Good, afternoon everyone especially. For those of you. Who are here in California, my, name is Wilson white and I'm on the public policy and government relations team, here in California, we. Have an exciting, talk for, you today as part of our talks at Google's series, as well, as a series of conversations, we're, having around AI, ethics. And technology ethics more, generally, so. Today I'm honored to have professor you've. All Noah Harare with. Us you've, all is an Israeli. Historian. And a professor at the, University. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he. Is a dynamic speaker. Thinker. And now, an international. Best-selling author, he's. The author of three books we're, gonna talk, about each of those books today, the, first book he published in 2014. Sapien which, explored, some, of that our, history, as humans. His. Second book and in 2016. Had, an interesting take. On our, future as humans Homo, Deus, and then, recently published, a new book the 21 lessons, for the 21st, century which, attempts. To grapple, with some of the issues the pressing, issues that we are facing, today. So. We'll. Talk about some of the themes in each of those books as we go through our conversation. But collectively, his, writings, explore, very. Big concepts, like freewill and consciousness. And intelligence so, we'll have a lot to explore with you ball today so, with that please join me in welcoming professor. You've all to Google. Thank. You professor for joining us. Before, before getting started I have to say that when the, announcement. Went out across, Google, about this talk I got. Several. Emails from, many Googlers around, the world who. Told. Me that they had either read, or, are currently, reading one, or multiple, of your books so if. You are contemplating, a fourth book maybe, on the afterlife no. Spoilers. During, this conversation I. Want. To start with, maybe. Some of the themes and. Both. That. Your current book with 21 lessons as well as a, homo, Deus because. I'm the father of two, young kids I have two, daughters a five year old and a three year old and, the. Future that you paint and homo Deus. It's. Interesting, so. I'd like to ask you what. Should i what should I be teaching my daughters. That. Nobody. Knows how, the world would look like in, 2050, except. That, it will be very different from. Today so. The most important, things to emphasize. In, education. Are, things like Intel. Intelligence. And mental. Stability because. The one thing that they will need for sure is the, ability to reinvent themselves repeatedly. Throughout. Their, lives today the first time in history that, we, don't really know what particular skills, to. Teach young. People because. We just don't know in what, kind of world they, will be living but. We do know they will have to reinvent themselves and. Especially. If you think about something like the job market, maybe, the greatest, problem. They will face will, be psychological. Because, at least beyond a certain age it's, very very, difficult for, people to reinvent, themselves so. We kind of need to build. Identities. I mean if if previously, if traditionally. People. Built identities. Like stone. Houses with, very, deep foundation. Now. It makes more sense to build identities. Like tents, that you can fold and move elsewhere. Because. We don't know where what you will have to move but you will have to move will have to move so, I may have to go back to school now to learn these things so that I can teach the, next generation of humans. Here in, 21. Lessons, for, the 21st century you tackle. Several. Themes that, even. We at Google as. A company who, are on the leading edge of technology and, how technology is.
