21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Humanity faces unprecedented global challenges in the 21st century: climate change, the threat of nuclear war, growing inequality, artificial intelligence and automation, job loss and worker irrelevance, and a growing sense of disillusionment with liberalism that is driving humanity to embrace the counter-enlightenment values of nationalism and religion.

Yuval Noah Harari spends much of the book outlining these problems, placing them in historical perspective, and providing philosophical insight into their possible solutions. In this sense, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a brilliant primer on current affairs from a wider angle, presented by a historian that can transcend the parochialism of political debate and define the problems show more from a historically-informed and rational position. As Harari has said elsewhere, he prefers to think in centuries rather than in hours, days, or months.

Harari covers a lot of ground: climate change, immigration, technology, terrorism, war, god, religion, education, truth, meaning, and justice, and it’s worth reading the book in its entirety to get a sweeping perspective on current issues. But the main theme of the book is that the three major global problems of the 21st century (climate change, nuclear war, and technological disruption) cannot be solved locally.

Nationalism and religion in particular have no solutions for global problems. No single nation can, by itself, solve climate change, prevent nuclear war, or regulate technological innovation. Global cooperation among nations is the only chance we have at navigating these issues. The other option, I suppose, is pretending that the issues don’t exist, like when artificial intelligence and automation were never discussed during the 2016 US presidential debates and when Donald Trump called climate change a “Chinese hoax.” But ignoring the problems won’t make them go away.

Religion, Harari claims, is also largely irrelevant in terms of providing solutions, because the religious texts have almost nothing to say about contemporary problems. Additionally, religious people usually form their political conclusions first, using religion only as justification for positions they already hold. This is demonstrated by the fact that the religious occupy almost every conceivable social and political position and can find support for that position somewhere within scripture.

Another prominent theme throughout the book is humanity’s need for comforting stories, for simple and untrue myths that are required to give life meaning. This is pathological and needs to be outgrown. We need to develop intellectual integrity and the courage to admit our ignorance, confront the unknown, and forge our own meaning. The retreat to fairy tales is intellectually dishonest, and believing in something against all evidence to the contrary is, frankly, cowardly. In terms of life’s meaning, is it not enough to enjoy the companionship of others, to love, to engage in meaningful work, to help those in need, and to marvel at our access to all the world’s knowledge and cultural, artistic, and scientific output? Is all of this really meaningless if a middle-eastern carpenter from 2,000 years ago was not born of a virgin and resurrected from the dead?

For humanity to survive the challenges that lie ahead, we must transcend the old dogmas and myths and develop a new, global, cooperative philosophy based on reason, science, humanism, and progress. Whether or not this happens is up to us, but to do so we must confront and defeat the perennial conservative and reactionary forces that are constantly trying to drive us backwards.

The only downside to the book is that it repeats much of the author's previous works, and if you've read both Sapiens and Homo Deus, you'll already be familiar with much of the content and arguments, particularly his technological prognostications and his concept of imagined realities. Still, there's enough new ground and fresh insights to make this a worthwhile read. show less

First of all, the reaction to this book might depend on the readership: is it a student right out of college, a person in his/her 40s, or a retiree - the mental impact might be different for each of them. "Sapiens" took me by surprise and was an eye-opener, and "21 Lessons..." doesn't fall short of that at all, another eye-opener on many levels (I am yet to read "Homo Deus" - delaying it, thinking it might be a bit "over-my-head"...).

I do agree with other reviewers that Harari doesn't have all the answers (who has?!), but he highlights and pinpoints the societal problems in such a way that definitely makes us pause and think. At first glance, Harari might seem a super skeptic, but in fact, he makes a lot of sense. I have never written show more out so many quotes from a non-fiction book (or any book for that matter) like from this one, which shows how many mind-boggling, important, radical, and, to some, sacrilegious ideas he has.

