DESPARDES — The world faces three existential challenges says the internationally best-selling author of Sapiens Professor Yuval Noah Harari.
“Threat of nuclear war; the reality of ecological collapse; and the threat of technological disruption will impact our lives, as we are living in a global world, and our future will be shaped by events all over the world not just in one country.”
Says the historian: ” 2 percent of GDP is enough to turn things around for the environment”.
He was was recently interviewed in Belgium on climate change, technology and the power of stories after he delivered a blistering address to hundreds of movers and shakers from around the world at Davos World Economic Forum in January.
In Davos, the professor who lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said nuclear war and ecological collapse are already familiar threats, but the threat we all are less familiar with is posed by technological disruption.
“Technology might also disrupt human society and the very meaning of human life in numerous ways, ranging from the creation of a global useless class to the rise of data colonialism and of digital dictatorships”.
In 2008, the young historian began to write a book derived from an undergraduate world-history class that he was teaching. Twenty lectures became twenty chapters. The book, published in Hebrew as “A Brief History of Humankind,” became an Israeli best-seller; then, as “Sapiens,” it became an international one. Former president Barack Obama, speaking to CNN in 2016, compared the book to a visit he’d made to the pyramids of Giza.
“Sapiens” has sold more than twelve million copies. “Three important revolutions shaped the course of history,” the book proposes. “The Cognitive Revolution kick-started history about 70,000 years ago. The Agricultural Revolution sped it up about 12,000 years ago. The Scientific Revolution, which got under way only 500 years ago, may well end history and start something completely different.”
