1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Chris Anderson: Hello. So welcome to this TED dialogue. 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's the first of a series that's really going to be done 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in response to the current political upheaval. 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't know about you. 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I've become quite concerned about the growing divisiveness in this country 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and in the world. 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 No one's listening to each other. Right? 8 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They aren't. 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And it feels like we need 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a different kind of conversation, 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 one that's based on, I don't know, 12 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 reason, listening, on understanding, 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 on a broader context. 14 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That's at least what we're going to try 15 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in these TED Dialogues starting today, 16 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we couldn't have anyone with us 17 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who I'd be more excited to kick this off. 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is a mind right here that thinks 19 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 pretty much like no one else on the planet 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I would say, because I'm serious. 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I'm serious. 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He synthesizes history 23 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with underlying ideas in a way 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that kind of takes your breath away. 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So some of you will know this book, 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Sapiens." 27 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Has anyone here read "Sapiens?" 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Applause) 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, I could not put it down. 30 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The way that he tells the story of mankind 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 through big ideas that really make you think differently, though, 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's kind of amazing. 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And here's the follow-up, which I think is being published in the U.S. next week. 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Yuval Noah Harari: Yeah, next week. CA: "Homo Deus." 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now this is the history of the next hundred years. 36 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I've had a chance to read it. 37 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's extremely dramatic, 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I daresay for some people 39 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 quite alarming. 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's a must-read, 41 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and honestly, we couldn't have someone better to help 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 make sense of what on Earth is happening in the world right now. 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So a warm welcome, please, to Yuval Noah Harari. 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Applause) 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's great to be joined by our friends on Facebook and around the web. 46 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Hello, Facebook. 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And all of you, as I start asking questions of Yuval, 48 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 come up with your own questions, 49 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and not necessarily about the political scandal du jour 50 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but about the broader understanding of where are we heading? 51 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You ready? Okay, we're going to go. 52 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So here we are, Yuval, New York City, 53 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 2017, there's a new president in power, 54 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and shockwaves rippling around the world. 55 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What on Earth is happening? 56 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: I think the basic thing that happens 57 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is that we have lost our story. 58 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Humans think in stories, 59 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we try to make sense of the world 60 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 by telling stories, 61 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and for the last few decades, 62 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we had a very simple and very attractive story 63 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about what's happening in the world, 64 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the story said that, oh, what's happening is 65 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that the economy is being globalized, 66 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 politics is being liberalized, 67 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the combination of the two will create paradise on Earth, 68 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we just need to keep on globalizing the economy 69 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and liberalizing the political system, 70 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and everything will be wonderful. 71 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And 2016 is the moment 72 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 when a very large segment, 73 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 even of the Western world, 74 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 stopped believing in this story. 75 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 For good or bad reasons doesn't matter. 76 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 People stopped believing in the story, 77 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and when you don't have a story, 78 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you don't understand what's happening. 79 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: Part of you believes that that story was actually a very effective story. 80 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It worked. 81 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: To some extent, yes. 82 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 According to some measurements, 83 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we are now in the best time ever 84 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for humankind. 85 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Today, for the first time in history, 86 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 more people die from eating too much 87 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than from eating too little, 88 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which is an amazing achievement. 89 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 90 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Also for the first time in history, 91 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 more people die from old age 92 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than from infectious diseases, 93 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and violence is also down. 94 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 For the first time in history, 95 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 more people commit suicide 96 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than are killed by crime and terrorism 97 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and war put together. 98 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Statistically, you are your own worst enemy. 99 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 At least, of all the people in the world, 100 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you are most likely to be killed by yourself, 101 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which is very good news 102 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 compared to the level of violence 103 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that we saw in previous eras. 104 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: But this process of connecting the world 105 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ended up with a large group of people kind of feeling left out, 106 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and they've reacted, and so we have this bombshell that's sort of ripping 107 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 through the whole system. 108 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, what do you make of what's happened? 109 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It feels like the old way that people thought of politics, 110 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the left-right divide, has been blown up and replaced. 111 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 How should we think of this? 112 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Yeah, the old 20th century 113 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 political model of left versus right 114 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is now largely irrelevant, 115 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the real divide today 116 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is in global and national, 117 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 global or local. 