Morality doesn't mean "following divine commands". It means "reduce sufferings." Therefore in order to act morally, you don't need believe in any myth of story. You just need to develop a deep appreciation for suffering. If you really understand how an action causes unnecessary suffering to yourself or to others, you will naturally abstain from it.21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari.
As I started the book, I felt a 3rd book in 3 years was too soon since some of the initial chapters were repetitive. But within an hour or so, I fell for his lucid writing. Harari is one of those gifted writers who can think and write clearly in the simplest of terms.
Truth and power can travel together only so far. Sooner or later they go their separate paths. If you want power, at some point you have spread fictions. If you want to know truth about the world, at some point you will have to renounce power. You will have to admit things - for example sources of your own power - that will anger allies, dishearten followers, or undermine social harmony. Scholars throughout history have faced this dilemma. Do they serve power or truth? Should they aim to unite people by making sure everyone believes in the same story, or should they let people know the truth even at the price of disunity? The most powerful scholarly establishments - whether of Christian priests, Confucian mandarins, or Communist ideologues - placed unity above truth. That’s why they are powerful.
Humans were always far better at inventing tools than using them wisely. It is easier to manipulate a river by building a dam than it is to predict all the complex consequences this will have for the wider ecological system.
Yet the real problem with robots is exactly the opposite. We should fear them because they will probably always obey their masters and never rebel.
The danger is that if we invest too much in developing AI and too little in developing human consciousness, the very sophisticated artificial intelligence of computers might only serve to empower the natural stupidity of humans. If we are not careful, we will end up with downgraded humans misusing upgraded computers to wreak havoc on themselves and on the world.
The attempt to replace small groups of people who actually know one another with the imagined communities of nations and political parties will never succeed in full.
Species often split but never merge. Human tribes, in contrast, tend to coalesce over time into larger and larger groups.
No doubt we will have huge arguments and bitter conflicts over these questions. But these arguments and conflicts are unlikely to isolate us from one another. Just the opposite. They will make us ever more interdependent. Though humankind is very far from constituting a harmonious community, we are all members of a single rowdy global civilization.
The victory of science has been so complete that our very idea of religion has changed. We no longer associate religion with farming and medicine. Even many zealots now suffer from collective amnesia and prefer to forget that traditional religions ever laid claim to those domains.
Secular education teaches children to distinguish truth from belief, to develop compassion for all suffering beings, to appreciate the wisdom and experience of all the earth’s denizens, to think freely without fearing the unknown, and to take responsibility for their actions and world as a whole.
As we come to make the most important decisions in the history of life, I personally would trust more in those who admit ignorance than in those who claim infallibility. If you want your religion, ideology, or wolrdview to lead the world, my first question to you be “What was the biggest mistake your religion, ideology, or worldview committed? What did it get wrong?” If you cannot come up with something serious, I for one would not trust you.
I find it difficult to answer even the simplest questions, such as where my lunch comes from, who made the shoes I’m wearing, and what my pension fund is doing with my money.
The greatest crimes in modern history resulted not just from hatred and greed but even more so from ignorance and indifference.
So if you want to know the truth about the universe, about the meaning of life, and about your own identity, the best place to start is by observing suffering and exploring what it is. The answer isn’t a story.
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