Krishna
We reviewed his excellent book Sapiens earlier. This book has the trademarks of his eloquent style and upending your thinking on many aspects of life that you found there. But is something still missing? Read the book and make up your mind for yourself.
The author explains that, unlike Sapiens, which brilliantly explains the past or Homo Deus, which speculates about the far future, this book is about the immediate present (and the near about future) and how it is affected by the technological and cultural trends of our age. He talks about the liberal ideology’s conquest of the world in the face of demise of all competing thoughts (like absolute monarchy, facism and communism) and how the current backlash has set it due to disillusionment, fuelled by catastrophes like the 2018 crash and the suffering it caused.
The people who faced exploitation before, now faced irrelevance. The new elite used technology like blockchain and AI and did not need the poor to even exploit. The poor feared loss of their remaining power and therefore the backlash against liberalism (The Brexit, the rise of Donald Trump being two main examples) started everywhere.
He also talks fascinatingly about the threat to the jobs due to improvements in AI and machine learning and chillingly explains why this may be different from previous bouts of automation where the threatened job losses never came to pass. This time it may hit even educated and productive jobs as against the repetitive jobs. He talks of how no one profession (for instance, a doctor) can stand against a network of all knowledge via an automated solution. He speculates whether even the arts (music for instance) can be created that is sure to appeal to mass tastes, without the need for – and use for – creative professionals. Scary stuff but really feasible.
The language, the phrasing, the examples are all exemplary and this is almost a demonstration of how a nonfiction book should be written. His earlier book, Sapiens, covering the history of mankind, is a far more astounding book mainly because of its subject matter but the style and the impact are there in this book – enough to keep you absorbed throughout.
He for example argues how the machines can take over in a benevolent way and make all the decisions for you that you did not even know you needed to make. Scary but fascinating stuff. The examples he gives are stunning.
Also brilliant is how he establishes that the nations about ‘just’ a thousand years ago (a blink of an eye on an evolutionary scale) were so different and how, despite different notions of nationhood and ideas most nations follow exactly similar ideas however different they portray themselves to be. His power of explanation is legendary. Consider just his one example. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan, they blew up monuments and burnt books, closed schools because they disagreed with what they represented. But when they took over a bank and saw dollar notes, imprinted with the faces of the hated US Presidents and slogans of the imperial West, they did not burn them too. Because they understood the power of commerce and subscribed to the same international conventions that every other nation subscribed to. Brilliant.
He goes on to explain why the nationhood disappeared after the Cold War – indeed even during the Cold War when most of the world was arrayed into Communist and Democratic camps and alliances; and why it is coming back now (consider Brexit and the rise of nationalism everywhere in the world).
This is a book where you will enjoy almost every sentence uttered and enjoy the sensation of looking at everything in the world with new eyes – eyes loaned to you by Yuval.
He for instance talks about religion and how it is used as supportive and decorative veneer to support both capitalist and socialist decisions of the governments of religious countries; nonetheless it is a mistake to ignore it as it binds nations into entities and creates hostilities between countries.
He makes a forceful argument as to why wars and invasions are so rare these days. The most valuable assets are digital and skills, which cannot be ‘plundered’ by the marauding army and so the war pays very little to the coffers of the invaders. Interesting concept. On the other hand, the world approbation and sanctions may leave you much worse off. Just look at Russia and its attempt to invade Ukraine.
His take on terrorism is also unique. He argues that the victim nations and the media are those that make terrorists so fearsome. In effect, we amplify the puny effects and power of terrorists – yes, including the dreaded 9/11 attack. Reading this, as usual, makes you see issues from a different light.
His arguments about religion and God are as surprising as ever. He talks about how the three religions from the Middle East do not have the monopoly on the good ‘commandments’ and how moral codes existed from time immemorial (Hammurabi, Buddha to name just a few)
He also talks about powerful fictions unifying man and helped him progress – an echo of what he has said in Sapiens before.
He then goes metaphysical – to my surprise – and talks about knowing yourself – in particular understanding your own mind.
To tell you the truth, this book has some really surprising parts like Sapiens but between the two, I would definitely say that Sapiens is a far better and fascinating read.
This book is interesting to read in itself, and is definitely worth perusing, but then, he has set the bar so high with his earlier book that you come away with the feeling that this book somehow does not reach that rarified heights of educating you.
But nevertheless, a good read.
7/10
= = Krishna