An Eye-Opening Depiction Of The Future by Yuval Harari

Historian & author Yuval Noah Harari emphasized vital highlights in his speech at the Davos Summit this year, drawing attention to the unique dangers that biology and data may pose in the near future when combined with today’s computing capacity.

Below are the bullet points.

We are probably the last members of Homo Sapiens.

2. We will find ways to rebuild our bodies and minds in the coming period.

3. Therefore, data will turn into a new product in the economy of the 21st century.

4. We will develop not only cars and weapons but also new bodies and minds.

5. Those who manage and control big data will determine what life will turn into.

6. Those who control big data will define the future of life, not just humanity.

7. Data will become the world’s most important asset.

8. In the past, the equivalent of this was land.

9. However, it belonged to a very small, limited group.

10. In the industrial age, the importance of machinery has outstripped the value of the land.

11. The use of large numbers of machines to a small number of people gave birth to classes among people. Capital and the working class arose in this way.

12. Today, data replace machines.

13. And likewise, if a small number of people take control of data, humanity will not be divided into classes but into different types.

14. Data is important. Because today we can interfere not only with computers but also with organisms, in a sense we ‘hack’ them.

15. We need powerful systems and lots of data to hack people.

16. We need to have information about how the body works.

17. Until now, nobody had the data and devices needed to hack people. Even the states that followed every step and every detail of the citizens with their intelligence networks lacked the necessary power to process and make sense of this data.

18. Today this is changing. Two parallel evolutions make this possible.

19. Machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as advances in biology and brain science enable us to solve humans.

20. As a result of our 150 years of work, we learned that organisms are actually just an algorithm.

21. And now we have the ability to decrypt these algorithms.

22. We enabled computers to analyze by converting biochemical data into electronic signals.

23. With enough data and computing power, we can create structures that know us better than we do.

24. With the spread of this power and knowledge, it will be difficult for us to hide ourselves from Amazon, Alibaba, or intelligence services.

25. While surfing the internet, spending time on social media, or watching videos, algorithms will be able to profile us by tracking our eye movements, heartbeat, and mental activities.

26. Advertisements will knowingly personalize even our sexual orientation while marketing their products to us.

27. We will not be aware of this, but they will be.

28. They will read our passions and make proposals accordingly.

This age can create a -digital dictatorship-.

30. Democracy creates decision-making mechanisms by distributing information to different institutions.

31.Dictatorships, on the other hand, conduct business by concentrating all their knowledge and power on one point.

32. The power of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the “21st century” can swing the pointer that stands for the supremacy of democracy towards dictatorships.

33. If democracy fails to adapt to the centralized structures that enable data processing, people could fall under the yoke of digital dictatorships.

34. Even today, we observe that democratic countries using technologies are working to establish such structures.

35. Data control can lead an elite group to create more radical structures than digital dictatorships.

36 These elites may tend to decide the future of life through the ability to dominate the human body.

37. Science takes on the task of transferring natural evolutionary processes to smart design.

38. This design is not of God in the clouds, It will come from using cloud systems.

39. Science will take us from our organic boundaries to inorganic boundaries.

40. “We are drifting into an inorganic life that will be shaped by 4 billion years of smart design.

41. Who owns the data is, therefore, more important than ever.

42. We have knowledge and experience in regulations for the ownership and use of land or machinery, but our knowledge of data organization is insufficient.

43. This is difficult because, unlike terrain and machines, information is scattered in many places and can be easily copied.

44. It is very difficult to talk about ownership.

45 It is also not wise to put the responsibility to do something on the states, on the politicians because they are not reliable and knowledgeable enough either.

46. ​​Many politicians and governments are incapable of drawing their vision for the future.

47. It consists of nostalgic stories about the past that they present to the public.

48. Let me speak as a historian: the past was not as fun as you might think, you wouldn’t want to live in those times. And it is not possible to go back to the past. This cannot be a solution.

49. We need to consult scientists, jurists, philosophers, and even poets about the ownership of data. This is not just a dilemma for the future of humanity but all life.

50 This issue will be on our agenda in the next few decades. I do not think that people will remain in today’s consciousness 200 years later.

51. Another human species will emerge.

52. Most people today think about what they buy and what link they click when it comes to “data”, but the main thing is the biological data.

53. They think computers are the only thing to hack, but the body is a much bigger target.

54. The real target is the brain.

55. My country, Israel, is building a tracking system in the West Bank that has never been seen anywhere else in the world. He tries to control every step of the people in every sense.

56. So is China, North Korea, and the USA.

57. However, today this pursuit still works on traditional systems.

58. Things will change even more in structures where we will be obliged to wear a smart bracelet tomorrow. I am talking about systems that will report to the center how you feel when you see your leader’s poster on the street.

59. No state will want to fall behind in such a race if there is no well-intentioned global consensus.

60 The solution to this problem requires the cooperation of many different groups.

61. We will experience the biggest contradictions in the field of health.

62. We will have to choose between privacy and good service.

63. We will empower what is happening in our body and brain for a better diagnosis and treatment.

64. I believe we will be healthier. On the other hand, people will give up their privacy for better health.

65. In some countries and situations this will even be mandatory.

66. You may need to provide your personal data if you want insurance on better conditions.

Thanks to this wise mind for sharing his great point of view with us. Let me share a few words too to wrap up and summarize his points.

It is for sure that Homo Sapiens Sapiens, the human who knows that s/he knows, has come to an end and is to give birth to a more advanced and conscious human reality. Because our knowledge is still discriminative and far away from embracing and serving every being on this magnificent planet.

KNOW THYSELF. This world, which was first used by Khilon of Sparta and got famous with Socrates in ancient Greece, is the antidote to our situation. Knowledge does not bring wisdom and without wisdom, we cannot create happiness, peace, freedom, prosperity, serenity for all.

The only next step of human evolution, for me, is not Homo-Deus or Homo-Machinus or transhumanism, but Homo-Noeticus — THE HUMAN WHO KNOWS HERSELF/HIMSELF.

With love,

Kenan