Being Deployed in society. We, wrestle with some of the same issues. Tell. Me a bit about your, your. Thoughts or and why. Democracy, is in crisis, that's a theme in your in their in the current book and I want to explore that a bit why you think liberal. Democracy, as we, knew, it is. Currently, in crisis. Well. The, entire liberal democratic, system, is built on, philosophical. Ideas, we've inherited from. The 18th century especially. The idea of free will which. Underlies. The. Basic mottos of the liberal, worldview like, the voter knows best the customer. Is always right. Beauty. Is in the eye of the beholder, follow. Your heart do what feels good all these, liberal, motors which are the foundation, of our political and economic system they, assume, that the ultimate, authority is, the. Three choices of, individuals. I mean, there are of course all kinds of limitations. And boundary cases and so forth but when push comes to shove, for, instance in the economic, field then. Corporations. Will tend to retreat, behind, this, last. Line of defense, that, this, is what the customers, want the. Customer, is always right, if the customers, want it it can't be wrong who, are you to tell the customers, that they are wrong now, of course there are many exceptions, but, this is the basics, of the, free market this is the first and last thing you learn the customer, is always right, so the. Ultimate authority in, the economic, field is, the desires of the cost and this, is really based on a. Philosophical. And metaphysical view. About. Free, will that. The desires, of the customer, they. Emanate, they, represent, the, free will of human beings which is the highest authority in the universe and therefore, we must abide by them and, it's the same in the political field with the voter knows best and. This. Was okay, for. The last two or three centuries because. Even though free. Will was always, a, myth. And not, a scientific, reality, when science, knows of only two kinds, of processes, in nature it. Knows about deterministic. Processes, and, it knows about random, processes and their, combination. Results. In probabilistic. Processes. But, randomness. And probability. They are not freedom. They. Mean that I can't, predict, your, actions. With. A hammer percent accuracy because there is randomness but, a random robot, it is not free if you, connect a robot say, to a uranium. A, piece, of uranium and, and the decisions, of the robot is determined, by random processes, of the, disintegration. Of uranium, atoms so. You will never be able to predict, exactly what, this robot will do but, this is not freedom this is just randomness. Now. This, was always true from, a scientific perspective humans. Certainly. They have a will they. Make decisions they, make choices but. They are not free to choose their, will their choices are not independent. They depend, on a million, factors, genetic. And in hormonal, and. Social. And cultural and so forth which we don't choose. Now. Up. Till now in history they. Humans. Were, so, complicated. That. From. A practical, perspective it, still, made sense to believe in free will because.
Nobody, Could understand, you better than you understand, yourself you had this inner realm, of. Desires. And thoughts, and, feelings, which. You had privileged, access to this, in a real yeah but that but, that's that, hasn't changed today, right like that. There. Is no longer the privileged, access now, belongs, to. Corporations. Like Google, they. Can have access to things, happening, ultimately. Inside, my body and brain which I don't know about there, is somebody out there not, just one all. Kinds of corporations, and governments, that made me not today maybe, in five years ten years twenty, years they. Will have privileged. Access to, what's happening inside me, more. Privileged, than my access, they, could understand. What is happening in my brain better, than I understand. It which, means they will never be perfect right but you were as a. Free. Person. Right that you will have delegated, that, access. Or that that, ability, to this, corporation, or this machine or this no you. Don't have to give them permission I, mean in some. Countries, maybe have no choice at all but, even amid them in a democracy like the United States a lot. Of the information that. Enables, an external entity to, hack you. Nobody. Asks you whether, you want to give it away or not now at present. Most. Of the data that is being collected on. On humans, is still. From, the skin outwards, we. Haven't, seen nothing yet we. Are still. Just. At the tip of this, revolution. Because its present whether. It's Google and Facebook and Amazon or whether it's the government or whatever they. Are are, trying to understand people mainly. On the basis, of what, are we what I search what. I buy where, I go who, I meet it's, all external, the. Really, big revolution. Which is coming very quickly will. Be when the AI revolution. And machine learning and all that the Infotech revolution, meets. And merges. With the biotech, revolution and, goes under the skin well. Biometric. Sensors. Or even, external devices now we're, developing, the ability for example to, know the. Blood. Pressure of. Individuals. Just by looking at them you don't need to put a sensor, on a person, just, by looking, at the face you can tell what is the blood pressure of that individual, and by analyzing tiny, movements. In the eyes in, the mouth you can tell all kinds of things from. The, current, mood. Of the person are you angry, are you bored, to things like sexual orientation. So. We're. Talking about a world in which humans. Are no longer a black box, nobody. Really understand, what happens inside so, we say ok flee we'll know, the box is open and it's, open, to, others, certain. Others more. Than it is open to you don't understand, what's happening in your brain but. Some, cooperation, or governmental, organization. Could understand, that and, that's the theme that you explore it and homo day is pretty pretty. Buff in hotels, and in lessons. This, is like that the maybe the most important. Thing to understand, is that this, is really happening and it's, present, almost all the attention, goes to the AI like. Now I've been on a two-weeks tour of. The US for the publication of the book everybody. Wants to speak about AI like. AI, previous. Book all models came out nobody cared about AI to, use later it's like everywhere, it's the new heart it's yeah and I try, to emphasize it's not AI the. Really, important, thing is actually the other side it's the biotech, it's the combination, it's. Only the combination it's only with the help of biology, that AI becomes. Really. Revolutionary. Because just, a thought experiment let's. Say we had the the best eye the most developed AI in the world but. Humans, were, not, animals. Were. Not biochemical. Algorithms but. They were something like, transcendent. Souls that. Make decisions through freewill, in. Such a world a I would, not have mattered much because. AI in such a world could, never have replaced, teachers. And lawyers and.
