My reason for thinking he's warning and not promoting is that I remember seeing video clips of him where he seems to be solidly against using future technology to control mankind. I don't recall which talks, and I'm not even sure if my memory as to what I saw is completely intact, but I will probably repost in this forum if I find it again.
You often use very provocative terms like “the useless class” or “hacking humans”. Why did you coin these terms, and are you in favor of creating a useless class or of hacking humans?
I have been warning about the dangers of “hacking humans” and the rise of “the useless class” since around 2014, long before these subjects became popular. I think that while AI has a lot of positive potential, if this technology is misused it will pose an existential danger to humanity. AI might make it possible to hack not just our smartphones, but also our brains. And AI might take our jobs and push many of us into a new “useless class”. I coined deliberately-provocative phrases like “hacking humans” and “the useless class” to draw people’s attention to these dangers.
I am glad to see that many people are now worried about these dangers. I am less glad to see that instead of humans uniting against our common threats, we are fighting and blaming each-other. Some people are obviously doing dangerous stuff, but I don’t think we should see any particular group of people as our mortal enemies and as the source of all our problems. Rather, the source of the problem is the dangerous potential of new technologies like AI, and we should unite with as many people as possible to solve the problem together. Hate will destroy our species. Cooperation can save us. Do you prefer spending your time on spreading hate, or on working together to solve the problem?
What’s your view on religion and spirituality? Do they have a role to play in the 21st century?
I make a distinction between religion and spirituality. Religion is a deal, whereas spirituality is a journey. Religion offers us a well-defined contract: ‘God exists. He told us to behave in certain ways. If we obey God, we’ll be admitted to heaven. If we disobey Him, we’ll burn in hell.’ We are usually not allowed to question or change this contract – we just need to believe in it and follow the rules.
Spiritual journeys are nothing like that. They usually take people in mysterious ways towards unknown destinations. The journey begins with some big question, such as “who am I?”, “What is the meaning of life?” or “ What are good and evil?”. Whereas most people just accept the ready-made answers provided by religious establishments, spiritual truth-seekers are not so easily satisfied. Spiritual seekers question everything, and often challenge the beliefs and conventions of dominant religions. In Zen Buddhism it is said that ‘If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.’ Which means that if while walking on the spiritual path you encounter the rigid ideas and fixed laws of institutionalised Buddhism, you must free yourself from them too.
For religions, spirituality is a dangerous threat. Religions typically strive to rein in the spiritual quests of their followers, and many religious systems have been challenged not by laypeople preoccupied with food, sex, and power, but rather by spiritual truth-seekers who expected more than platitudes. For example, the Hindu religious establishment was challenged by Buddha, the Jewish religious establishment was challenged by Jesus, and the Protestant revolt against the Catholic Church was ignited by a devout monk, Martin Luther. Luther wanted answers to the existential questions of life, and refused to settle for the rites, rituals and deals offered by the Catholic Church.
I think that in the 21st century, spirituality is more important than ever before. For most of history, most people had no wish to embark on spiritual journeys, and tended to ignore the big questions of life. But now technologies like AI and bioengineering are forcing all of us to confront very old and very deep spiritual questions like “what is consciousness?”, “what is humanity?”, and “is there free will?”.
You say that humans don’t have free will. Isn’t this a very negative view of humans?
Freedom is not something you have. Freedom is something you must struggle for. People who believe that their decisions reflect their “free will” are the easiest people to manipulate. People certainly have a will and they make decisions all the time. But most of these decisions are not made freely. They are shaped by various biological, cultural and political forces. The belief in “free will” is dangerous, because it cultivates ignorance about ourselves. When we choose something – a product, a career, a spouse, a politician – we tell ourselves “I chose this out of my free will”. If so, there is nothing further to investigate. There is no reason to be curious about what’s going on inside me, and about the forces that shaped my choice.
Since corporations and governments are acquiring powerful new technologies to shape and manipulate our choices, the belief in free will is now more dangerous than ever. On the other hand, I am not advocating giving all power to the algorithms to make decisions for us. I would recommend that you take a middle path: Don’t just believe that you have free will. Explore yourself. Understand what really shapes your desires and decisions. That’s the only way to ensure that you do not become a puppet of either a human dictator or a super-intelligent computer. The more you question the naïve belief in free will – the more real freedom you actually enjoy.
This, of course, is the oldest advice in the book. From ancient times, sages and saints repeatedly advised people to “know thyself”. Yet in the days of Socrates, Jesus and Buddha you didn’t have real competition. If you neglected to know yourself, you were still a black box to the rest of humanity. In contrast, now you have competition. As you read these lines, governments and corporations are striving to hack you. If they get to know you better than you know yourself, they can then sell you anything they want – be it a product or a politician.
Source: https://odysee.com/Whats-next---the-full-covid-documentary:1 - (32:36 in the video)
I've look at some of his speaking, and to me it appears he is trying to prepare people for the misuse of these technologies.
