More from Yuval Noah Harari on the world they are looking forward to. I can’t say I fancy it much.
“I think that once you are superfluous, you don't have power. We are used to the age of the masses, of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, where you saw all of these successful mass uprisings, revolutions, revolts. So we are used to thinking about the masses as powerful. But this are basically nineteenth and twentieth century phenomena. I don't think that the masses, even if they somehow organised themselves, stand much of a chance. We are not in Russia of 1917, or nineteenth century Europe.
What we are thinking about now is a second industrial revolution, but the product this time will not be textiles or machines or vehicles or even weapons, the products this time will be humans themselves. We are basically learning to produce bodies and minds. Minds and bodies are going to be the two main products of the next wave of all these changes.
...that (death) is optional. Again when I think about it from the viewpoint of the poor, it looks terrible. Because in history Death was the great equaliser. The big consolation of the poor throughout history was that, OK, these rich people, they have it good, but they are going to die, just like me. But think about the world in fifty years, a hundred years: the poor people are going to die, but the rich people - in addition to all the other things that they are going to get - they also get exemption from death.
Once you solve the problems like direct brain-computer interface, when brain and computer can interact directly, to take just one example, that's the end of history, the end of biology as we know it.
Nobody has a clue what will happen, once you solve this.
If life can basically break out of the organic realm, into the vastness of the inorganic realm, you cannot even begin to imagine what the consequences will be, because our imagination at present is organic.”
Even if they could realize their dystopian dreams, they are too arrogant to see it would not play out like they think it will. The phrase “professing to be wise, they became fools” comes to mind whenever I see this particular little toady wax on about his feverish desire for immortality. They’re not as smart as he thinks they are.
Taking these evil clowns down will be a fight, since they do have power. Not as all-powerful as they like to think though. As I read a lot of substacks these days (Happy to have found yours. Thank you!), I see a theme emerging of them over-reaching too far, too fast. They overplayed their hand, let the mask slip too far, and too many of us can see them for what they really are and are having none of it. This guy in particular should have kept his lips closed more, but he’s so obviously in love with the sound of his own voice, he can’t help himself.
It won’t be easy and some tough times lie ahead, but we will defeat this latest manifestation of the great evil once more.