21 Lessons for the 21st Century

21 Lessons for the 21st Century is an attempt to understand and deal with the ramifications of Homo sapiens’ greatest invention: fiction.

Fiction

“Humans were always far better at inventing tools than using them wisely.” – Yuval Noah Harari

Fiction is a tool. Whether it is story about a fat man in a red suit giving presents to “good” children, or the promise of Heaven after death to those who lead a biblically defined moral life, or the ease of monetary transactions to those who believe in the power of currency, its all still fiction. And it is fiction, rather, the belief in fiction, that has allowed Homo sapiens to get where it is today. This is the main theme of Harari’s first book Sapiens. But just as fiction has elevated man to such Olympian heights, it is also may be our downfall.

We are born with stories. Even if we are not told stories directly, simply seeing what those around us do is enough to create a narrative of what we’re supposed to do And what are stories ultimately? They are expectations. These expectations can be imposed on us by our family or friends or Disney movies, but wherever they come from, we apply them to our narrative of life, and make us think life is supposed to be a certain way. Often, that it is supposed to be lovely, and only when we fulfill those expectations will we be enveloped in loveliness. Though it never seems to stop, because anytime we hear a compelling story, we immediately adopt that story into our own personal narrative. Why? Because we think that will be the one to finally make us happy.

The problem, of course, is that if these expectations do not come true, we suffer. And with all the stories floating around in the world today, there are just as many expectations. Every picture we see of a friend on vacation can make us feel inadequate because we feel as though we’re not living up to the narrative we’ve just put on ourselves for people in our social circle. Every child we see at the grocery store behaving better than our child. Every book someone else has read that we haven’t. They all have the ability to raise our expectations in an instant, and ruin our day when we realize we aren’t meeting them. It is completely unrealistic to feel this way, and yet we do it all the time. Its just how we are wired. “Most human decisions are based on emotional reactions and heuristic shortcuts rather than a rational analysis, and while our emotions and heuristics were perhaps suitable for dealing with life in the Stone Age, they are woefully inadequate in the Silicon Age.”

The online world is one expectation after another. And if it’s not from our friend telling us their story—which is often their way of meeting their expectations of other’s approval through “likes”—it is some company selling a product that will allow us to meet whatever expectation we’ve imposed on ourselves at that hour. It’s endless. No one can live up to them all. Thus, we suffer.

It’s not all bad though. The shared belief in the story of human rights or basketball rules have allowed for great cooperation across the globe. And physically manifesting these stories of the mind into technology have made for fantastical achievements that benefit huge portions of the population. And the technology is only getting better as the algorithms that drive them get better. But this is where things get a little hairy.

To start with, the algorithm-fueled tech industry is causing a massive displacement of the workforce, preventing huge chunks of the population from gaining employment with which to at least try and live up to their basic, personal expectations. Secondly, companies of all sizes are using the algorithms based on consumer data (through loyalty rewards programs for purchasing habits and customer surveys to win prizes) to create better services and products. This may not be seen as a bad thing, but as the companies harvest more and more data about the populace they will be able to curtail ads specifically to the individual. “ . . . they are in a race to hack you and your organic operating system.” They want to know us better than we know ourselves and give us stories – expectations – that only they can fill, at a price, of course. We can already see this with products such as Coca Cola, because water is boring, it doesn’t make us feel like we’re at the beach or part of an impromptu dance party in the street the way Coke does. It doesn’t matter that Coke will give us diabetes and make us feel more thirsty than before we drank a bottle of it, we just want what the expertly crafted commercials want us to feel. That is what ad agencies do. Just as fables are used to teach children how to act morally for the benefit of society, advertisements persuade us to fulfill the stories companies have engineered for us for the benefit of the company. And often they use our own self-centred notions against us, specializing in quick-fixes to distract us from the longer term expectations that the fables set up for us. Thirdly, as algorithms and AI lend themselves to biotechnology, those already in power with plenty of money to burn could potentially make themselves into cyborgs capable of thinking faster and living longer, prolonging their power and the duration of their ideas. This may all seem horrible, depending on where you stand, but its all fair game according to the liberal story.

The liberal story is the leading story of the day, being that anyone can do whatever they want and all will be well. Dictatorships and communism have certainly led to great communal achievements, but they don’t offer the same personal achievements and stories that comes with liberalism. Unfortunately “The liberal story only works for regular people, not machines.” Because up until recently, if a fiction was not bought into by a large group of people, it died with the person who had the idea. But if a person with radical ideas no one else believes in has a powerful algorithm at his control, he could potentially tear the fabric of society apart when no one asked him too. “The real problem with robots is not their own artificial intelligence but rather the natural stupidity and cruelty of their human masters.”

Though it does not take a diabolical super villain with a vicious computer virus or an army of killbots to destroy all Homo sapiens have built, the simple stories we believe are enough to do that.

