The Future is Now [3/3]
Biochemical algorithms, the meaning of life, and education 🧠
“The Future is Now” is a compilation of some of the most relevant ideas found in 21 Lessons for the XXI Century, a best selling book by Yuval Noah Harari
Human Essence
If by free will we understand that we have the ability to do what we wish, we do have free will. But if on the contrary we think of free will as the ability to choose what we wish, we don’t have free will. I don’t tell my neurons when to shoot.
We are algorithms
If we think that we have free willing because we can choose what we feel, we’re right. If we think that we have free willing because we
With AI having this ability of knowing our feelings, and what they represent, we may be feeling👀 curious about what feelings actually are. Other questions would be: are we even free to choose when we feel anger or not? Are these only things happening in our brains?
Probably one the most mind-opening ideas that I found in this book was that feelings are not based on intuition, inspiration or freedom. They’re based on calculations.
This means that a lot of our feelings have been molded by evolution. When a monkey sees a snake, it feels fear because millions of neurons have quickly calculated that the probability of dying is high, and they need adrenaline in the muscles to try and survive.
Feelings are therefore a necessity; a tool. That tool is made up of biochemical algorithms. If the image processed matches the one of a predator, release adrenaline, which will help the muscles move quicker and ultimately, this whole process will help the organism survive.
You know, this isn’t explicitly mentioned in the book, but our genes are selfish. We are part of a much bigger than ourselves chain of humans. We’re born, grow up, develop, maintained as healthy as possible until we have kids, and then die.
Some even say that we are nothing but self-replicating machines. That’s scary, but it seems so true as well.
In any case, you may ask, but what about more “conscious” feelings such as compassion, guilt or forgiveness? Well, this is a little bit more interesting, since Yuval mentions that human beings are the only species that has evolved to collaborate.
Wondering what made human beings special? Why we’ve been able to discover, build, and do what we’ve done? Apparently the answer isn’t only IQ, but collaboration too.
Feelings like guilt or forgiveness help us do that as a species and as a group. Thus, they could also be part of this process of evolution.
In general, we don’t realize that feelings are calculations because they happen incredibly quickly, faster than we can internalize them and be conscious about them. Therefore, we believe in free will. Liberalism could lose its practical advantages.
Quest for meaning
Perhaps the biggest question we have asked ourselves as humans for centuries, is why we are here, and why “here” even exists? I think that this quest for meaning becomes even more challenging, yet important when we discover that we could be nothing but the slaves of our genes and how the environment has shaped these.
If this helps somehow, Yuval reminds us that according to Buda, the three basic realities of the universe are that everything changes without stoping, that nothing is forever, and that nothing is completely satisfying.
In this sense, Buda says that life has no meaning, has no sense and that we don’t need to find one. Suffering occurs because we don’t take this into account, and therefore, what we really want is not to find meaning, but to get rid of suffering.
At the same time, the most real thing in the world is suffering. When we find ourselves trying to guess if something is real or not, whether a story about the world is real or fiction, we should ask ourselves if beings in that story are able to suffer.
A fairy tale
When thousands of people believe during months in something that is not true, that’s called a fake news. If millions of people believe in something during millennia, that’s called a religion.
It’s hard to address this topic, when it can be a sensible one for many. Of courses Yuval does it in a much better way than I could, but I still apologize if the following words may sound a little aggressive.
Touching obsolescence
If I follow my common sense, I should agree with Yuval: the more profound the secrets of the universe are, the less likely is that whoever invented them, cares about dressing codes or human sexual behavior. Then why does religion exist in the first place?
As far as we can understand, they were imaginative homo sapiens the ones who wrote the Bible, the coran and other holy books. The purpose behind them was the give sense to our existence and order to our civilizations.
Would more humans create disorder if we didn’t tell them that there’s a supreme force looking above them, and that even if they don’t suffer the consequences in this life, they’ll do so in another one, and that the’ll burn in hell?
My answer is probably yes. We have the capacity to think ahead of time, and believe in those incredible stories. I bet that if, somehow, a cow told another cow to do a sacrifice today because she’ll be rewarded in another life, that other cow wouldn’t believe it. Still, cows don’t need those stories.
Moral doesn’t mean to follow the divine laws that religions say. It means “to reduce suffering”. Therefore, we don’t need to believe in any fictional story to behave morally. We only need to understand suffering at a deep level.
People rape, murder and steal because they only understand suffering at a superior level, without worrying about the impact that it may cause to others or themselves in the long term.
We shall remember that every violent act starts within the person who commits it. Before that is done, the person has already lost peace inside themselves.
Not a religion
Secularism is sometimes seen as the denial of religion. However, those who consider themselves lay, see it as “a positive and active vision of the world defined by a coherent code of values and not for opposing to a religion”.
They don’t think that moral and wisdom come down from the sky. They know that they’re naturally passed down from generation to generation. Thus, they take responsibility, because whatever good or evil that there is in the world, also depends on them.
Lay people abstain themselves from murder not because a book says so, but because they understand the suffering that could cause to a conscious being. This can also include animals, and other living things.
