What Yuval Noah Harari thinks about agency
Israeli historian and philosopher, born in 1976; author of Sapiens, Homo Deus, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century and Nexus; lecturer in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; co-founder of Sapienship in 2019.
Yuval Noah Harari did not write this page.
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16 dated positions, 2015 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Yuval Noah Harari has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Our readingThe narrative that AI's takeover is inevitable is a narrative of having no responsibility
Their wordsThe narrative of inevitability is a narrative of having no responsibility.
↗The full-length interview with Yuval Noah Harari | The Economistyoutube.com 9th of 19 in this recording
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Our readingThe deficit of trust that AI leaders say forces them to race was itself created by human decisions
Their wordsNow, the key thing to say about this, this deficit of trust was created by human beings.
↗The full-length interview with Yuval Noah Harari | The Economistyoutube.com 10th of 19 in this recording
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Our readingDelusional information networks are not doomed to fail; stopping them takes our own hard work
Their wordsWe should not assume that delusional networks are doomed to failure. If we want to prevent their triumph, we will have to do the hard work ourselves.
↗Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Random House, 2025 paperback edition)books.google.com All 31 from this book
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Our readingCurating a supposedly infallible holy book put real power in the hands of the curating institution
Their wordsBut while the holy book was seen as the ultimate source of authority, the process of curating the book placed real power in the hands of the curating institution.
↗Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Random House, 2025 paperback edition)books.google.com All 31 from this book
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Our readingHumans may be pushed to the sidelines of the information network until it can run without us
Their wordsBut we may gradually be pushed to the sidelines, and ultimately it might even be possible for the network to operate without us.
↗Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Random House, 2025 paperback edition)books.google.com All 31 from this book
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Their wordsI think the most important thing to understand about AI is that AI is not a tool. It is an agent. It's the first technology in history that can make decisions and invent new ideas by itself.
↗Yuval Noah Harari - "Nexus" & Threat of AI in the Information Age | The Daily Showyoutube.com 1st of 3 in this recording
- 4 years earlier
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Their wordsThe modern world has been shaped by the belief that humans can outsmart and defeat death. That was a revolutionary new attitude.
↗Will coronavirus change our attitudes to death? Quite the opposite (The Guardian)theguardian.com 1st of 6 in this piece
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Our readingToday mass deaths from disasters are seen as preventable human failures, not divine punishment
Their wordsWhenever some disaster kills many people – a train accident, a high-rise fire, even a hurricane – we tend to view it as a preventable human failure rather than as divine punishment or an inevitable natural calamity.
↗Will coronavirus change our attitudes to death? Quite the opposite (The Guardian)theguardian.com 4th of 6 in this piece
- 3 months earlier
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Their wordsB times C times D equals R which means biological knowledge multiplied by computing power multiplied by data equals the ability to hack humans
↗How to Survive the 21st Century | DAVOS 2020youtube.com 2nd of 12 in this recording
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Our readingOnce algorithms know you better than you know yourself, they can control and manipulate you
Their wordsAnd once these algorithms know you better than you know yourself, they could control and manipulate you, and you won't be able to do much about it.
↗21 Lessons for the 21st Century (Vintage, 2019 edition; first published by Jonathan Cape, 2018)books.google.com All 26 from this book
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Their wordsBut the most important thing is to join an organisation. Cooperation is what makes humans powerful.
↗50 years after Stonewall: Yuval Noah Harari on the new threats to LGBT rights (The Guardian)theguardian.com 7th of 7 in this piece
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Their wordsIntersubjective entities depend on communication among many humans rather than on the beliefs and feelings of individual humans. Many of the most important agents in history are inter-subjective.
↗Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Vintage, 2017 edition; first published in English by Harvill Secker, 2016; Hebrew 2015)books.google.com All 30 from this book
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Their wordsConsequently, ever since the Cognitive Revolution Homo sapiens has been able to revise its behaviour rapidly.
↗Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Vintage, 2015 edition; first published in Hebrew 2011; translated by the author with John Purcell and Haim Watzman)books.google.com All 35 from this book
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Their wordsEven if by some superhuman effort I succeed in freeing my personal desires from the grip of the imagined order, I am just one person.
↗Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Vintage, 2015 edition; first published in Hebrew 2011; translated by the author with John Purcell and Haim Watzman)books.google.com All 35 from this book
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Their wordsAltogether, sapiens drove to extinction about 50% of all the large terrestrial mammals of the planet before they planted the first wheat field, shaped the first metal tool, wrote the first text or struck the first coin.
↗Industrial farming is one of the worst crimes in history (The Guardian)theguardian.com 2nd of 7 in this piece
- 8 months earlier
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Their wordsthe most important decisions about our bodies during our lifetime will not to be taken by our feelings. They will be taken by external algorithms, algorithms that understand our own internal systems and that have statistics about millions upon millions of other humans
↗New Religions of the 21st Century | Yuval Harari | Talks at Googleyoutube.com 8th of 11 in this recording