) opens with an important question: "Instead of our species uniting to deal with these existential challenges, international tensions rise, global cooperation becomes more difficult, countries stockpile doomsday weapons, and a new world war does not seem impossible. If we sapiens are so wise, why are we so self-destructive?” (our translation). In a time that strangely seems to oscillate hysterically between a kind of panglossian over-optimism about the end of history and the triumph of neoliberal capitalism on the one hand and a paralyzing fear of a possible downfall for humanity as a result of an ecological disaster or a conflict between nuclear powers on on the other, this seems like a very relevant observation.
The answer to this paradox lies in the fact that, according to the author, humans have become more powerful because they have managed to form information networks. But each of these information networks seems to create its own reality, which may conflict with the reality of other rival information networks. In a sense, this is a kind of clash of civilizations, where each of them forms its own autonomous information network. The problem of the human species is, according to Harari, a network problem. Information does not exist as atoms in a vacuum, but is by definition a shared quantity, somewhere between the consensus of the wise and popular belief.
The "naive" and the "populist" model
Harari outlines two models of information that he believes are both flawed: the "naive" and the "populist" model. According to the naive model, any increase in information should be seen as a positive development. This is an optimistic view in itself. The author, on the other hand, expresses great skepticism about this and dwells in particular on the dangers that a form of artificial intelligence could in a potential future free itself from the interests of humanity, or that a totalitarian state could misuse accumulated knowledge.
According to the 'populist' information model, however, knowledge is exclusively a product of power relations.
According to the 'populist' information model, however, knowledge is exclusively a product of power relations. Francis Bacon is famous for saying that wisdom is power. The populists believe instead that what passes for knowledge is in reality only a product of power, a social construction. Therefore, according to the populists, truth does not exist, claims Harari. Today's right-wing populists will be very surprised, says Harari, because they seem to have inherited these notions from the hated postmodern thinking. He references Marx and Foucault, thinkers whom Harari himself does not seem to value very highly, and whom he simply pretends to dismiss as deniers of the very concept of truth and thus nihilistic.
Criticism
This is remarkable for an author who in his previous books has made a point of emphasizing that many of the conventions that hold a society together are nothing more than illusions, myths, a product of human imagination whose veracity means little other than to could create social and cultural cohesion. Yet Harari seems to imply here that the criticism of contemporary elites is nothing more than conspiracy theories produced by paranoid populist minds.
For Harari's critics, he has always cultivated a suspicious closeness to the rich and powerful. Perhaps there was not so much to expect from him when it came to criticism of the established order. For Harari, populism ultimately appears far more dangerous than a global liberal elite.
Nevertheless, Harari's book remains of great interest. It deals with big questions that we will hear a lot about in the next few years – primarily artificial intelligence. Once again, the author demonstrates perfect timing and confidence in handling the big questions. This too must probably be considered a form of talent.
Translated by editor.