"Hey, this guy says we have no spirit, and no free will. Must be trying to prepare us..." - a suicideshill
No wonder you would think that...
https://conspiracies.win/p/1994kLbUO4/spreading-truth-or-spreading-pro/c/
Many people believe those things.
My reason for thinking he's warning and not promoting is that I remember seeing video clips of him where he seems to be solidly against using future technology to control mankind. I don't recall which talks, and I'm not even sure if my memory as to what I saw is completely intact, but I will probably repost in this forum if I find it again.
EDIT: From his FAQ at https://www.ynharari.com/faqs/ :
I have been warning about the dangers of “hacking humans” and the rise of “the useless class” since around 2014, long before these subjects became popular. I think that while AI has a lot of positive potential, if this technology is misused it will pose an existential danger to humanity. AI might make it possible to hack not just our smartphones, but also our brains. And AI might take our jobs and push many of us into a new “useless class”. I coined deliberately-provocative phrases like “hacking humans” and “the useless class” to draw people’s attention to these dangers.
I am glad to see that many people are now worried about these dangers. I am less glad to see that instead of humans uniting against our common threats, we are fighting and blaming each-other. Some people are obviously doing dangerous stuff, but I don’t think we should see any particular group of people as our mortal enemies and as the source of all our problems. Rather, the source of the problem is the dangerous potential of new technologies like AI, and we should unite with as many people as possible to solve the problem together. Hate will destroy our species. Cooperation can save us. Do you prefer spending your time on spreading hate, or on working together to solve the problem?
I make a distinction between religion and spirituality. Religion is a deal, whereas spirituality is a journey. Religion offers us a well-defined contract: ‘God exists. He told us to behave in certain ways. If we obey God, we’ll be admitted to heaven. If we disobey Him, we’ll burn in hell.’ We are usually not allowed to question or change this contract – we just need to believe in it and follow the rules.
Spiritual journeys are nothing like that. They usually take people in mysterious ways towards unknown destinations. The journey begins with some big question, such as “who am I?”, “What is the meaning of life?” or “ What are good and evil?”. Whereas most people just accept the ready-made answers provided by religious establishments, spiritual truth-seekers are not so easily satisfied. Spiritual seekers question everything, and often challenge the beliefs and conventions of dominant religions. In Zen Buddhism it is said that ‘If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.’ Which means that if while walking on the spiritual path you encounter the rigid ideas and fixed laws of institutionalised Buddhism, you must free yourself from them too.
For religions, spirituality is a dangerous threat. Religions typically strive to rein in the spiritual quests of their followers, and many religious systems have been challenged not by laypeople preoccupied with food, sex, and power, but rather by spiritual truth-seekers who expected more than platitudes. For example, the Hindu religious establishment was challenged by Buddha, the Jewish religious establishment was challenged by Jesus, and the Protestant revolt against the Catholic Church was ignited by a devout monk, Martin Luther. Luther wanted answers to the existential questions of life, and refused to settle for the rites, rituals and deals offered by the Catholic Church.
I think that in the 21st century, spirituality is more important than ever before. For most of history, most people had no wish to embark on spiritual journeys, and tended to ignore the big questions of life. But now technologies like AI and bioengineering are forcing all of us to confront very old and very deep spiritual questions like “what is consciousness?”, “what is humanity?”, and “is there free will?”.
Freedom is not something you have. Freedom is something you must struggle for. People who believe that their decisions reflect their “free will” are the easiest people to manipulate. People certainly have a will and they make decisions all the time. But most of these decisions are not made freely. They are shaped by various biological, cultural and political forces. The belief in “free will” is dangerous, because it cultivates ignorance about ourselves. When we choose something – a product, a career, a spouse, a politician – we tell ourselves “I chose this out of my free will”. If so, there is nothing further to investigate. There is no reason to be curious about what’s going on inside me, and about the forces that shaped my choice.
Since corporations and governments are acquiring powerful new technologies to shape and manipulate our choices, the belief in free will is now more dangerous than ever. On the other hand, I am not advocating giving all power to the algorithms to make decisions for us. I would recommend that you take a middle path: Don’t just believe that you have free will. Explore yourself. Understand what really shapes your desires and decisions. That’s the only way to ensure that you do not become a puppet of either a human dictator or a super-intelligent computer. The more you question the naïve belief in free will – the more real freedom you actually enjoy.
This, of course, is the oldest advice in the book. From ancient times, sages and saints repeatedly advised people to “know thyself”. Yet in the days of Socrates, Jesus and Buddha you didn’t have real competition. If you neglected to know yourself, you were still a black box to the rest of humanity. In contrast, now you have competition. As you read these lines, governments and corporations are striving to hack you. If they get to know you better than you know yourself, they can then sell you anything they want – be it a product or a politician.