118 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And you see it again all over the world 119 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that this is now the main struggle. 120 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We probably need completely new political models 121 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and completely new ways of thinking 122 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about politics. 123 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In essence what you can say 124 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is that we now have global ecology, 125 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we have a global economy, 126 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but we have national politics, 127 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and this doesn't work together. 128 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This makes the political system ineffective 129 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because it has no control over the forces that shape our life. 130 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And you have basically two solutions 131 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to this imbalance. 132 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Either deglobalize the economy 133 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and turn it back into a national economy, 134 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or globalize the political system. 135 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: So some, I guess many liberals out there 136 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 view Trump and his government 137 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as kind of irredeemably bad, 138 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 just awful in every way. 139 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Do you see any underlying 140 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 narrative or political philosophy in there 141 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that is at least worth understanding. 142 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 How would you articulate that philosophy? 143 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Is it just the philosophy of nationalism? 144 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: I think the underlying feeling or idea 145 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is that the political system, something is broken there. 146 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It doesn't empower 147 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the ordinary person anymore. 148 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It doesn't care so much about the ordinary person anymore, 149 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I think this diagnosis of the political disease is correct. 150 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 With regard to the answers, I am far less certain. 151 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think what we are seeing is the immediate human reaction: 152 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 if something doesn't work, let's go back. 153 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And you see it all over the world, 154 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that people, almost nobody in the political system today 155 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 has any future-oriented vision 156 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of where humankind is going. 157 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Almost everywhere, you see retrograde vision. 158 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Let's make America great again, 159 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 like it was great, I don't know, in the '50s, in the '80s, sometime, 160 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 let's go back there. 161 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And you go to Russia. 162 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So a hundred years after Lenin, 163 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Putin's vision for the future 164 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is basically, ah, let's go back to the Tsarist empire. 165 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And in Israel, where I come from, 166 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the hottest political vision 167 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of the present 168 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is "let's build the temple again." 169 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So let's go back 2,000 years backward. 170 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So people are thinking sometime in the past we've lost it, 171 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and sometimes in the past, it's like you've lost your way in the city, 172 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and you say okay, let's go back to the point where I felt secure 173 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and start again. 174 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't think this can work, 175 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but a lot of people, this is their gut instinct. 176 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: But why couldn't it work? 177 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 America first is a very appealing slogan in many ways. 178 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Patriotism is in many ways a very noble thing. 179 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's played a role in promoting 180 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 cooperation among large numbers of people. 181 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Why couldn't you have a world 182 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 organized in country 183 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 all of which put themselves first? 184 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: For many centuries, 185 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 even thousands of years, 186 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 patriotism worked quite well. 187 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Of course it led to wars an so forth, 188 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but we shouldn't focus too much on the bad. 189 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There are also many, many positive things about patriotism, 190 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the ability to have a large number of people 191 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 care about each other, 192 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 sympathize with one another, 193 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and come together for collective action. 194 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you go back to the first nations, 195 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so thousands of years ago, 196 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the people who lived along the Yellow River in China, 197 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it was many, many different tribes 198 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and they all depended on the river 199 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for survival and for prosperity, 200 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but all of them also suffered 201 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 from periodical floods 202 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and periodical droughts, 203 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and no tribe could do anything about it 204 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because each of them controlled just a tiny section of the river. 205 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And then in a long and complicated process, 206 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the tribes coalesced together 207 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to form the Chinese nation, 208 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which controlled the entire Yellow River 209 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and had the ability 210 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to bring hundreds of thousands of people together 211 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to build dams and canals 212 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and regulate the river 213 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and prevent the worst floods and droughts 214 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and raise the level of prosperity for everybody. 215 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And this worked in many places around the world. 216 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But in the 21st century, 217 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 technology is changing all that in a fundamental way. 218 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We are now living, all people in the world are living 219 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 alongside the same cyber river, 220 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and no single nation 221 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 can regulate this river by itself. 222 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We are all living together in a single planet 223 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which is threatened by our own actions, 224 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and if you don't have some kind of global cooperation, 225 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 nationalism is just not on the right level 226 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to tackle the problems 227 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of whether it's climate change 228 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or whether it's technological disruption. 