When lay people are in the middle of an ethical dilemma, there is no precise rule to follow. They evaluate the situation and options in order to take the decision that will cause less harm and suffering to both parts.
The most important compromise in secularism is the truth based on observation and evidence rather than in simple faith. They don’t believe in holy books or other artifacts. They believe in whichever object that holds the truth. This can be a photo of a far away galaxy, or the sequence of a genome.
Some other values that secularism comprises are freedom, justice, braveness, and responsibility. The great thing about this of course, is that none of these values is exclusive of secularity. Anyone can put them in practice.
Do we live in a simulation though?
Just when I thought there would be no question that could be more important than why we are here, or who the heck created this universe, people ask about the possibility of living in a simulation, or — thanks to the movie — the also very known term: matrix.
Although not in much detail, you can also read about this question in 21 Lessons for the XXI Century. The answer that the author gives — which also goes according to the most advanced scientific studies — is quite logical in my opinion:
Since there’s no way to prevent our environment from influencing and shaping our feelings, then there is no authentic self waiting to be liberated from that manipulating sleeve.
However, since our brain and our “I” are part of the same matrix, we need to escape from the “I” to escape from the matrix.
Escape from ourselves could be a great ability for the XXI century. Are we really learning it?
What is next?
After talking about AI, biotechnology, the useless class, existence, religion, the data economy, and more interesting topics in the previous parts of this series, my question is: how do we connect that?
Spending time philosophizing about these topics to then return to our “normal” and daily lives, in which we try to find meaning, is probably the most ironic thing in human existence, I think.
Now, I don’t know about you, but still this is how my world works, and as part of the 21 chapters in this fantastic book, there is one about education. What can schools be teaching youth today, when we are going to be the drivers of the fourth industrial revolution?
The past revolution
The product of the past industrial revolution was an education system in which there are different clusters to which a group of people with the same age change every time a bell rings, then an older person comes in and talks about the shape of the earth, the form of the body or human’s past. Sounds familiar?
The education system is training us to be factory workers. Raise our hand when we want to say something, ask for permission to do our necessities, take a seat in chairs that are the same, ordered in rows and columns, looking at the front, where our “superior” alias teacher speaks what they think to be the absolute truth.
More than 180 years later, this is still how the current education system works! Even though there are emerging options that involve the use of technology, they still can’t replace the whole system. They could be implemented in luxurious suburbs, but not in rural areas.
Training to escape the matrix
With AI knowing having the potential to know more about ourselves than we do, and therefore, have more control on us, than we do, it’s not a surprise that emotional intelligence will be a necessary skill in the XXI century.
Unfortunately, is much more difficult to teach how to be emotionally stable than to teach how to solve differential equations. The same teachers tend to lack the mental flexibility that is needed for the XXI century, for they are the product of the previous education system.
Yuval’s advice
So the current education system can be good at teaching us about math, chemistry, history, and so on. Still, in most cases, it’s not going to train you to learn about yourself, it’s not going to teach you what technologies like gene editing or Internet of Things are, and therefore, it isn’t too useful for the times to come.
“If there’s a single piece of advice that I could give to a teen living in whichever part of the world, is don’t trust adults too much.” Many of them have good intentions, but they don’t understand the world as well. They knew a world that used to change slowly and the XXI century is characterized by rapidness in change.
So who can we trust? Technology? Well, technology can help you a lot, but it can also slave you. Technology is not bad. If you know what to do with your life, it can help you get it. But if you don’t, technology will shape your future for you and take control over your life.
Even our own thoughts can be greatly influenced by society, then we can’t even be sure if trusting them is a good option. Now I can say that these things aren’t easy.
In the end, there are some questions about the universe and life, that will remain unanswered. All we do is explore, and try to find meaning in a likely meaningless place.
Lessons
1. Escaping from ourselves will be a great ability for the XXI century. Meditation, a great skill
2. If you’re interested in a certain topic, join a relevant organization. Do it this week!
3. Don’t trust adults too much. Don’t trust tech too much either
4. To be successful in a challenging task, you first need to know how you operate; to know who you are and what you want out of life. This is the oldest and most important advice: know yourself. If you want to win the race, you’ll have to go faster than the government, Amazon and their algorithms. To go faster, leave your illusions behind, don’t carry too much with you.
5. Concentrate in the here and the now. Love pretends no more. Perhaps the safest story to trust is love. Connect with the cosmos. Every other story is false since the universe doesn’t work based on stories
6. The last thing we should be given at school is information. What needs to be taught is the ability to make sense of that information and differentiate between what’s important and what is not
Pain is pain, fear is fear, joy is joy. It’s pointless if those emotions are derived from chemical reactions in our brains, or a simulation. They’re the same. They’re still real. — YNH
Hey! I’m Sofi, a 16-year-old girl who’s extremely passionate about biotech, human longevity, and innovation itself 🦄. I’m learning a lot about exponential technologies to start a company that impacts the world positively 🚀. I love writing articles about scientific innovations to show you the amazing future that awaits us!
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