You Could not even build self-driving cars, you. Know in such a world because, to put a self-driving, car on, the road you, need biology, not just computers, you need to understand, humans, for, example if somebody, is approaching the road, the. Car needs to tell, is this, an 8 year old an 18. Year old or an 8 year old and needs. To understand, the different. Behaviors. Of. A. Human, child a, human teenager and. A human adult and this. Is biology and similarly. To have really effective, like self-driving taxis. You need. The, car to understand, a lot of things about, human psychology the psychology, of the passengers, coming. In and what they want and so forth so if you take the biotech, out of the equation, AI, beta value, goes won't really go go very far that so I wanna I want to push. You there cuz I think it's it's, easy, to. Arrive. At a dystopian, view of what that world will look like what bio, and, and. AI. And cognitive. Abilities of machines. When. They meet, like what how that could end up right and we see we see that in Hollywood and that, dystopian. View is well. Documented. But I want to I want to, explore. With you like what. What. Are some of the benefits, of that combination and how can that lead to an alternative. Worldview. Than, what's, explored, more deeply in homo Deus well, it should be emphasized, that there are enormous benefits otherwise. There would be no temptation, if it, was only bad nobody. Would do it Google, would want research it nobody would invest in it and it. Should also be emphasized, that, technology. Is never the FIR monistic you. Can build, either, paradise. Or hell with. These technologies, they. Are not just they don't have just one one, type of usage and. As. A story, in' and as, a social critic and maybe philosopher, i tend, to focus more on the dangerous, scenarios, simply. Because for. Obvious reasons. The, end for news and the corporation's, and the scientists, and engineers are, developing these. Technologies, they. Naturally. Tend to focus on, the positive scenarios, on all, the good it can do but. Yes I definitely, acknowledge, it can do a tremendous amount, of good to humanity, to take the example of the self-driving cars, so. At. Present about. 1.25. Million people, are killed each year in traffic, accidents more. Than 90 percent of these accidents, are because of human errors if we, can replace. Humans. With, surviving, cars it's, not that we'll have no car accidents. That's, impossible greatly. But we'll probably save, a million lives every. Year so. This is a tremendous thing and similarly. The the combination, of being able to understand, what's happening inside my body this. Also implies that. You can provide. People with the best health. Care in history, you. Can for example diagnose. Diseases long. Before, the person understands. That, there is something wrong at present. The. Human mind, or human awareness is, still a very critical, Junction.
In Health care like. If something. Happens inside my body and I. Don't know about it I won't, go to the doctor, so if, something, like I don't know cancer is now spreading, in my liver and I, still don't feel anything I won't. Go to the doctor I won't know about it only when I start feeling pain, and nausea and, all kinds of things they can't explain so. After some time I go to the doctor it, does, all kinds of tests, and finally, they discover, oh something, is wrong and, very. Often it's, by. That by, that time it's. Very expensive, and, landfill, not, necessarily, to light but expensive and painful to take care of it if. I could have an AI doctor. Monitoring. My body 24, hours a day with. Biometric, sensors and so forth it could discover, this. Long. Before I feel anything. Edit. At a stage when, it's still very, cheap. And easy, and painless to, cure it so, this is this is wonderful, but in that world it's an AI doctor, and not a human doctor and I think one of the. Potential. Outcomes. That you warn about is, AI. Or, machines or that combination of bio and and and and AI. Replacing. Us replacing, us as humans and. I'd. Like, to think that one thing that that makes us human, is. Having. Meaning, in life we're having a purpose for. Living that's that's that's a kind of a unique thing that humans have and, I. Don't, think it's something that we would readily want to give up right, so as this technology is evolving, and we're developing it it's likely, something, that will bacon, this need to have meaning, and purpose, in life. You. Talk about in 20 what twenty-one lessons this notion that that god is dead, and or, is God back and, the the, role that. Religion. May play and. And, how we. Progresses. As humans. Is. There a place for that that notion of God or, religion to, capture. And secure like this this notion of meaning, in life or purpose in life well. It all depends on the definitions, I mean. There are many, kinds of gods and and people, understand