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Yuval Noah Harari

287 quotes

“...Meanwhile in the USA paranoid Republicans have accused Barack Obama of being a ruthless despot hatching conspiracies to destroy the foundations of American society – yet in eight years of his presidency he barely managed to pass a minor health-care reform.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From a Dataist perspective, we may interpret the entire human species as a single data-processing system, with individual humans serving as its chips. If so, we can also understand the whole of history as a process of improving the efficiency of this system through four basic methods:”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without criticising the liberal model, we cannot repair its faults or go beyond it. But please note that this book could have been written only when people are still relatively free to think what they like and to express themselves as they wish. If you value this book, you should also value the freedom of expression.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the beginning, the liberal story cared mainly about the liberties and privileges of middle-class European men, and seemed blind to the plight of working-class people, women, minorities and non-Westerners. When in 1918 victorious Britain and France talked excitedly about liberty, they were not thinking about the subjects of their worldwide empires.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But liberalism has no obvious answers to the biggest problems we face: ecological collapse and technological disruption. Liberalism traditionally relied on economic growth to magically solve difficult social and political conflicts.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The loss of many traditional jobs in everything from art to healthcare will partly be offset by the creation of new human jobs. GPs who focus on diagnosing known diseases and administering familiar treatments will probably be replaced by AI doctors. But precisely because of that, there will be much more money to pay human doctors and lab assistants to do groundbreaking research and develop new medicines or surgical procedures.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But in reality, there is no reason to assume that artificial intelligence will gain consciousness, because intelligence and consciousness are very different things. Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. Consciousness is the ability to feel things such as pain, joy, love and anger. We tend to confuse the two because in humans and other mammals intelligence goes hand in hand with consciousness. Mammals solve most problems by feeling things. Computers, however, solve problems in a very different way.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What will happen once we can ask Google, ‘Hi Google, based on everything you know about cars, and based on everything you know about me (including my needs, my habits, my views on global warming, and even my opinions about Middle Eastern politics) – what is the best car for me?’ If Google can give us a good answer to that, and if we learn by experience to trust Google’s wisdom instead of our own easily manipulated feelings, what could possibly be the use of car advertisements?”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The so-called Facebook and Twitter revolutions in the Arab world started in hopeful online communities, but once they emerged into the messy offline world, they were commandeered by religious fanatics and military juntas.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In less than a hundred years the Germans organised themselves into six very different systems: the Hohenzollern Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the German Democratic Republic (aka communist East Germany), the Federal Republic of Germany (aka West Germany), and finally democratic reunited Germany. Of course the Germans kept their language and their love of beer and bratwurst. But is there some unique German essence that distinguishes them from all other nations, and that has remained unchanged from Wilhelm II to Angela Merkel?”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I cannot name the 8 million people who share my Israeli citizenship, I have never met most of them, and I am very unlikely ever to meet them in the future. My ability to nevertheless feel loyal to this nebulous mass is not a legacy from my hunter-gatherer ancestors, but a miracle of recent history.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If Greeks and Germans cannot agree on a common destiny, and if 500 million affluent Europeans cannot absorb a few million impoverished refugees, what chances do humans have of overcoming the far deeper conflicts that beset our global civilisation?”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Diabetes and high sugar levels kill up to 3.5 million people annually, while air pollution kills about 7 million people. So why do we fear terrorism more than sugar, and why do governments lose elections because of sporadic terror attacks but not because of chronic air pollution?”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the 1930s Japanese generals, admirals, economists and journalists concurred that without control of Korea, Manchuria and the Chinese coast, Japan was doomed to economic stagnation. They were all wrong. In fact, the famed Japanese economic miracle began only after Japan lost all its mainland conquests.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I think of the mystery of existence, I prefer to use other words, so as to avoid confusion. And unlike the God of the Islamic State and the Crusades – who cares a lot about names and above all about His most holy name – the mystery of existence doesn’t care an iota what names we apes give it.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not visiting any temples and not believing in any god is also a viable option. As the last few centuries have proved, we don’t need to invoke God’s name in order to live a moral life. Secularism can provide us with all the values we need.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most important secular commitment is to the truth, which is based on observation and evidence rather than on mere faith. Seculars strive not to confuse truth with belief.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Drinking lots of will not make you young, will not make you healthy, and will not make you athletic – rather, it increases your chances of suffering from obesity and diabetes. Yet for decades Coca-Cola has invested billions of dollars in linking itself to youth, health and sports – and billions of humans subconsciously believe in this linkage.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the early twenty-first century, perhaps the most important artistic genre is science fiction. Very few people read the latest articles in the fields of machine learning or genetic engineering. Instead, movies such as The Matrix and Her and TV series such as Westworld and Black Mirror shape how people understand the most important technological, social and economic developments of our time.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In such a world, the last thing a teacher needs to give her pupils is more information. They already have far too much of it. Instead, people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and above all to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching ‘the four Cs’ – critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.3 More broadly, schools should downplay technical skills and emphasise general-purpose life skills. Most important of all will be the ability to deal with change, to learn new things, and to preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situations.