229 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: So it was a beautiful idea 230 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in a world where most of the action, 231 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 most of the issues, 232 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 took place on national scale, 233 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but your argument is that the issues that matter most today 234 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 no longer take place on a national scale but on a global scale. 235 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Exactly. All of the major problems of the world today 236 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 are global in essence, 237 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and they cannot be solved 238 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 unless through some kind of global cooperation. 239 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's not just climate change, 240 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which is, like, the most obvious example people give. 241 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think more in terms of technological disruption. 242 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you think about, for example, artificial intelligence, 243 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 over the next 20, 30 years 244 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 pushing hundreds of millions of people out of the job market, 245 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 this is a problem on a global level. 246 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It will disrupt the economy of all the countries, 247 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and similarly if you think about, say, bioengineering 248 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and people being afraid of conducting genetic engineering 249 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 research in humans, 250 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it won't help if just a single country, 251 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 let's say the U.S., 252 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 outlaws all genetic experiments in humans 253 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but China or North Korea continues to do it. 254 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So the U.S. cannot solve it by itself, 255 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and very quickly, the pressure on the U.S. 256 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to do the same will be immense 257 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because we are talking about high-risk, high-gain technologies. 258 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If somebody else is doing it, 259 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I can't allow myself to remain behind. 260 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The only way to have regulations, 261 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 effective regulations, 262 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 on things like genetic engineering, 263 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is to have global regulations. 264 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you just have national regulations, 265 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 nobody would like to stay behind. 266 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: So this is really interesting. 267 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It seems that this might be one key 268 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to provoking at least a constructive conversation 269 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 between the different sides here, 270 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because I think everyone can agree that the start point 271 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of a lot of the anger that's propelled us to where we are 272 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is because of the legitimate concerns about job loss. 273 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Work is gone, a traditional way of life 274 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 has gone, and it's no wonder that people are furious about that. 275 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And in general, they have blamed globalism, global elites 276 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for doing this to them without asking their permission, 277 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and that seems like a legitimate complaint. 278 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But what I hear you saying 279 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is that, so a key question is, what is the real cause of job loss, 280 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 both now and going forward? 281 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To the extent that it's about globalism, 282 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 then the right response, yes, 283 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is to shut down borders 284 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and keep people out 285 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and change trade agreements and so forth. 286 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But you're saying, I think, 287 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that actually the bigger cause of job loss 288 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is not going to be that at all. 289 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's going to originate in technological questions, 290 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we have no chance of solving that unless we operate as a connected world. 291 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Yeah, I think that, 292 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't know about the present, 293 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but looking to the future, 294 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's not the Mexicans or Chinese 295 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who will take the jobs from the people in Pennsylvania, 296 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's the robots and algorithms, 297 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so unless you plan to build a big wall 298 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 on the border of California -- 299 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) -- 300 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the wall on the border with Mexico is going to be very ineffective. 301 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I was struck when I watched the debates before the elections, 302 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was struck that certainly Trump did not even attempt 303 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to frighten people by saying the robots will take your jobs. 304 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now even if it's not true, it doesn't matter. 305 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It could have been an extremely effective way of frightening people 306 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and galvanizing people. "The robots will take your jobs." 307 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And nobody used that line. 308 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And it made me afraid, 309 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because it meant 310 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that no matter what happens 311 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in universities and laboratories, 312 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and there there is already an intense debate about it, 313 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but in the mainstream political system 314 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and among the general public, 315 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 people are just unaware 316 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that there could be an immense technological disruption, 317 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 not in 200 years, 318 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but in 10, 20, 30 years, 319 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we have to do something about it now, 320 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 partly because most of what we teach 321 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 children today in school 322 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or in college 323 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is going to be completely irrelevant 324 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to the job market of 2040, 2050. 325 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So it's not something we'll need to think about in 2040. 326 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We need to think today 327 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what to teach the young people. 328 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: Yeah, no, absolutely. 329 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You've often written about moments in history 330 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where humankind has 331 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 entered a new era kind of unintentionally. 332 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Decisions have been made, technologies have been developed, 333 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and suddenly the world has changed, 334 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 possibly in a way that's worse for everyone. 335 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So one of the example you give in "Sapiens" 336 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is just the whole agricultural revolution, 337 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which for an actual person tilling the fields, 338 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 they just picked up a 12-hour backbreaking workday 339 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 instead of six hours in the jungle 340 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and a much more interesting lifestyle. 341 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So are we at another possible phase change here 342 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where we kind of sleepwalk into a future that none of us actually wants? 343 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Yes, very much so. 344 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 During the agricultural revolution, 345 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what happened is that immense technological and economic revolution 346 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 empowered the human collective, 347 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but when you look at actual individual lives, 348 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the life of a tiny elite 349 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 became much better, 350 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the life of the majority of people 351 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 became considerably worse. 352 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And this can happen again in the 21st century. 353 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 No doubt the new technologies will empower the human collective, 354 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but we may end up again 355 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with a tiny elite 356 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ripping all the benefits, 357 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 taking all the fruits, 358 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the masses of the population 359 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 finding themselves worse 360 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than they were before, 361 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 certainly much worse than this tiny elite. 362 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: And those elites might not even be human elites. 363 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They might be cyborgs or -- 364 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Yeah, they could be enhanced superhumans. 365 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They could be cyborgs. 366 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They could be completely nonorganic elites. 367 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They could even be non-conscious algorithms. 368 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What we see now in the world 369 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is authority shifting away 370 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 from humans to algorithms. 371 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 More and more decisions 372 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about personal lives, about economic matters, 373 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about political matters, 374 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is actually being taken by algorithms. 375 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you ask the bank for a loan, 376 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 chances are your fate is decided by an algorithm, not by a human being, 377 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the general impression is that 378 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 maybe homo sapiens just lost it. 379 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The world is so complicated, 380 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 there is so much data, 381 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 things are changing so fast, 382 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that this thing that evolved on the African savannah 383 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 tens of thousands of years ago 384 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to cope with a particular environment, 385 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a particular volume of information and data, 386 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it just can't handle the realities of the 21st century, 387 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the only thing that may be able to handle it 388 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is big data algorithms. 389 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So no wonder that more and more authority is shifting from us 390 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to the algorithms. 391 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: So we're in New York City 392 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for the first of a series of TED Dialogues 393 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with Yuval Harari, 394 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and there's a Facebook live audience out there. 395 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We're excited to have you with us. 396 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We're going to start coming to some of your questions 397 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and questions of people in the room 398 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in just a few minutes, 399 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so have those coming. 400 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Yuval, if you're going to make the argument 401 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that we need to get past nationalism because of the coming 402 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 technological danger, in a way, 403 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 presented by so much of what's happening 404 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so we've got to have a global conversation about this. 405 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Trouble is, it's really hard to get people really believing that, I don't know, 406 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 AI really is an imminent threat, and so forth. 407 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The things that people, some people at least, 408 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 care about much more immediately perhaps 409 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is perhaps climate change, 410 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 perhaps other issues like refugees, nuclear weapons, and so forth. 411 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Would you argue that 412 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where we are right now 413 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that somehow those issues 414 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 need to be dialed up? 415 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You've talked about climate change, 416 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but Trump has said he doesn't believe in that. 417 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So in a way your most powerful argument, 418 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you can't actually use to make this case. 419 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Yeah, I think with climate change, 420 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 at first sight, it's quite surprising 421 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that there is a very close correlation 422 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 between nationalism and climate change. 423 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, almost always the people who deny climate change are nationalists. 424 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And at first sight, you think why? 425 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What's the connection? 426 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Why don't you have socialists denying climate change? 427 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But then, when you think about it, 428 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's obvious. 429 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Because nationalism has no solution to climate change, 430 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 if you want to be a nationalist in the 21st century, 431 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you have to deny the problem. 432 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you accept the reality of the problem, 433 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 then you must accept that yes, 434 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 there is still room in the world 435 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for patriotism, 436 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 there is still room in the world 437 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for having special loyalties 438 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and obligations towards your own people, 439 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 towards your own country. 440 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't think anybody is really thinking of abolishing that. 441 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But in order to confront climate change, 442 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we need additional loyalties and commitments 443 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to a level beyond the nation. 444 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And that should not be impossible, 445 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because people can have 446 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 several layers of loyalty. 447 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You can be loyal to your family 448 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and to your community 449 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and to your nation, 450 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so why can't you be also loyal 451 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to humankind as a whole? 452 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Of course, there are occasions where it becomes difficult, 453 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what to put first, 454 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but life is difficult. Handle it. 455 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 456 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: Okay, so I would love to get some questions from the audience here. 457 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We've got a microphone here. 458 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Speak into it, and Facebook, get them coming too. 459 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Question: So one of the things 460 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that has clearly made a huge difference 461 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in this country and other countries 462 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is the income distribution inequality, 463 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the dramatic change in income distribution 464 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the U.S. from what it was 50 years ago 465 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and around the world. 466 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Is there anything that we can do to affect that, 467 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because that gets at a lot of the underlying causes? 468 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: So far I haven't heard a very good idea 469 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about what to do about it, 470 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 again partly because most ideas remain on the national level, 471 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the problem is global. 472 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, one idea that we hear quite a lot about now 473 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is universal basic income, 474 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but this is a problem. 475 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, I think it's a good part, 476 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but it's a problematic idea because it's not clear what universal is 477 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it's not clear what basic is. 478 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Most people when they speak about universal basic income, 479 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 they actually mean national basic income, 480 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but the problem is global. 481 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Let's say that you have an AI 482 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the 3D printers 483 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 taking away millions of jobs in Bangladesh 484 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of all the people who make my shirts 485 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and my shoes? 486 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So what's going to happen? 487 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The U.S. government will levy taxes 488 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in Google and Apple in California 489 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and use that to pay basic income to unemployed Bangladeshis? 490 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you believe that, 491 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you can just as well believe that Santa Claus 492 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 will come and solve the problem. 493 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So unless we have really universal 494 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and not national basic income, 495 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the deep problems 496 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 are not going to go away, 497 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and also it's not clear what basic is, 498 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because what are basic human needs? 499 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A thousand years ago, just food and shelter is enough, 500 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but today people will say education 501 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is a basic human need. 502 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It should be part of the package. 503 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But how much? 504 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Six years? Twelve years? PhD? 505 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Similarly with health care, 506 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 let's say that in 20, 30, 40 years, 507 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you'll have expensive treatments 508 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that can extend human life 509 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to 120, I don't know. 510 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Will this be part 511 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of the basket of basic income or not? 512 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's a very difficult problem, 513 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because in a world 514 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where people lose their ability to be employed, 515 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the only thing they are going to get is this basic income. 516 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So what's part of it 517 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is a very, very difficult ethical question. 518 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: And there's a bunch of questions on how the world affords it as well, 519 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who pays. 520 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There's a question here from Facebook from Lisa Larson. 521 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 How does nationalism in the U.S. now 522 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 compare to that between World War I and World War II 523 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the last century? 524 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Well the good news, 525 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with regard to the dangers of nationalism, 526 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we are in a much better position 527 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than a century ago. 528 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A century ago, 1917, 529 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Europeans were killing each other by the millions. 530 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In 2016, with Brexit, 531 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as far as I can remember, 532 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a single person lost their life, 533 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 an MP who was murdered by some extremist, 534 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 just a single person. 535 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, if Brexit was about British independence, 536 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 this is the most peaceful war of independence in human history. 537 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And let's say that Scotland will now choose to leave the U.K., 538 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 after Brexit. 539 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So in the 18th century, 540 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 if Scotland wanted, and the Scots wanted several times, 541 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to break out of the control of London, 542 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the reaction of the government in London was to send an army up north 543 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to burn down Edinburgh 544 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and massacre the highland tribes. 545 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 My guess is that if in 2018, 546 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the Scots vote for independence, 547 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the London government will not send an army up north 548 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to burn down Edinburgh. 549 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Very few people are now willing to kill or be killed 550 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for Scottish or for British independence. 551 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So for all the talk of the rise of nationalism 552 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and going back to the 1930s, 553 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to the 19th century, 554 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the West at least, 555 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the power of national sentiments today 556 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is far, far smaller 557 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than it was a century ago. 558 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: Although some people now, you hear publicly worrying 559 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about whether that might be shifting, 560 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that there could actually be outbreaks of violence in the U.S. 561 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 depending on how things turn out. 562 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Should we be worried about that, or do you really think things have shifted? 563 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: No, we should be worried. 564 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We should be aware of two things. 565 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 First of all, don't be hysterical. 566 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We are not back in the First World War yet. 567 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But on the other hand, don't be complacent. 