21 Lessons for the 21st Century

by Yuval Noah Harari

Humans were always far better at inventing tools than using them wisely.

It is often said that people connect with art because they find themselves in it.

AlphaZero went from utter ignorance to creative mastery in four hours, without the help of any human guide.

Democracy in its present form cannot survive the merger of biotech and infotech.

Once politicians can press our emotional buttons directly, generating anxiety, hatred, joy, and boredom at will, politics will become a mere emotional circus.

how do you regulate the ownership of data? This may well be the most important political question of our era. If we cannot answer this question soon, our sociopolitical system might collapse.

We have been losing our ability to pay attention to what we smell and taste. Instead we are absorbed in our smartphones and computers.

Can it adopt a new model that encourages people to go online only when it is really necessary, and to devote more attention to their physical environment and to their own bodies and senses?

Though it has no intrinsic value—you cannot eat or drink a dollar bill—trust in the dollar and in the wisdom of the Federal Reserve is so firm that it is shared even by Islamic fundamentalists, Mexican drug lords, and North Korean tyrants.