Book Summary : 21 lessons for the 21st century

Do these 21 lessons have any impact on your work?

Inspired by Shiv Shivakumar, this is my first attempt at summarizing a book I enjoyed reading.

1. 1. Disillusionment The end of history has been postponed Humans were always far better at inventing tools than using them wisely. The technological revolution might soon push billions of humans out of the job market, and create a massive useless class, leading to social and political upheavals that no existing ideology knows how to handle. It is much harder to struggle against irrelevance than against exploitation.

2. 2. Work When you grow up, you might not have a job By 2050, not just the idea of ‘a job for life’, but even the idea of ‘a profession for life’ might seem antediluvian. The gap between the rich ( Tencent managers and Google shareholders) and the poor (those dependent on universal basic income) might become not merely bigger, but actually unbridgeable. But in the lives of all people, the quest for meaning and for community might eclipse the quest for a job.

3. 3. Liberty Big Data is watching you Feelings are biochemical mechanisms that all mammals and birds use in order to quickly calculate probabilities of survival and reproduction. Feelings are thus not the opposite of rationality – they embody evolutionary rationality. Most people don’t know themselves very well, and most people often make terrible mistakes in the most important decisions of their lives. Algorithms might gain authority because we will learn from experience to trust them on more and more issues, and will gradually lose our ability to make decisions for ourselves. As algorithms come to know us well, authoritarian governments could gain absolute control over their citizens. Not only will the regime know exactly how you feel – it could make you feel whatever it wants.

4. 4. Equality Those who own the data own the future In ancient times land was the most important asset in the world, politics was a struggle to control land, and if too much land became concentrated in too few hands – society split into aristocrats and commoners. In the modern era machines and factories became more important than land, and political struggle focused on controlling these vital means of production. If too many of these machines became concentrated in too few hands – society split into capitalists and proletarians. In the 21 st century, data will eclipse both land and machinery as the most important asset, and politics will be a struggle to control the flow of data. If data becomes concentrated in too few hands – humankind will split into different species.

5. 5. Community Humans have bodies Humans cannot live happily if they are disconnected from their bodies. If you don’t feel at home in your body, you will never feel at home in the world. Can digital organizations 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 bodies and senses? What would the shareholders think about this model? Corporations are not the ideal vehicle for leading social and political revolutions. A real revolution sooner or later demands sacrifices that corporations, their employees and their shareholders are not willing to make.

6. 6. Civilization There is just one civilization in the world Human groups are defined more by the changes they undergo than by any continuity, but they nevertheless manage to create for themselves ancient identities thanks to their storytelling skills. Species often split, but they never merge. Since individuals belonging to different species cannot produce fertile offspring together, species can never merge. War spreads ideas, technologies and people far more quickly than commerce. War also makes people far more interested in one another. People care far more about their enemies than about their trade partners.

7. 7. Nationalism Global problems need global answers We must either love each other or we must die. A common enemy is the best catalyst for forging a common identity, and humankind now has at least three such enemies – nuclear war, climate change and technological disruption. To globalize politics means that political dynamics within countries and even within cities should give far more weight to global problems and interests.

8. 8. Religion God now serves the nation Religious groups might harden their views on particular issues and turn them into allegedly sacred and eternal dogmas. ( Eg ., opposition to environmental regulations by American Evangelical pastors) In the 21 st century religions don’t bring rain, they don’t cure illnesses, they don’t build bombs – but they do get to determine who are ‘us’ and who are ‘them’, who we should cure and who we should bomb.

9. 9. Immigration Some cultures might be better than others It would perhaps be helpful to view immigration as a deal with 3 basic conditions or terms: Term 1: The host country allows the immigrants Term 2: In return, the immigrants must embrace at least the core norms and values of the host country, even if that means giving up some of their traditional norms and values Term 3: If the immigrants assimilate to a sufficient degree, over time they become equal and full members of the country. ‘They’ become ‘us’.

