21 lessons for 21st century

By Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari is a historian and a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has
written many books including sapiens: about human history, Homo deus: about human future and
21 lessons for 21st century. This book deals with the important lessons that are relevant in today's
world. Moreover, this book provides a global view and also talks about the major forces that have
shaped the world. Further, those forces will also influence future.
The writer has divided the book into five parts and further each part consist of many chapters
whose main focus are different issues mainly global.
Part 1-The technological challanges
The writer has contributed the first part of the book to the technological challenge and describes
several issues and matters regarding technology. This section deals with the latest technological
innovations and its impacts on the political, social and economic conditions of the world. The first
chapter of the first section is known as disillusionment. According to him, the stories of 20th
century which were the fascist, communist and liberal ideas are being replaced by the new ideas
which is of technology and innovations by virtue to the developments in info-tech and bio-tech.
He also says that these technologies are also affecting human minds. Yet, one of the major question
that it raises is where will human go and what will be the direction of future?
Harari in the next chapter writes about the jobs. He says that the AI is replacing humans by dint of
their intelligence, less time taking, and connectivity. All these qualities make is able to update its
self up to time. While humans don't possess these qualities. Therefore, in the near future all the
jobs will be taken by AI. Yet, the ones having the knowledge of algorithms can participate in jobs
but still they cannot perform the way technology and AI can. So, because of all these humans will
become irrelevant from exploited ones and their future will have no direction.
In the liberty chapter, harari writes that humans were free and easily took decisions based on their
thinking. Yet, owing to the developments of biotech humans will always be guided by them and
therefore always face psychological problems because all the time there will be something wrong
going on in their bodies. Similarly, the philosophical cars will help them to reach somewhere which
will decrease the accident rates however if any one car stops then all of them will be stagnant
which is its biggest issue. Moreover, he writes about the most prefared thing that is democracy
which cannot survive with these developments in technological fields as each decisions is guided
by AI and they will become superior to humans. Thus, by virtue to all these innovations humans
are hacked!
As per harari throughout the history, the major problem was of equality. As most of the resources
and data was controlled by the elite and the AI is further increasing it and the elites are still focusing
on the collection of data and its control, such as Google. Yet, this inequality can be ended through
equal investment on humans as well as technology. Yet, about the controlling of data still there is
confusion.
Part 2-The political challenges
The second section of the book is based on the political challenges in the 21st century, which is
caused by virtue to the info-tech and bio-tech as it challenges the ideas of liberty, equality and
democracy.
The first chapter of this section is based on community. As it says that communities provide better
path to solve the issues which was proved by Elon musk during 2016. Yet, he said that there should
be a link between online and offline lives and communities must be build on it. However, the issue
with it is that with the merging of offline and online lives AI would further have influence and can
easily manipulate humans.
In the civilisation chapter the writer says that the whole world is under one global civilisation with
it's own separate civilisations. The global picture provides the bases of any action such as the UN
charter or the human rights laws. Similarly, the global problems, which are faced by each
civilisation, is of the increasing influence of the AI, the climate catastrophe and the excessive use
of plastic.
Harari in the nationalism chapter supports nationalism and also ask people to focus on the global
view: humanity. He says that in past the questions were being solved by nationalism but now as
the problems are global therefore they need global answers. The nuclear challenge, the ecological
challenge, and the technology challenge are the areas that cannot be solved through nationalism
rather they need global answers and all the state must combine together to solve these issues.
Harari also speaks about the role of religion in solving the problems. As per him religion can only
solve identity problems and cannot solve technological and policy problems, because they are
based on global level. The reason behind solving the identity problems is that it is concerned to an
individual and it leads a person to distinguish between them vs us and then behave in such a way
that is guided by religion.
Harari says that in 21st century another issue is of immigration. As the immigrants face cultural
shock through migration. Therefore, the steps must be taken to solve there problems so that they
can be effective people and also then solving other problems be easy.
Part 3-Despair and hope
The third section of the book is about despair and Hope. Harari says that due to all the issues
humankind may be disappear and may lose hope to solve them but what they need to do is to be
hopeful so that all these issues should be solved.
The writer opens this section with the most important issue which is terrorism. As per him
terrorism is more in the minds of people then in reality. The terrorists kill few people and threatens
many. Therefore, governments must take steps to lessen these fears and invest more in the people.
Moreover, he says that If the terrorists get weapon of mass destruction then the picture would be
changed completely.
He also writes about war that war cannot ensure peace. As due to single economic system and
nuclear weapons the whole world will face catastrophic damage therefore all the states try to avoid
war.
In the humility chapter of the book, the writer tries to end the concept of superiority. As many
cultures believe that they are superior and all the developments were done by them. Yet, he says
that this is not right as we all are humans and any progress done by any of us is done for humanity
and not for any specific group.
Harari also writes about God and the moral values given by him and says that we need to focus on
the moral values and also accept God because this will ensure peace in the society.
He then says about secularism which is the negation of God and following the ethical values and
in 21st century this idea is expending fastly.
Part 4-Truth
In the 4th section of the book, Harari says that the 21st century is the age of misconceptions and
confusions due to varying realities. Therefore, it is hard to know the truth.
He starts the section with the ignorance chapter in which he writes about the importance of
rationality and says that humans take most of their decisions on the emotional level rather than on
the rational level, which leads them to face many problems.
He also talks about justice which is difficult to be implemented, not because it doesn't have values
rather because in this era the knowledge of cause and effect of values is difficult. So, to enforce
any law we need to know it correctly, which is difficult in the post-truth era.
Harari writes a chapter on the post-truth era aswell. He says that on this era there are several
realities and if one wants to know the ultimate reality then one needs to waste a lot of time and
energy and get oneself involved in the traps of ideas.
One of the misconceptions of the modern world is the science fiction which mixes the
consciousness with imagination and led people to live in imaginary world, which is far away and
irrelevant from the reality. This is discussed in the chapter "Science fiction" of the book.
Part 5-Resilience
The last section of the book is contributed to the solutions and the path that can help humans live
in 21st century which is named as the resilience. Throughout this section the writer makes us clear
about the paths we can follow to live in the age of bewilderment.
The first chapter is contributed to the education system and it says that the education system should
face constant changes as per the need to time and so does teachers because the AI is gaining power
which is dangerous for humans therefore, they need to change the system in such a way that it
should be compatible with time and changing circumstances.
Harari then explains the meaning of life and says that life is what we makes of it and we give
meaning to the universe and it doesn't give meaning to us. Therefore, we need to understand your
own self so that we can know what life wants from us. He also explains the importance of suffering
and says that life without suffering is of no account and it is suffering that let us know the value
of life and things.
Therefore, to explain the concept of suffering further he writes the last chapter of the book known
as meditation which is the best way of suffering and knowing the meaning of life.
My remarks
To wind up, I would say that the book "21 lessons for the 21st century" is a worth read book as it
clears our vision to almost all the topics related to this era. It also help us think critically and try to
connect the things going around us and find their solutions. Thus, I would highly recommend this
book to the ones who are interested in knowing about the world and each aspect of it.