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Bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari’s new book is out – is it worth your time?

Yuval Harari’s first book Sapiens was a worldwide bestseller, a book people like Barrack Obama and Bill Gates recommended highly. His new book, ‘21 lessons for the 21st century’ has come out recently – does it offer any new insights? Ankini Banerjee, a student of The Levelfield School (Class XI), analyses.

Bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari’s new book is out – is it worth your time?

(Photo:Getty Images)

“In the early twenty-first century the train of progress is again pulling out of the station – and this will probably the last train to ever leave the station called Homo sapiens. Those who miss this train will never get a second chance.” – Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus.

This may sound like the plot of a scary dystopian story, but it is probably the most accurate description of the 21st century. Despite what most of us would like to believe, history hasn’t ended in the last century.

And the 21st century is going to be a far cry from the aftermath of a fairy tale, where the devils of the past (war, famine and plague) have been conquered, and everyone lives “happily ever after”.

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In fact, the 21st century is going to hurl at us some of the most daunting challenges ever faced by humankind. This is why it’s more important now than ever before to be able to understand the tide of history, and what the future holds for us.

This is the basis of Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. After Sapiens (a story of the past), and Homo Deus (a story of the future), one would have thought that there was nothing else to speak about. But Harari has come back to us with yet another book, where he intends to “zoom in on the here and now”.

This book deals with the most pressing questions of the modern era – What does Trump and Brexit mean for the world? Is God back? Why is the liberal democracy in crisis? What can we do about the epidemic of fake news? What should we do about terrorism? Is a new world war coming? What will the AI revolution mean for us? What should schools teach children?

The book starts off by explaining that for the first time since the defeat of Communism and Fascism, liberalism is no longer the dominant religion of the world. Advocates of the liberal story are beginning to lose faith in it following the two debacles of liberal democracy– Trump and Brexit.

The liberal story (which asserts that humans accord meaning to the universe) will be further weakened by the merger of biotech and infotech, which will ensure that algorithms replace humans as the lords of the world. But if not liberalism, then what? No one knows yet.

In the following chapters, Harari talks about what he believes to be the three biggest threats of the 21st century – nuclear war, ecological collapse, and technological disruption.

Nuclear war: After years of peace, the threat of nuclear annihilation has faded in people’s minds, and that peace has been taken for granted. Meanwhile, nations like Russia and USA continue to build more doomsday machines which threaten to put the world at the brink of nuclear war yet again.

Ecological collapse: Humankind has always exploited the Earth’s resources while loading it with waste and poison. If we continue at our current rate, our planet may soon decide to take its revenge by withdrawing the shelter it provides for us.

Technological disruption: Algorithms, which until now had only been our slaves, may soon become our masters. The twin revolutions of biotech and infotech may result in a multitude of dystopian scenarios, ranging from digital dictatorships (where all power is concentrated within the hands of an elite who control these algorithms) to the rise of a global useless class.

How are we to deal with this unprecedented crisis? The first step, Harari argues, is humility.

Rather than being sure that the world is heading towards doomsday, we need to admit our ignorance and acknowledge the fact that we don’t really understand what is going on in the world.

Only then will we have a chance at countering these unknown challenges.
Secondly, in the absence of liberalism, we need to find a unifying force that will enable global cooperation; since we are being confronted with a global challenge, we need a global solution.

Moreover, as a society, we need to change the way we perceive the world and make ourselves more adaptable.

Schools, instead of teaching students coding, sciences, or languages, will need to build in them the capacity for constant learning and up-gradation.

But before anything else, we need to understand what’s at stake so we can brace ourselves for the impact. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century will certainly help you there.

This book doesn’t claim to contain the panacea to the world’s problems, but it does help us understand them, therefore enhancing our chances of successfully conquering them.

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