Any religious person must believe their god is the one true god, otherwise they bring down calamity on their soul—at least that’s what they believe. The same can be said for any citizen who views their country as the best. This is often due to upbringing, the result of stories passed down from generation to generation. Of course, this pride in one’s god or people has been the cause of countless wars. “Identity is defined by conflicts and dilemmas more than by agreement.” Furthermore, humans have a tendency to double down on their beliefs, opposed to admitting they’re wrong, even if in the face of evidence. So if we know that family members sacrificed themselves for a religion or nation, then the cause must be noble, thus we must believe in it, otherwise, what did they die for? And it doesn’t even need to be something as final as death. Simply sacrificing every Sunday morning is enough to make people believers. And it is this perpetual cycle that enforces one’s belief in whatever they happened to be born into. “Most of our views are shaped by communal groupthink rather than individual rationality, and we hold on to these views due to group loyalty.” Though Harari coldly points out, “If you suffer because of your belief in God or in the nation, that does not prove that your beliefs are true. Maybe you are just paying the price of your gullibility.” At least Mutually Assured Destruction through nuclear arms has slowed war for the most part worldwide—though it is still a just as much of a threat as technological disruption, we’ve just learned to live with it. But that hasn’t stopped pride.

A country renowned for its fossil fuels may have been able to build a great nation for its people, but by continuing to burn those fossil fuels they continue to destroy the world—including the nation’s people—through climate change. Of course there is always the opportunity to change course and find alternative energy sources for a sustainable future, but much like religious beliefs, most people tend to double down on whatever they’re used to. To admit one is wrong is to hurt one’s pride, and considering most people believe the story that they are right about everything and that they deserve all the finest things in the world, then it isn’t likely people are going to change. After all, what can be wrong with heating my family’s home? What can be wrong with Amazon tracking my searches to make better suggestions for me? “The problem with evil is that in real life it is not necessarily ugly. It can look very beautiful.”
Non-Fiction

“Any story is wrong simply for being a story. The universe just does not work like a story.”

“The Buddha taught that the three basic realities of the universe are that everything is constantly changing, nothing has any enduring essence, and nothing is completely satisfying.” With those three rules in mind how could a person possibly think a story of any nature could ever bring fulfillment. And so Harari states, “The big question facing humans isn’t “What is the meaning of life?” but rather “How do we stop suffering?” Because, “The realest thing in the world is suffering.” “So if you want to know the truth about the universe, about the meaning of life, and about your own identity, the best place to start is by observing suffering and exploring what it is.”

A good place to start is with our own bodies. There is an exceeding amount of overweight people in the Western world, and while there are many people who have deep seeded issues that lead to obesity, there are plenty who eat simply because they want to eat, and nothing is going to stop them. And why should they? Commercials tell us we deserve to treat ourselves, and who doesn’t like to be treated? So we believe the commercial and stuff our faces. But at least our bodies will tell us when to stop its had enough. But if warning signs like heart burn and indigestion are bypassed by products like Pepto Bismol, then we can continue to eat the high calorie, artery clogging food we love so much. But what if those people didn’t rely on antacids? What if they simply listened to their bodies. If you sprained an ankle, you wouldn’t take pain killers and run a marathon, would you?

“A crucial step towards uniting humankind is to appreciate that humans have bodies.” The hope is that once we can return to our bodies, it is natural to recognize that everyone else has a body that is just as fragile and wonderful as ours. We all breath the same air, we all feel joy, and we all want to lead lives with the least amount of pain as possible. Sports, the Olympics in particular, are a testament to the greatness of our bodies, and which is why we get so angry when feats of strength are spoiled by unnatural, performance enhancing drugs. Beyond that, these spectacular sporting events unite the people of the world. Of course the stories of nations and their people are still representative in the games, but not to the point of war, only in (mostly) friendly competition. Though what is perhaps even more amazing than the athletes themselves is the fact that the rules of games are agreed upon by all the various countries, who all have radically different views of the world. So if we can agree on the rules to a game, why not on other, more important things? Because, “We need a new global identity because national institutions are incapable of handling a set of unprecedented global predicaments.”

It is clear from our own egocentric daily living and nationalistic views that the threats brought on by the liberal story will not stop unless we change course entirely. And the same thinking that got us into this mess will not get us out. It will require cooperation across the globe, but first we must start in our communities, and even before that, in ourselves, with our brains and bodies acting as one. And the ideal starting point requires nothing but the willingness to sit quietly in the meditation.

“ . . . (T)he real enigma of life is not what happens after you die but what happens before you die. If you want to understand death, you need to understand life.” And the only way to do this is through clear, unfiltered, objective observation. Drawing from personal experience Harari says, “The most important thing I realized was that the deepest source of my suffering is in the patterns of my own mind. When I want something and it doesn’t happen, my mind reacts be generating suffering. Suffering is not an objective condition in the outside world. It is a mental reaction generated by my own mind. Learning this is the first step toward ceasing to generate more suffering.”

“Self-observation has never been easy, but it might get harder with time. As history unfolded, humans created more and more complex stories about themselves, which made it increasingly difficult to know who we really are. These stories were intended to unite large numbers of people, accumulate power, and preserve social harmony. They were vital for feeding billions of hungry people and making sure those people didn’t cut each other’s throats. When people tried to observe themselves, what they usually discovered were these ready-made stories. An open-ended exploration was too dangerous. It threatened to undermine the social order.”

What can we do? Because stories are a great tool, but they need not be used for everything. The old saying goes, to the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The story is our hammer. So we must learn to put it away and get to know ourselves. Not in relation to all the stories floating around in our mind and in society, but truly know our minds. “And we had better understand our minds before the algorithms make our minds up for us.”

 

 

All quotes are from 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari