21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

The first lines of the introduction give a clue to Yuval's focus, "In a world deluged by irrelevant information clarity is power."  He has already given us a focus on how man came to be and where man can go.  This book reflects on the stresses and contradictions in the world today and explores a few ways we might extricate ourselves.  Fortunately he does have a sense of humor and offers many attention getting examples.

There are more thought provoking ideas than I can cover in a short post.  A lot to digest.  My attempts to sort through are only a taste of what you can expect.  To me this is the Book of the year.

In the middle of the last century the world was offered three global political philosophies--Fascism, Communism and Liberalism.  Fascism was killed during World War II and Communism collapsed by the close of the century leaving Liberalism to expand its umbrella.  However our current news reflects a new range of anti liberal trends.  The 21 Lessons reviews several alternatives we might consider for the 21st century.

Economic growth has underscored liberal thinking, but the most critical problems today are being undercut by economic growth.  Technological innovation threatens job security.  Climate change and pollution suffer with economic growth.  I see a problem with his concern about the need to reduce meat consumption:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2018/01/what-happens-to-farm-animals-when.html

Social media is taking over the lives of the entire globe.  Yuval expresses concern about online vs offline.  Online does have potential to steer people to offline activities that can be healthy for bodies and social beings. Generally social media is likely to cut down physical interaction and be unhealthy.

Algorithms are becoming increasingly more invasive.  One simple example given was how a GPS system can tell us to turn right or left.  Artificial Intelligence combined with bio tech is now getting  an understanding of emotions.  Algorithms will know you better than you know yourself.  Trust in algorithms will increase as they will become more reliable.

Ethics can be and will be integrated with algorithmic decisions.  Philosophers will have a demand as many decisions will need to be made split second with examples coming from such endeavors as self driving cars.

Happiness depends less on circumstances than on expectations.  Humans are easily satiated.

Inequality is likely to increase as those who control algorithms will have tools to squeeze more.  But it might not just be financial wealth, but also longevity as biotech will be more accessible to some.  The future of the masses will depend upon the goodwill of a small elite.  Some nations with a tradition of liberalism such as France or New Zealand will more likely support the masses while those with a more capitalist tradition like that of the United States may well dismantle the welfare state.  Newly emerging states like India and China, Brazil) are more likely to see an increase in inequality.

Killing a few people in Belgium draws far more attention than killing hundreds in Nigeria or Iraq.

Most people believe they are the centre of the world and their culture the linchpin of human history.  Rather than denigrating other cultures Yuval, a Jew living and working in Israel makes a few points about "God's Chosen People."   The universe is at least 13 billion years old with Earth being formed about 4.5 billion years ago.  Humans have existed for at least 2 million years.  Jerusalem was founded  about 5,000 years ago which does not mean it is eternal.  He also pointed out that Orthodox Jews usually hold the balance of power in Israel and have helped pass laws that curtail activities on the Sabbath including for secular Jews.

Morality predates religion.  He gives the example of pups playing until one bites too hard and they will not play with a bully.

Author quote:  "Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you can not question."

We are all complicit to some degree--"How can anyone understand the web of relations among thousands of intersecting groups across the world."

The meaning of life is looking for a role to play and a story to provide identity.  A wise man asked about meaning of life replied, "I have learned that I am on earth in order to help other people.  What I still haven't figured out is why the other people are here?"

He goes on to say that asking about the meaning of life is the wrong question.  The better question is how do we stop suffering.  He does seem to have a Buddhist bias, but is upfront about it.

Going back to Confucius, rituals are good for social stability.  The most meaningful ritual is sacrifice.  The author contends that rituals are an obstacle to seeking truth.

On the question of free will Yuval asks to define it first.  If you mean the freedom to do what you desire, yes.  But if you mean the freedom to choose what to desire then no.  Humans do not have free will.  He asks us to think where does a thought come from?  He concludes that although we don't have free will we can be a bit more free from the tyranny of our will.

Mankind has made much progress in studying the brain, but have barely begun learning about the mind.  He personally has found meditation to be a tool for observing your own mind directly.  Self observation has always been difficult because there are so many stories surrounding us.  In the future  algorithms will create more stories making it more difficult to observe your mind.

My little sketches do not do justice to his overview of how we might look at life out of our complacent perspective.  Well worth reading and I expect different readers will get different values from the effort.

Read my thoughts  on "Sapiens":  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2015/12/sapiens-brief-history-of-humankind.html

Read my thoughts on "Homo Deos": http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2017/04/homo-deus.html

Disposal of our dead bodies

Death may be natural, but it still horrifies us and humankind has always sought ways to alleviate our distress.  Not only fear, but also guilt and grief.  Rituals have developed differently around the world, but underlying them all is our need to deal with the profound inescapable event.  We are looking for some sort of comfort as we resume our lives without our loved one (or at least someone we felt some attachment).  Any death reminds us of our own mortality.

