21 Lessons for the 21st Century

“In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power.” 

Humans today are flooded by enormous amounts of information. With just a click of the computer mouse, people all over the world can read the latest accounts of the Syrian war or of melting ice caps in the Artic. However, there are also many contradictory accounts that make it hard for humans to know what to believe. Yet, humans are facing one of the greatest challenges in the history of our species: the merging of biotechnology and artificial intelligence and the profound disruptions this will have on human society. Because of all the irrelevant information, most humans have no idea this challenge is even happening. To Harari, “clarity is power.” If humans learn to make sense of all the information and know the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, then they will no longer be ignorant. As a historian, Harari sees it as his mission to help humans find this clarity by presenting them with facts.  

“The liberal story was the story of ordinary people.” 

The liberal story, in theory, valued the liberties and rights of all human beings. It assumed that if we continue to liberalize and globalize our economic and political systems, then it will produce global prosperity and peace. Since the 2008 economic crisis, however, more people believe they are losing their economic worth.