10. 10. Terrorism Don’t panic A successful counter-terrorism struggle should be conducted on 3 counts. Governments should focus on clandestine actions against the terror networks and the financial networks that feed terrorism. The media should keep things in perspective and avoid hysteria. It is the responsibility of every citizen to liberate his or her imagination from the terrorists, and to remind ourselves of the true dimensions of this threat.

11. 11. War Never underestimate human stupidity Both on the personal and on the collective level, humans are prone to engage in self-destructive activities. Human stupidity is one of the most important forces in history, yet we often discount it. One potential remedy for human stupidity is a dose of humility.

12. 12. Humility You are not the centre of the world None of the religions or nations of today existed when humans colonised the world, domesticated plants and animals, built the first cities, or invented writing and money. Morality, art, spirituality and creativity are universal human abilities embedded in our DNA. All social animals have ethical codes. For example, when wolf cubs play with one another, they have ‘fair game’ rules. If a cub bites too hard, or continues to bite an opponent that has rolled on his back and surrendered, the other cubs will stop playing with him.

13. 13. God Don’t take the name of God in vain We invoke this mysterious God to explain the deepest riddles of the cosmos. On other occasions people see God as a stern and worldly law-giver, about whom we know only too much. Like a magician fooling an audience by immediately replacing one card with another, the faithful quickly replace the cosmic mystery with the worldly law-giver. ‘We do not understand the Big Bang – therefore you must cover your hair in public and vote against gay marriage.’

14. 14. Secularism Acknowledge your shadow Humans should always retain the freedom to doubt, to check again, to hear a second opinion, to try a different path. Questions you cannot answer are usually far better than answers you cannot question. If you want your religion, ideology or world view to lead the world, my first question to you is: ‘What was the biggest mistake your religion, ideology or world view committed?’

15. 15. Ignorance You know less than you think Most people don’t like too many facts, and they certainly don’t like to feel stupid. The knowledge illusion: We think we know a lot, even though individually we know very little, because we treat knowledge in the minds of others as if it were our own. If you want to go deeply into any subject, you need a lot of time, and in particular you need the privilege of wasting time. If you cannot afford to waste time – you will never find the truth.

16. 16. Justice Our sense of justice might be out of date The bitter truth is that the world has simply become too complicated for our hunter-gatherer brains. Most of the injustices in the contemporary world result from large-scale structural biases rather than from individual prejudices. There is something amiss with the intentions of those who do not make a sincere effort to know.

17. 17. Post Truth Some fake news lasts for ever When a thousand people believe some made-up story for one month – that’s fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years – that’s a religion. The truth is that truth was never high on the agenda of Homo Sapiens . In fact, false stories have an intrinsic advantage over the truth when it comes to uniting people.

18. 18. Science Fiction The future is not what you see in movies The current technological and scientific revolution implies not the authentic individuals and authentic realities can be manipulated by algorithms and TV cameras, but rather that authenticity is a myth. Pain is pain, fear is fear, and love is love – even in a matrix. Escaping the narrow definition of self might well become a necessary survival skill in the twenty-first century.

19. 19. Education Change is the only constant Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching ‘the four Cs’ – critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. Most important of all will be the ability to deal with change, to learn new things, and to persevere your mental balance in unfamiliar situations. You cannot learn resilience by reading a book or listening to a lecture.

20. 20. Meaning Life is not a story If you ask for the true meaning of life and get a story in reply, know that this is the wrong answer. The universe does not work like a story. Of all the things in the world, suffering is the most real. Once you suffer for a story, it is usually enough to convince you that the story is real. When you give up all the stories, you can observe reality with far greater clarity than before, and if you really know the truth about yourself and about the world, nothing can make you miserable.

21. 21. Meditation Just observe Serious meditation demands a tremendous amount of discipline. If you try to objectively observe your sensations, the first things you’ll notice is how wild and impatient the mind is. We better understand our minds before the algorithms make our minds up for us.