In modern times some people rebel against the commercialism of funerals and others worry about death's role in our environment.  Religious beliefs are under attack and many seek reassurances they can't find through traditional means.  We want to show respect for those who died and we want death to fit into some comforting overview.

Funeral ceremonies are a rite of passage.  After embalming a body, fixing it up with cosmetics and dressing the corpse with their best clothes for a few days display many of us bury the bodies of our loved ones in a hard box and put it six feet under (supposed to protect from wild animals).  Words meant to comfort are spoken.  We visit the tomb stones, lay flowers and perhaps weep.  For the most part I am familiar with this routine, but now realize there are alternatives.

In ancient societies we know the dead were often buried with artifacts of things that were important to them and often people still do that.  Books, clothing, jewelry, and more.  Certain places were set aside for burials and with markers to remember.  The bodies were often just loose, but as time went on more solid coverings were used to protect the body from the elements.

Cremation has a long tradition in India and other countries.   The body disappears leaving some ashes that people can leave at an institution, keep in their homes or as some romantically envision, spread over significant land or water.  Early Hindus were repulsed with the slow decomposition of the body and had the idea that dead bodies made soil infertile. More theological support was that humans needed to detach their spirit from the body.

Christians avoided cremation as they associated it with pagans.  Some felt that it denied the possibility of resurrection, although others felt God could resurrect ashes as easily as flesh and bones.  Ironically fire was used to punish heretics.  Later cremation gained acceptance as one way to contain contagious diseases and also was less expensive.  A concern expressed by some is that green house gases are used.  Originally wood was used as the fuel, then later oils and gases to be speedier.  Efforts are being made to reduce the environmental impact.  One other factor favouring cremation in our overpopulated world is that burial space is becoming a precious commodity.

The Zorastrian religion started in Persia well before the birth of Christ.  In fact apparently one of the three wise men represented their faith.  They have survived to modern times with most living in India where they had fled after persecution.  They do not advocate for burial or cremation, but have developed a system where dead bodies after ritual cleaning are laid out in a dakhma (translated as towers of silence) to be devoured by scavenger birds and later their bones to be dissolved in lime and eventually washed to sea.  Although they do it based on their religious philosophy others consider it a green solution.  In India the bird population declined as poison used in agriculture killed too many and today Parsees as followers are called are breeding captive birds.

Burial at sea was once common out of necessity on long sea voyages, but today it is done more by choice.  Coffins, urns, ashes or sewn in sailcloth  are all used.  Sometimes it is another romantic idea relating to personal experience.

An early movie I enjoyed was "Beau Geste" with Gary Cooper and Ray Milland which dealt with three brothers who at a young age displayed a reverence for what they identified as a Viking Funeral which was being burned in a ship that sank.  Near the end of the movie one of the brothers had an improvised Viking funeral (in the desert).

Two methods of cheating include mummifying and cryonics.  Attempts to be immortal are natural enough  They are for the wealthy (and vain).  Do we really want to be immortal?  Can mankind support immortals and newborns?  Perhaps a topic for another blog.

Mummifying best known from Egyptians.  The powerful Pharaohs felt entitled and arranged to have their bodies preserved and encased in the incredibly expensive Pyramids.  Many mummies have survived and can be seen in museums, but obviously they were very wealthy or favoured by the powerful.  Embalming is one step in preserving bodies and is still very common.  Mummifying was also done in other parts of the world with the oldest discovered in South America.  We associate the process with chemicals, but in some cases dehydration was the mechanism and sometimes it was not planned.

Modern men with greater technical resources offer another solution called Cryonics.  Basically it boils down to timely freezing in hope of medical improvements.  The most famous example is baseball star, Ted Williams.  Not aware of anyone having been revived, but hope is eternal.

As a young reader I remember reading a version of Hiawatha as told by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow of a story that has stayed with me.  There is a lot of controversy about where Longfellow got his original material, but apparently based on native Indian legends including Iroquois.  Hiawatha was remembered as a noble leader who sought to improve his people's lot in life.  He prayed and fasted and when he convinced the gods that he was sincere he met a man dressed in green and yellow who offered to wrestle with him.  After several days the stranger told Hiawatha that he, Hiawatha  would conquer him and that he should be laid in the soft earth where rain and sunshine would flow down upon him.  After this was done and some time had passed, corn, considered a great gift to the Indians started to grow.  To my simple young mind it was the first thought that life can come from death.  

Recently I learned of a new phenomena, composting bodies. This is still in its initial stages but consists of a tower 3 stories high where mourners with support can wrap the deceased in simple linen, carry the dead body to the top where it is lain (after a ceremony) amongst compostable materials and allowed to decompose.  The body is conveyed to lower stories until it eventually has fully decomposed and can be given to the family or friends or appropriate neighbours.  The remains can be disposed of to fertilize flowers or trees, but not currently food.  Seems the most natural of all.