In his essay-like chapters he touches on a variety of subjects, "lessons" he calls them - and not without reason. (He lost me a bit in the chapter on science fiction - but it's not his fault). I do admit that I still struggle with the proposed idea that our "feelings are biochemical mechanisms", but I am not a scientist and cannot argue with brain research. But I especially liked how, in this book, instead of lecturing, Harari converses with the reader. Also, it has to be mentioned that, like in "Sapiens", he continues to be very consistent with his objectivity - he attacks the weak points of ALL religions/nations/philosophies, including his own (Judaism and Israel). A very welcome surprise in the last chapter - on Meditation: to think that an author who seems to be brutally critical of so many things that Homo Sapiens represent, embraces meditation so fully - it has to stand for something (both in his favor and that of meditation!). show less

Society 101

Yuval Harari is well known for his books Sapiens and Homo Deus. He has decided to squander his reputation on a book called 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. The basic problem is that every chapter is the subject of whole shelves of books, and putting them all in one book cannot possibly do them justice. What we have left is a set of 21 editorials, which might inform the totally uninformed, but provide little insight and no solutions. As “lessons” they are unhelpful.

He has conveniently distilled all the threats to mankind into three: nuclear war, climate change and technological/biological disruption. But only technological/biological gets examined. You’re on your own for climate change and nuclear war, which apparently show more don’t rate high enough for “lessons”.

Despite those three most important threats, the most common theme throughout the book is criticism of religion, mostly Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, though Buddhism and Hinduism come under attack as well. Looking back from the perspective of the universe, Harari condemns all religions as pompous, pretentious, full of contradictions, and terrifically negative forces.

In his chapter on Immigration, Harari boils down the entire complex situation to three superficial “debates”:
-The receiving country must be willing
-Immigrants must be willing to adopt “at least the core norms and values” of the new country
-If immigrants assimilate, they become “us” rather than “them” and must be treated as first class citizens.
Simple, inaccurate and totally missing the real issues.

In his chapter on terrorism, Harari completely misses the point that the state has a monopoly on violence. Anyone who challenges that monopoly must be put down, no matter how many civil rights and freedoms are trampled in the process. He spends pages explaining how few people are killed by terrorists compared to traffic, war and disease. So why are we so afraid of terrorists, he asks. (Because the state wants us to be, Mr. Harari.)

In the chapter on war, he comes to the magical conclusion that we’ve pretty much done away with it. So far, the only new war we’ve seen this century is Russia taking parts of Ukraine. He says countries see too much risk in starting new wars. He completely ignores (not for the first or last time), the effects of climate change, which will result in unprecedented and massive wars as countries face unstoppable waves of immigrants seeking water and land, as countries disappear from the face of the earth, and as those that have will defend it to the death against all comers, foreign and domestic.

The final chapter is on meditation. Meditation is Harari’s solution to pretty much everything, because you can focus on what is real – what is going on in your body right then and there. He says he does this two hours a day, plus one or two months a year.

If I had to summarize 21 Lesson for the 21st Century, I would say: throw off the false faiths of institutional religions and meditate instead. Not quite what I expected, and not much help in navigating the 21st century.

David Wineberg show less

В своей новой книге автор бестселлеров для умных Homo Sapiens и Homo Deus рассуждает уже не о том, как мы дошли до жизни такой, и не о том, что нас ждет через 100–500 лет, а о самом ближайшем будущем, которое разворачивается прямо перед глазами, но не всегда регистрируется нашим сознанием или нашими СМИ. Дает Харари и реакцию на значительную обратную связь, которую он получает со всего мира на свои будоражащие мысли. show more Главы 11-я «Война. Нельзя недооценивать человеческую глупость» и 12-я «Скромность. Вы не пуп земли» надо давать читать подрастающему поколению, даже если вам там что-то не по душе. А вот самую большую главу, 20-ю, «Смысл. Жизнь — не вымысел», венец всего труда и, наверное, квинтэссенцию всего здравого, что выработала человеческая мысль к данной минуте, советую прочесть уже всем и каждому. show less

How safe from obsolescence is the job you have now? Do you have the skills to adapt in the rapidly changing Big Data environment? How will the merger of infotech and biotech affect our collective future? How can we prevent climate change from irrevocably changing the planet? What will the next global armed conflict look like? Is the recent rise in nationalism a threat to world security? How does “post-truth” (i.e., fake news) affect our thinking? Do terrorist attacks create more fear and suffering than they should? How do the stories we tell ourselves, whether religious or secular in nature, influence our behavior?

