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A Brief History of the Future mind map
"A Brief History of the Future" is a scientific and technological theory work written by Yuval Harari. The book mainly tells that after entering the 21st century, the plagues, famines and wars that have long threatened the survival and development of mankind have been overcome. Homo sapiens are faced with new issues to be dealt with: immortality, happiness and becoming "divine". Humanity.
Edited at 2019-05-09 05:54:04
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A brief history of the future
Preface: New Issues for Humanity
defeat death
The emergence of immortality 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 can fully exploit their potential under the existing organic body structure
Semi-mechanical engineering: integrating various non-organic devices, retaining the organic brain as the core
Non-organic bioengineering: intelligent software replaces neural networks, inorganic life replaces organic life
If the mind changes from carbon-based to silicon-based, the structure of the mind changes, Homo sapiens disappears, and human history comes to an end.
clarify
1. The above refers to "humanity as a whole", not most individual people; 2. This is a historical prediction rather than a political goal; pursuit may not necessarily achieve it.
3. Prediction is not for the purpose of prophecy. Prediction can change the future after discussion.
Marxism didn't overthrow the regime, this prediction alone could make them change
The meaning of history: Historical knowledge will change our future behavior. Studying history is to liberate ourselves from old meanings.
The paradox of knowledge: knowledge (prediction) is useless if it cannot change behavior. Once behavior changes, the original knowledge (prediction) immediately loses its meaning.
On the road to becoming a god, there are no brakes
Experts all have their own strengths, and no one understands the entire system; modern economies can only grow endlessly, braking will lead to collapse, and can only pursue sustainable goals: immortality, happiness, and divinity.
1. Homo sapiens conquered the world
How humans treat other animals (World)
fact
Humans have exterminated and conquered other large animals and dominated the world; humans, like other animals, are a set of biological algorithms for reproduction, and emotions and desires help us find a path quickly
idea
hunter gatherer
He does not think that he is superior to other creatures. Whether a person can survive depends on understanding and respecting the desires of the animals around him. He tends to animism and communicates with all things.
farmer
Farmers' quality of life depends on the animals they can control; reducing animals from sentient beings worthy of respect to disciplinary animals, ignoring their emotional needs; even treating people of different classes as assets
Theism (such as Christianity) promises that Homo sapiens is dominant and can exploit all other living things; in theism, gods are responsible for regulating between humans and the ecosystem, and the gods are responsible for protecting agriculture in exchange for human contributions and sacrificing the ecological environment.
modern man
Theism uses the name of God as the reason for traditional agriculture, while humanism uses the name of human beings as the excuse for modern industrial agriculture; humanism is based on the fact that homo sapiens possess certain unique and sacred human natures, animals do not, and nature is not important.
human traits
People have souls
If the soul is evolved, it is contrary to the nature of evolution that it is an indivisible, eternal entity; if the soul suddenly appears in a human being, it is impossible to imagine that he or his parents did not have a trace of soul before him or his parents.
People have souls
If everything is in our neuron network, why separate the mind? If the mind is higher than the neural network, then where is it?
The web of human meaning
Animals can only imagine things that actually exist; humans can imagine intersubjective things, which 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 all kinds of fictional imaginations that fail to make sense of the world.
2. Homo sapiens gives meaning to the world
the power of fiction
Animals all live in two realities: objective test questions and subjective experience. The world of Homo sapiens has a third reality: stories about money, gods, countries, companies, etc.
70,000 years ago, the cognitive revolution 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, people 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 forces citizens to use this piece of paper to pay taxes. No choice, but market develops
Story should be just a tool, not the goal
We should distinguish between reality and fiction. The status of reality is of course higher. The euro can be devalued but there is no pain. In the future, there will be more powerful fictional concepts and more totalitarian organizations. It is particularly important to distinguish between reality and fiction. Fictional stories make human beings Easier to work with, but at the cost of stories that also determine the goals of our cooperation
The debate between science and religion
religion
1. Religion is not the same as superstition. What you believe must be "truth", and what others believe will be superstition; 2. Religion is not supernatural. For people who believe in demons, gods, and elves, this is nature; 3. Religion is also It’s not a matter of whether you believe in “God”
Religion does not equal spirituality
Religion is about consolidating the world order, spirituality is about escaping
The spiritual journey is only suitable for individuals, not for society. Human beings must cooperate and cannot have only problems and no norms.