You can read more about this new way through the Urban Death Project at  http://www.urbandeathproject.org

Funerals are really for the living.  In today's global busyness our "close" relatives aren't so physically close anymore. Too often it takes a death to make us realize we do share something in common.  It is literally our last chance in the sense that doing anything else says something about our priorities.   We need to feel we have done the right thing, accept that a loved one has died and commemorate with others who share some of our feelings.  The last wishes of anyone are something we try to respect.

For myself for the past few years when I summarize the previous year in an annual blog I have been starting off with personally significant people who have died and try to remember how they impacted my life.  

Photo, by Miriam Barnes is of my parents who have been dead 30 and 15 years respectively, but not forgotten.

TALKING TO THE ENEMY HOW ELSE CAN YOU UNDERSTAND THEM?

The author Scott Atran is an anthropologist and like most of us has heard descriptions of terrorists as religious or political fanatics.  What surprised him is that other factors turned out to be more critical.  If we start with wrong assumptions it will be more difficult to find a solution.

Evolution theory has focused on individual traits, but lately more attention is being paid to group dynamics--how did one group survive?  Co-operation and sacrifice for the common good has played a role.  In the early stages of human development relatively we had weak bodies, but big brains and a tendency to be gregarious.

In fact ideology and religion are forces that unite groups even as each believer may have different degrees of faith.  Trusting strangers is a very necessary factor for civilizations to develop.  Even so we are suspicious of people who do not look like us, do not express themselves the same way or who do not respect our sacred values.  We can affiliate with "strangers" more readily if they share some of our values.

Sacred values are personal and group priorities that we can identify (sometimes with help), but we don't always understand the sacred values of others.  Sacred values are often so strong with a group that they cannot be pushed away by mere material considerations.  One example might be Palestinians feel they have a right to the same land that some Jews feel they have a right to.  Offering cash and like considerations while ignoring their attachments to the values is an insult and can actually harden feelings.

Scott noticed that many of the terrorists went to the same school or played soccer together.  In some groups the heroes were sports celebrities and in others terrorists.  Some were admired and aspired to, not necessarily because of religious beliefs but because they stood up for the group.  What gives some of them meaning is publicity which he feels our media is complicit in giving them.  Publicity makes heroes.

What turns many people to terrorism (or sympathy for terrorists) is unemployment, poor schooling, and political marginalization.  He cites African Americans in the United States and Muslims in Europe.

In passing  there was an interesting quote from Andre Malraux as follows:  "The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random among the profusion of the earth and the galaxies, but that in this prism we can fashion images sufficiently powerful to deny our nothingness."  Realistic, but hopeful that there is some meaning in life.

A lot of critics of terrorism point out the religious content and wondering how the perpetrators could be so misled.  Scott contends that the critics are overlooking the social content.  Most religions, including Christianity have violence in their messages.  Again religion unites people.  The author is an atheist and thinks of religions as belief in the absurd, but points out that rituals that indicate our acceptance of the absurd bonds people together.

Terrorism should not be the priority it is because the average person has many more likely life threatening concerns (that they mostly ignore).  We need to get beyond the stereotypes and learn the root causes.  Many feel the outside world is against them.  In truth we do not understand a lot of foreign customs.  The author suggested one Afghan custom was underestimated and that is the importance they place on treating guests even if they do not see eye to eye with them.

Another recommendation from Fareed Zakaria.

100 Ways to Motivate yourself

If you got past the title you demonstrated one of author Steve Chandler's contentions that most of us already have some motivation, but would like to be able to generate a little bit more.

Like almost all self improvement books there is a lot you have already heard or read, but it does help keep the momentum going with some new perspectives and the reminders of what you already have been told (and even believed a little bit).  This is a third edition and in fact he has more than 100 suggestions (110).

As you read it much will seem familiar and perhaps even corny.  But somewhere in there you should be able to find something that hits a nerve and just might spark a small change in attitude or behaviour that will be positive.

We too often avoid doing things because we feel we can't give it justice, but in fact once we start generally we improve. G K Chesterton once said, "If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly."

Some tips were intended to be easy to get you in the right direction.  Singing helps put you in a good mood.  Reading mystery books sharpens your brain.   Simplifying your life by removing clutter helps you focus on what is important.  Learning to say no helps cut the clutter.

Conversely listing what you don't want in your life encourages you to think what must be done to avoid these unwanted things and tasks.  For instance if you don't want to be fat and unfit you should consider an exercise strategy and a change in diet.

Problems can be discouraging, but turn your thinking to the idea that without problems there are no solutions.  Rituals are those things you usually do before the action you are focused on, for instance a few warmups before running or cycling.  They can help build momentum and help you get really moving.