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So at twenty-five you introduce yourself on a dating site as ‘a twenty-five-year-old heterosexual woman who lives in London and works in a fashion shop’. At thirty-five you say you are ‘a gender-non-specific person undergoing age-adjustment, whose neocortical activity takes place mainly in the NewCosmos virtual world, and whose life mission is to go where no fashion designer has gone before’.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For years I lived under the impression that I was the master of my life, and the CEO of my own personal brand. But a few hours of meditation were enough to show me that I hardly had any control of myself. I was not the CEO – I was barely the gatekeeper. I was asked to stand at the gateway of my body – the nostrils – and just observe whatever comes in or goes out. Yet after a few moments I lost my focus and abandoned my post.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The typical scientist doesn’t actually practise meditation herself. Rather, she invites experienced meditators to her laboratory, covers their heads with electrodes, asks them to meditate, and observes the resulting brain activities. That can teach us many interesting things about the brain, but if the aim is to understand the mind, we are missing some of the most important insights.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we are willing to make such efforts in order to understand foreign cultures, unknown species and distant planets, it might be worth working just as hard in order to understand our own minds. And we had better understand our minds before the algorithms make our minds up for us.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]f humans are so smart, why are we so stupid?”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The problem is in our information. ...Why is it that the quality of our information did not improve over thousands of years..? Why is it that... societies ...have been as susceptible as Stone Age tribes to mass delusion.., psychosis, and the rise of destructive ideologies like Stalinism and Nazism?”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[A] dollar bill... has no objective value. ...[T]hey ...have value because the greatest storytellers.., the finance ministers, ...bankers, ...investors ...tell us a story ...As long as millions ...believe, they are willing to work ...”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[F]or the first time in history... there is another agent... that can create stories, economic theories, new... currencies, music, poems, images, videos, and this... is AI... an alien intelligence.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]n the United States there is a legal path open for AIs to become s, because.., unlike other countries.., corporations are... legal persons that... have rights like freedom of speech. ...[Y]ou incorporate an AI. ....[I]t can open a bank account.., go online and offer its services.., and earn money, and... invest it, and... earns billions... We could be in a situation when the richest person... is not a human being.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he richest person in the US is giving billions... to candidates in exchange for... broadening the rights of AIs. ...This is no longer a science fiction scenario.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he... solution.., good institutions... characterized by... strong self-correcting mechanisms... that allow... an entity, a human.., an animal or an institution, to identify and correct its own mistakes.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he heart of democratic systems is this self-correcting. ...Elections are a self-correcting mechanism.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In dictatorships there is no... self-correcting mechanism.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Traditional religions... were characterized by claiming to be infallible, that their holy book, their sacred tradition never makes any mistake.., therefore there is no mechanism... to identify and correct mistakes...factual, also moral mistakes.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The tenth commandment says that you should not covet your neighbor's field.., ox, or... slaves. According to the 10th commandment, God has no problem with people owning slaves, just... with coveting the slaves of somebody else.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]here is no mechanism to correct the text of the Bible.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The U.S. constitution originally... enabled slavery, but... had an amendment.., a self-correcting mechanism... to forbid slavery.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whole of science... is a self-correcting mechanism. ...[S]cientific journals publish ...corrections to previous publications.., to past mistakes or past lacuna.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every large scale human system is based on... mythology and bureaucracy. ...Every country, to convince its ...citizens why it should exist, tells ...national or religious mythology .., gives the motivation.., inspiration.., reason... You... need to build roads.., hospitals.., armies and sewage systems... to avoid s ...so you need to collect taxes. ...[M]ythology encourages ...or explains ...why ...So ...citizens will enjoy good healthcare ...and ...sewage system that protects ...from .., ... [etc.]”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]here is nothing wrong about it. Nationalism and patriotism have been one of the... best inventions ...All other social animals ...care only about a small [intimate] circle ...This was ...true of our ancestors ...The miracle of nationalism and patriotism ...makes us care about millions of strangers ...”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nationalism is not about hating foreigners and wanting to kill the others. It's about loving our compatriots... and... paying taxes honestly...”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]nformation isn't truth. Most information is not truth.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]f we... flood the world with information and expect the truth to float up, it will not. It will sink.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unless we... construct institutions that invest in truth, we'll be flooded by fiction.., illusion.., delusion and junk information.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you want millions... cooperating.., create some... mythology or ideology and convince... people... [B]ombard then with... stories and images.., and this is how you gain power. ...[I]n this balance, how much truth ...and how much fiction and delusions do you need ...to construct the Soviet Union? ...a little truth and a lot of fiction. ...[T]his is true of most of the large scale s... throughout... history.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[[Totalitarianism|[T]otalitarianism]] and democracy... are different information networks.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Democracy is a conversation. ...Imagine a large group of people... and... a group of robots... start talking... loudly.., emotionally and persuasively, and you can't tell who is a human... That is... what we are now living through.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he democratic conversation is breaking down all over the world because the algorithms are hijacking it. ...We are losing the ability to hold a reasoned conversation... [W]e need to ban bots [fake humans] from the conversation. AIs should be welcome... only if they identify as AIs.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[M]y... recommendation is to go on an information diet... Information is the food of the mind. ...[I]t is not good for the body to eat too much food or... . ...More information isn't always good for you. ...[T]ake time for information fasts. ...[W]atch the quality of the information we feed our mind.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source