Religion is an all-encompassing set of stories that lends superhuman legitimacy to human laws, norms, and values
The definition of religion lies in its social function rather than whether there is a god; Christianity, communism, and liberalism can all be regarded as 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 needs the assistance of religion; it studies facts but does not make ethical judgments
Religion is not just about ethical judgments, it also includes factual statements
Three parts of a typical religious story
1. Ethical judgment; 2. Statement of fact; 3. Combination of both
Science cannot refute religious ethical judgments, but it can refute factual statements
Science and religion are easier to compromise and cooperate than imagined: religion cares most about order, while science cares most 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 to question, but to realize its dogma.
Contract with "Modern"
Pre-modern humans believed they were living within some grand cosmic plan, which limited human power but also gave everything meaning
"Modern" is a contract, the essence of which is: people give up meaning in exchange for power
Without meaning, the reason why modern society is still developing 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 had if humans find meaning outside of the overall cosmic plan. man finds humanism
dogma of humanism
Humanistic politics: voters can make the best choice; economics: the customer is always right; aesthetics: what looks beautiful is beautiful; ethics: do what feels right; education: think for yourself.
The split in humanism
Classical Orthodoxy: Liberalism. Everyone is a unique person with experiences that will never be repeated
Branch One: Social Humanism. Socialism blames liberalism for focusing too much on one's own feelings and ignoring the experiences of others.
Branch Two: Evolutionary Humanism. The conflict of various experiences and feelings is inevitable and the best one wins
3. Homo sapiens lost 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 and not free will.
According to the theory of evolution, all so-called "selections" of animals are responses to genetic codes.
individualism
Liberalism believes that everyone has a single, indivisible self
Split-brain experiment, self is physically separable
Ice and fire experiment, people have two selves: experiencing self and narrative self
great separation
A scientific response to the insistence that people are irreplaceable
1. Biology is an algorithm. Every animal is a collection of evolved algorithms; 2. The function of the algorithm is not affected by the constituent materials; 3. As long as the facts are calculated, there is no difference between silicon-based and carbon-based
Superhumans take over the world, and humans lose equality
Whether algorithms or superhumans take over the world, liberalism will collapse
Algorithms control the world and humans lose their sanctity
Humanity as a whole still has value, but individuals no longer have authority and most choices are governed by external algorithms;
Human beings have no value at all: algorithms become entities like companies and countries that control humans; what do useless people do, they can only live on drugs and playing games; humans are likely to be kept in captivity or eliminated because the system is smarter than humans.
New Religion: Technohumanism
We still believe that humans are the pinnacle of creation, and that Homo sapiens has upgraded to become the god of wisdom, fighting against the most complex unconscious algorithms.
Just like human intelligence sees a small segment of the spectrum, the channel in the heart is much wider than what we experience. Becoming a wise god can explore the new continent of the mind.
Technological doctrine faces an unsolvable dilemma. It believes that human will is the most important thing in the universe, so it promotes human development and control. However, once the will can be controlled, human beings will lose their sanctity and cannot stand in the face of technology.
The New Religion: Dataism
Dataism believes that the universe is composed of data, and the value of any phenomenon or corpse 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 decentralized data processing was better than centralized at this stage.
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 be eliminated; authoritarian regimes are also unable to cope with the speed and volume of data flow.
All mankind is a data system, and individuals are chips
4 ways to improve efficiency
1. Increase the number of processors (population); 2. Increase the types of processors (high-tech occupations); 3. Increase the connections between processors (trade); 4. Increase the freedom of circulation of existing connections.
4 stages of human development
1. Cognitive revolution, a large number of homo sapiens can be connected into a single data processing network
2. Agricultural revolution and massive increase in population
3. From the invention of writing and money to the beginning of the scientific revolution, various connections have become closer;
4. In the final 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 have improved. Global Data Processing System.
For dataism, freedom of information is the highest good
Two commandments of dataism: connect more and more media, produce more and more information; connect everything to the system, including the heretics who don’t want to join
Dataism treats human experience as data patterns, thus destroying people’s authority and source of meaning.
Experience has no value if it is not shared. People do not need and cannot find meaning from their hearts. They can only wait for algorithms to find meaning. When better algorithms and data appear, humans will be eliminated naturally. The Internet of Everything itself has a sacred meaning. Meaning; dataism is as much a threat to humans as humans are to other animals. Data doesn't care about our subjective needs.
The three most important matters and corresponding questions
1. Is biology really just algorithms, and life really just data processing?
Science is converging on an all-encompassing dogma that all living things are algorithms and life is data processing
2. Which one is more valuable, intelligence or consciousness?
Intelligence is decoupling from consciousness
3. When unconscious but highly intelligent algorithms know us better than we do, what will happen to society, politics, and daily life?
Unconscious but highly intelligent algorithms may soon know more about us than we do