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.
Lesson #9: Immigration - Some cultures might be better than others.
As more and more humans cross more and more borders in search of jobs, security and a better future, the need to confront, assimilate or expel strangers strains political systems and collective identities that were shaped in less fluid times.
Though the challenges are unprecedented, and though the disagreements are intense, humankind can rise to the occasion if we keep out fears under control and be a bit more humble about our views.
Lesson #10: Terrorism - Don't panic.
Terrorists are masters of mind control. They kill very few people, but nevertheless manage to terrify billions and shake huge political structures e.g. EU and US.
Terrorist resemble a fly that tries to destroy a china shop. The fly is so weak that it cannot move even a single teacup. It finds a bull, gets inside its ear and starts buzzing. The bull goes wild with fear and anger, and destroys the china shop. This is what happened after 9/11.
Lesson #11: War - Never underestimate human stupidity.
So far the only successful invasion mounted by a major power in the 21st century has been the Russian conquest of Crimea. In February 2014 Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine and occupied the Crimean peninsular, which was subsequently annexed to Russia.
In the past, economic assets were mostly material, so it was relatively straightforward to enrich yourself by conquest. Yet in the 21st century only puny profits can be made that way. Today the main assets consist of technical and institutional knowledge rather than wheat fields, gold mines of even oil fields, and you just cannot conquer knowledge through war.
Lesson #12: Humility - You are not the center of the world.
I like this chapter very much.
Many people tend to believe they are the center of the world, and their culture is the linchpin of human history. All these claims are false. They combine a willful ignorance of history with more than a hint of racism. None of the religions or nations of today existed when humans colonized the world, domesticated plants and animals, build the first cities, or invented writing and money. Morality, art, spirituality and creativity are universal human abilities embedded in our DNA. Their genesis was Stone Age Africa.
Lesson #13: God - Don't take the name of God in vain.
When the faithful are asked whether God really exists, they often begin by talking about the enigmatic mysteries of the universe and the limits of human understanding. 'Science cannot explain the Big Bang,' they exclaim, 'so that must be God's doing.' After giving the name of 'God' to the unknown secrets of the cosmos, they then use this to somehow condemn bikinis and divorces. 'We do not understand the Big Bang - therefore you mush cover your hair in public and vote against gay marriage.'
In truth, we haven't got any evidence whatsoever the the Bible, Quran, Book of Moron, Vedas or any holy book was composed by the force that determined that energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. To the best of our knowledge, all these sacred texts were written by imaginative Homo sapiens. They are just stories invented by our ancestors in order to legitimize social norms and political structures.
Lesson #14: Secularism - Acknowledge your shadow.
The important secular commitments are truth, compassion, equality, freedom and courage.
Undogmatic secular movements tend to make relatively modest promises. Aware of their imperfections, they hope to effect small incremental changes, raising the minimum wage by a few dollars or reducing child mortality by a few percent points. It is the mark of dogmatic ideologies that due to their excessive self-confidence they routinely vow the impossible. Their leaders speak all too freely about eternity, purity and redemption, as if by enacting some law, building some temple, or conquering some piece of territory they could save the entire world in one grand gesture.
I personally would trust more in those who admit ignorance than in those who claim infallibility. If you want your religion, ideology or world view to lead the world, my first question to you is: "What was the biggest mistake your religion, ideology or world view committed? What did it get wrong?"
If you cannot come up with something serious, I for one would not trust you.
Lesson #15: Ignorance - You know less than you think.
If you feel overwhelmed and confused by the global predicament, you are on the right track. Global processes have become too complicated for any single person to understand (propaganda and misinformation).
The problem of groupthink and individual ignorance besets not just ordinary voters and consumers, but also presidents and CEOs. It is extremely hard to discover the truth when you are ruling the world. If you really want truth, you need to escape the black hole of power, and allow youself to waste a lot of time wandering on the periphery.
Lesson #16: Justice - Our sense of justice might be out of date
Even if we truly want to, most of us are no longer capable of understanding the major moral problems of the world. People can comprehend relations between two forages, between twenty foragers or between two neighboring clans. They are ill-equipped to comprehend relations between several million Syrians, between 500 million Europeans.
In trying to comprehend and judge moral dilemmas of this scale, , people often resort to:
Downsize the issue: to understand the Syrian civil war as though it were occurring between two foragers (Assad regime and the rebels).
Focus on a touching human story, such as the fate of one child could activate tear ducts, make blood boil and generate false moral certainty.
Weave conspiracy theories, such as twenty multibillionaires are pulling some strings behind the scenes, controlling the media and fomenting wars in order to enrich themselves. No one - including the multibillionaires, the CIA, the Freemasons and the Elders of Zion really understands what is going on in the world. So no one is capable of pulling the strings effectively.
Lesson #17: Post-truth - Some fake news lasts forever.
Homo sapiens is a post-truth species, who power depends on creating and believing fictions. Homo sapiens can cooperate with numerous strangers because only we can invent fictional stories, spread them around, and convince millions of others to believe in them.
When a thousand people believe some made-up story for one month - that's fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years - that's a religion, and we are admonished not to call it 'fake news' in order not to hurt the feelings of the faithful (or incur their wrath).
Lesson #18: Science fiction - The future is not what you see in the movies.
Disney has built its empire by retelling one myth over and over. In countless Disney movies, the heroes face difficulties and dangers, but eventually triumph by finding the authentic self and following their free choices.
We like the idea of shaping stone knives, but we don't like the idea of being stone knives ourselves.
Lesson #19: Education - Changes ins the only constant.
So the best advice I could give a fifteen-year-old stuck in an outdated school somewhere is: don't rely on the adults too much. Most of them mean well, but they just don't understand the world. In the past, it was a relatively safe bet to follow the adults, because they knew the world quite well, and the world changed slowly.
So on what can you rely instead? Perhaps on technology? THAT'S AN EVEN RISKIER GAMBLE. Technology can help you a lot, but if technology gains too much power over your life, you might become a hostage to its agenda.
If, however, you want to retain some control of your personal existence and of the future of life, you have to run faster than the algorithms, Amazon, the government, and get to know yourself before they do. To run fast, don't take much luggage with you. Leave all your illusions behind. They are heavy.
Lesson #20: Meaning - Life is not a story.
So if you want to know the truth about the universe, about the meaning of life, and about your own identity, the best place to start is by observing suffering and exploring what it is. The answer isn't a story.
Lesson #21: Meditation - Just observe.
I have had personal experience with only one technique - Vipassana.
This is a very philosophical book. I will most probably need to reread it again next year (credits to Clementi NLB)
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