568 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We reached from 1917 to 2017 569 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 not by some divine miracle 570 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but simply by human decisions, 571 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and if we now start making the wrong decisions, 572 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we could be back 573 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in an analogous situation 574 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to 1917 in a few years. 575 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 One of the things I know as a historian 576 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is that you should never underestimate human stupidity. 577 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 578 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's one of the most powerful forces in history 579 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is human stupidity and human violence. 580 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Humans do such crazy things 581 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for no obvious reasons, 582 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but again, at the same time, 583 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 another very powerful force in human history is human wisdom. 584 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We have both. 585 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: We have with us here moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, 586 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who I think has a question. 587 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Jonathan Haidt: Thanks, Yuval. 588 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So you seem to be a fan of global governance, 589 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but when you look at the map of the world 590 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 from Transparency International, 591 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which rates the level of corruption of political institutions, 592 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's a vast sea of red 593 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with little bits of yellow here and there for those with good institutions. 594 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So if we were to have some kind of global governance, 595 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what makes you think that it would end up being more like Denmark 596 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 rather than more like Russia or Honduras, 597 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and aren't there alternatives 598 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 such as we did with CFCs? 599 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, there are ways to solve global problems with national governments. 600 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What would world government actually look like, 601 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and why do you think it would work? 602 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Well, I don't know how it would look like. 603 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Nobody still has a model for that. 604 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The main reason we need it 605 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is because many of these issues 606 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 are lose-lose situations. 607 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When you have a win-win situation 608 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 like trade, both sides can benefit from a trade agreement, 609 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 then this is something you can work out. 610 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Without some kind of global government, 611 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 national governments each has an interest in doing it. 612 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But when you have a lose-lose situation, like with climate change, 613 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's much more difficult 614 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 without some overarching authority, real authority. 615 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now, how to get there 616 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and how would it look like, 617 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't know. 618 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And certainly there is no obvious reason 619 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to think that it would look like Denmark, 620 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or that it would be a democracy. 621 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Most likely it wouldn't. 622 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We don't have workable 623 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 democratic models 624 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for a global government. 625 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So maybe it would look more like ancient China 626 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than like modern Denmark, 627 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but still, given the dangers 628 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that we are facing, 629 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think the imperative 630 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of having some kind of real ability 631 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to force through difficult decisions 632 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 on the global level 633 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is more important 634 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than almost anything else. 635 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: There's a question from Facebook here, 636 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and then we'll get the mic to Andrew. 637 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So Kat Hebron on Facebook, 638 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 calling in from Vale: 639 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 how would developed nations manage 640 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the millions of climate migrants? 641 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: I don't know. 642 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: That's your answer, Kat. (Laughter) 643 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: And I don't think that they know either. 644 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, they'll just deny the problem, maybe. 645 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: But immigration, generally, is another example of a sort of problem 646 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that's very hard to solve on a nation-by-nation basis. 647 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 One nation can shut its doors, 648 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but maybe that stores up problems for the future. 649 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Yes. I mean, it's another very good case, 650 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 especially because it's so much easier 651 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to migrate today 652 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than it was in the Middle Ages or in ancient times. 653 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: Yuval, there's a belief 654 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 among many technologists, certainly, 655 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that political concerns are kind of overblown, 656 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that actually political leaders don't have that much 657 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 influence in the world, 658 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that the real determination 659 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of humanity at this point is by science, by invention, by companies, 660 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 by many things other than political leaders, 661 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it's actually very hard for leaders to do much, 662 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so we're actually worrying about nothing here. 663 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Well, first, it should be emphasized 664 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that it's true that political leaders ability to do good is very limited, 665 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but their ability to do harm is unlimited. 666 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There is a basic imbalance here. 667 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You can still press the button and blow everybody up. 668 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You have that kind of ability, 669 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but if you want, for example, to reduce inequality, 670 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that's very, very difficult. 671 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But to start a war, 672 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you can still do so very easily. 673 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So there is a built-in imbalance in the political system today 674 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which is very frustrating 675 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that you cannot do a lot of good 676 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but you can still do a lot of harm. 677 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And this makes the political system 678 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 still a very big concern. 