Quite a few people view Harari as working on behalf of the World Economic Forum, promoting its agenda. I have watched videos of his WEF presentation and read his books. I have the distinct impression that he is warning AGAINST the intrusion of technology on our humanity and AGAINST a global world directed by a few at the top. For example, here are a couple of quotes from his book "21 Lessons for the 21st Century":
"If we want to prevent the concentration of all wealth and power in the hands of a small elite, the key is to regulate the ownership of data." (page 77).
"If we want to prevent a small elite from monopolizing such godlike powers [biometric sensors combined with AI], and if we want to prevent humankind from splitting into biological castes, the key question is: who owns the data?" (page 79).
[I apologize in advance for the length of this comment and for it being so untimely. Please feel free to treat my many questions as hypotheticals.]
When I first read Harari’s books “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus,” I was completely enthralled. At the time, I was on the verge of accepting trans-humanism as inevitable, and Harari really knew how to glorify our empire in unassailably logical if not magical terms. But after watching many of his online conversations and going over his books again, my mind slowly changed. And that was years before I even knew about his association with the WEF and Klaus Schwab. Now, this discussion with Kahneman is just the last straw. It’s going to sound like over-the-top hyperbole, but at this point I’m starting to wonder if Harari is a danger to humanity.
I’m an absolutist about free speech (and academic freedom), but what about speech in devoted service to empire? I’m not quite ready to think of Harari as a Goebbels working for Schwab, but I am increasingly feeling alarmed. In comparison with Russel Brand’s demonstrations of Christ-like acceptance (if not sincere love) of Harari, I suppose I should feel a bit ashamed. But I don’t.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I’ve gathered about your personal philosophy, you tend to blame bad human behavior mainly on bad systems, and I agree with that…to a point: Poor slobs forced by a bad system to do contemptible things (mainly to other poor slobs) are forgivable (at least partially). But I don’t extend that forgiveness to those people who are the architects, leaders, and promoters of the bad system, especially when that system is imperial in scope and scale.
So, what if Harari is consensually serving as an imperial propagandist of the highest rank? What if he actually is nefarious? Can Russell-Brand-like trust in human goodness cause us to be so intellectually inclusive and forgiving as to make us self-destructively pacifistic and irresponsibly complacent?
Quite a few people view Harari as working on behalf of the World Economic Forum, promoting its agenda. I have watched videos of his WEF presentation and read his books. I have the distinct impression that he is warning AGAINST the intrusion of technology on our humanity and AGAINST a global world directed by a few at the top. For example, here are a couple of quotes from his book "21 Lessons for the 21st Century":
"If we want to prevent the concentration of all wealth and power in the hands of a small elite, the key is to regulate the ownership of data." (page 77).
"If we want to prevent a small elite from monopolizing such godlike powers [biometric sensors combined with AI], and if we want to prevent humankind from splitting into biological castes, the key question is: who owns the data?" (page 79).
[I apologize in advance for the length of this comment and for it being so untimely. Please feel free to treat my many questions as hypotheticals.]
When I first read Harari’s books “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus,” I was completely enthralled. At the time, I was on the verge of accepting trans-humanism as inevitable, and Harari really knew how to glorify our empire in unassailably logical if not magical terms. But after watching many of his online conversations and going over his books again, my mind slowly changed. And that was years before I even knew about his association with the WEF and Klaus Schwab. Now, this discussion with Kahneman is just the last straw. It’s going to sound like over-the-top hyperbole, but at this point I’m starting to wonder if Harari is a danger to humanity.
I’m an absolutist about free speech (and academic freedom), but what about speech in devoted service to empire? I’m not quite ready to think of Harari as a Goebbels working for Schwab, but I am increasingly feeling alarmed. In comparison with Russel Brand’s demonstrations of Christ-like acceptance (if not sincere love) of Harari, I suppose I should feel a bit ashamed. But I don’t.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I’ve gathered about your personal philosophy, you tend to blame bad human behavior mainly on bad systems, and I agree with that…to a point: Poor slobs forced by a bad system to do contemptible things (mainly to other poor slobs) are forgivable (at least partially). But I don’t extend that forgiveness to those people who are the architects, leaders, and promoters of the bad system, especially when that system is imperial in scope and scale.
So, what if Harari is consensually serving as an imperial propagandist of the highest rank? What if he actually is nefarious? Can Russell-Brand-like trust in human goodness cause us to be so intellectually inclusive and forgiving as to make us self-destructively pacifistic and irresponsibly complacent?