This is a 300-page book, but you could complete it within a few weekends. It starts rather quite technically, but ends with great lessons for laypeople like you and me.
Lesson #1: Disillusionment - The end of history has been postponed.
This book was published in 2018, the time of Donald Trump, Putin and Xi. The world seems to be on the brink.
Lesson #2: Work - When you grow up, you might not have a job.
Yes. The way of life/work has been almost the same for the past 2 centuries. But this will change. Technology, AI and robots will be replacing humans very soon. What can we do?
Lesson #3: Liberty - Big Data is watching you.
All wealth and power might be concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, while most people will suffer not from exploitation, but from something far worse - irrelevance.
Lesson #4: Equality - Those who own the data own the future.
How can cope with the challenges of biotech and infotech revolutions (which threatens the core modern values of liberty and equality)? Nationalism, religion and culture divide humankind into hostile camps and make it very difficult to cooperate on a global level.
Lesson #5: Community - Humans have bodies.
I definitely agree that we need to go offline (away from gadgets) more.
Lesson #6: Civilization - There is just one civilization in the world.
Everybody trust the USD, but it is actually humankind. We all came from the African continent after thousand of years of evolution.
Lesson #7: Nationalism - Global problems need global answers.
The EU model is so far the best. There is still peace.
Lesson #8: Religion - God now serves the nation
The true expertise of priests and gurus has never really been rainmaking, healing, prophecy or magic. Rather, it has always been interpretation. A priest is not somebody who knows how to perform the rain dance and end the drought. He is somebody who knows how to justify why the rain dance failed, and why we must keep believing in our god even though he seems deaf to all our prayers.
Scientist too know how to cut corners and twist the evidence, but in the end, the mark of science is the willingness to admit failure and try a different tack. That's why scientists gradually learn how to grow better crops and make better medicines, whereas priest and gurus learn only how to make better excuses.