These are all questions that are clearly of concern to each of us in the here and now. They also motivate many of the show more “lessons” discussed in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, a volume that once again combines Yuval Noah Harari’s unique blend of history, science, philosophy, and anthropology. Unlike Sapiens, which explored mankind’s past 10,000 years, and Homo Deus, which projects humanity’s long-term future, this book purports to assess the major issues facing us in the present. Unfortunately, this exploration is neither wholly successful nor is it nearly as compelling as the author’s previous two efforts.

To be sure, there is a lot to like about what appears here. In particular, Harari’s discussion of the economic, legal, and social challenges created by the ascent of Big Data is very illuminating. Who owns the information summarizing our lives—or, perhaps more critically, who controls it—is indeed likely to be one of the major issues defining our near-term future. I also thought that the author’s interpretations of nationalism and secularism were insightful. Overall, he did a nice job of connecting several disparate themes into a cohesive bigger picture (e.g., a discussion of the importance of developing a global community is followed by an examination of nationalist sentiment which leads to a consideration of the immigration problem and then to the threat posed by terrorism).

The main problem I had with all of this is that major portions of the book were not especially original and often seemed like slightly reworked versions of arguments used in the author’s previous studies. For instance, the rise of biotech was thoroughly covered in Homo Deus and humankind’s use of rituals and ability to create useful fictions were essential parts of Sapiens. As such, there are really far fewer than 21 distinct lessons presented here, despite the volume containing 21 different chapters. Finally, the last two chapters involving the role of personal stories and the importance of meditation were woefully self-indulgent and had an off-putting pop-psychology/self-help feel to them. So, while 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is not at all a bad book, the reader might be better served by considering the author’s earlier work instead. show less

This is the second book by this author which I have read. I like how he puts problems we face on a global basis rather than an individual or national basis. In order to survive in the future, we need to have a plan that will work for future generations. He talks about many subjects which will affect our lives in the future. For me, his most profound thoughts arise out of his belief that our lives consist of myths and stories which encompass such things as nationhood, religion, and other categories with which each of us self-identifies. What surprised me the most was at the end of the book where the author finds meaning and solace in meditation.

One thing I especially love about Harari’s writing is that he writes about each subject show more clearly and objectively. Whether I agree or disagree with what he writes, I understand perfectly what says. I also delight in the ways he expresses himself (i.e. “What my people lack in numbers and real influence, they more than compensate for in chutzpah.”). This author’s truths are so factual they oftentimes make me laugh in their simplicity.

Books like this one are exceptional in forcing readers to think about how objectively they see the world in terms of such things as religion, politics, and truth. I am eager to continue reading the brilliant writing of this author. show less

This is the 3rd book that I have read by Harari i. The first 2( Sapiens and Homo Deus) are among the best non-fiction books that I have ever read. They got me thinking about all aspects of our lives as he delves into our history as a species and the future of humans. This book is simpler and probably a good introduction to Harari for first time readers. He deals with the present and deliver 21 essays in 5 sections 1. Technological Change 2.The Political Challenge 3. Despair and Hope 4.Truth 5.Resilience . Although he deals with lofty topics he writes them in understandable ways with lots of concrete examples. One of his main themes throughout all 3 of his books is the concept of the myths that we live with. To me his number one myth is show more religion. Being a historian and scientist he looks at things through empirical evidence. Religion as an accepted myth(after all do we really have proof of God's existence) unites most of humanity. As a unifying force it has done much good in the world but also much harm. He shows that what works for small intimate groups does not solve the big problems of the world. For me the best lesson was the one on humility. The idea that the world should be looked at through the rules set down by religion shows a certain arrogance about one religion having the truth. After all what do all the rituals and rules that all religions practice have to do with the central positive message of the religion. His book addresses truth and shows how Trump and Putin distort the truth to achieve their goals. He does not necessarily have answers to our most vexing problems but this book definitely gets you to think. For me reading his 3 books has caused me to view everything through the historical perspective that he lays down in his books. There quite a few youtube videos of Harari engaging with different moderators.Check it out. This is thought provoking non-fiction at the highest level. He will challenge your deeply held beliefs about nationalism, commerce, and religion. show less