679 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: So as you look at what's happening today, 680 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and putting your historian's hat on, 681 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 do you look back in history 682 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 at moments when things were going just fine 683 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and an individual leader 684 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 really took the world or their country backwards? 685 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: There are quite a few examples, 686 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but I should emphasize, it's never an individual leader. 687 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, somebody put him there, 688 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and somebody allowed him to continue to be there. 689 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So it's never really just the fault of a single individual. 690 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There is a lot of people 691 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 behind every such individual. 692 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: Can we have the microphone here please 693 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to Andrew? 694 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Andrew Solomon: You've talked a lot about the global versus the national, 695 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but increasingly 696 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but increasingly it seems to me that the world situation 697 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is in the hands of identity groups. 698 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We look at people within the United States 699 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who have been recruited by ISIS. 700 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We look at these other groups which have formed 701 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which go outside of national bounds 702 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but still represent significant authorities. 703 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 How are they to be integrated into the system, 704 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and how is a diverse set of identities 705 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to be made coherent under either national or global leadership? 706 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: well, the problem of such diverse identities 707 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is a problem for nationalism as well. 708 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Nationalism believes in a single, monolithic identity, 709 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and exclusive or at least more extreme versions of nationalism 710 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 believe in an exclusive loyalty to a single identity, 711 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and therefore nationalism has had a lot of problems 712 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with people wanting to divide their identities 713 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 between various groups. 714 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So it's not just a problem, say, for a global vision. 715 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I think, again, history shows 716 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that you shouldn't necessarily think 717 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in such exclusive terms. 718 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you think that there is just a single identity for a person, 719 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I am just X, that's it, 720 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I can't be several things, I can be just that, 721 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that's the start of the problem. 722 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You have religions, you have nations 723 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that sometimes demand exclusive loyalty, 724 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but it's not the only option. 725 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There are many religions and many nations 726 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that enable you to have diverse identities 727 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 at the same time. 728 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: But is one explanation of what's happened in the last year 729 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that a group of people have got fed up with, if you like, 730 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the liberal elites, for want of a better term, 731 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 obsessing over many, many different identities 732 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and them feeling, "But what about my identity? 733 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I am being completely ignored here. 734 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And by the way, I thought I was the majority." 735 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And that that's actually sparked a lot of the anger. 736 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Yeah. Identity is always problematic 737 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because identity is always based 738 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 on fictional stories 739 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that sooner or later collide with reality. 740 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Almost all identities, 741 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, beyond the level 742 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of the basic communities of a few dozen people, 743 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 are based on a fictional story. 744 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They are not the truth. 745 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They are not the reality. 746 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's just a story that people invent and tell one another and start believing. 747 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And therefore all identities are extremely unstable. 748 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They are not a biological reality. 749 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, sometimes nationalists, for example, think that the nation 750 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is a biological entity. 751 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's made of the combination of soil and blood, 752 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 creates the nation. 753 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But this is just a fictional story. 754 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: Soil and blood kind of makes a gooey mess. 755 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 756 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: It does, 757 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and also it messes with your mind 758 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 when you think too much 759 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that I am a combination of soil and blood. 760 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you look from a biological perspective, 761 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 obviously none of the nations that exist today 762 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 existed 5,000 years ago. 763 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Homo sapiens is a social animal, 764 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that's for sure, 765 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but for millions of years, 766 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 homo sapiens and our hominid ancestors 767 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 lived in small communities 768 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of a few dozen individuals. 769 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Everybody knew everybody else. 770 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Whereas modern nations are imagined communities, 771 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in a sense that I don't even know all these people. 772 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I come from a relatively small nation, Israel, 773 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and eight million Israelis, 774 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I never met most of them. 775 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I will never meet most of them. 776 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They basically exist here. 777 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: But in terms of this identity, 778 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 this group who feel left out 779 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and perhaps have work taken away, 780 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I mean, in "Homo Deus" 781 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you actually speak of this group in one sense expanding, 782 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that so many people 783 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 may have their jobs taken away 784 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 by technology in some way 785 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that we could end up with a really large, 786 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think you call it a useless class, 787 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a class where traditionally, 788 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as viewed by the economy, these people have no use. 789 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 YNH: Yes. 790 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 CA: How likely a possibility is that? 791 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Is that something we should be terrified about? 792 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And can we address it in any way?