very different things by, the word religion, if. You think about God so. Usually. People have very two extremely, different gods, in mind when, they say the word God one. God is, the cosmic. Mystery, we. Don't understand, why. There is something rather than nothing why. The Big Bang happened, what, is human consciousness, there, are many things we don't understand about the world and some. People choose to call this mysteries. By, the name of God God, is the reason there is something, rather than nothing God. Is behind. Human, consciousness but, the, most characteristic. Thing of that God is that. We, know, absolutely nothing, about. Him/her. It they. There. Is nothing concrete, it's, it's them it's a mystery and this, is kind of the god we talk about when, late. At night in, the desert we sit around the campfire and we think about the meaning of life that's. One kind of God I have no problem at all with this god I like it very much. Then. There is another God. Which. Is the, petty low Giver the. Chief characteristic. Of this God we. Know a lot of extremely, concrete, things about that God we, know what he thinks about. Female. Dress code what, kind of dresses, he likes. Women. To work we. Know what he thinks about sexuality. We, know what he thinks about food about. Politics, and like. These tiny little things and this. Is the God people talk about when. They stand. Around. Burning. A heretic. Will. Burn you because you did something that this God we know everything, about this God and he didn't it doesn't like it that you do this so you burn. You and, it's. Like you know it's like a magic trick that. When, you you come and talk about God so how do you know that God exists, and so forth people would say well the, Big Bang and human consciousness and, in science, can't explain this, and science can't explain that and, then. And this, is true and then. Like a magician. Swapping. One card for another they. Will take. Out the mystery garden place the. The, petit glow giver and you end up with something strange, like, because. We don't understand, the Big Bang women. Must dress with long sleeves and, Men shouldn't have sex together and. What's, the connection I mean how did you get from here to there so. Just, I prefer, to use different different, different terms. Here and it's the same with religion. People. Understand, very different things with, this word I. Tend. To separate. Religions, from spirituality. Spirituality. Is, about questions. Religion. Is about answers. Spirituality. Is when you, have some big question, about life like. What is humanity what, is the good. Who. Am I these kinds of question life, what. Should I do in life and and this is kind of and you go on a quest.
Looking. Deeply. Into these questions, and you're willing to go after these questions, wherever, they take you you, can just go go, yeah. Maybe. In the future but so far in at least some of these questions when, you I think when you type like what is the meaning of life you get 42 like. That there is a number one result search. So. You go on a spiritual quest and. Religion. Is the exact opposite, religion. Is somebody, comes and telling you this is the answer you must believe it if you don't believe this answer, then you will burn in hell after you die, or you will, burn you here even, before you die and. It's. It's really opposite, things now, I think that, at. The, present moment in history. Spirituality. Is probably more important, than in any previous time, in history because. We are now forced, to confront. Spiritual. Questions, whether, we like it or not in, three and do you take that confrontation with, those questions that will inform. How. We allow technology to, develop and be deployed exactly now in. Most throughout, history you always, had a small minority of people who was. Very interested in the big, spiritual. And philosophical questions. Of life and, most people just ignore them and went. Along with with their like you know fighting about who owns this land and. Then who that this goatherd, to, whom it belongs and so forth now we live in a very unique time in history when. Engineers. Must, tackle, spiritual. Questions, if. You are building a, self-driving, car. By. Force you have to deal with questions, like free will by. Force you have to deal with this the example everybody gives the, self-driving car, suddenly. Two, kids jump running, after a ball jump, in front of the car the only way to save, the two kids is, to swerve to the side and fall off a cliff and kill, the owner of the car who is in the backseat, what should the car do now. Philosophers. Have been arguing, about these questions for thousands, of years with, very little impact on. Human. Life. Now. But engineers. Are not feel oh not like they are very impatient. If you, want to put the self-driving, car, on the road tomorrow or next year, you. Need to tell. The algorithm what to do and the amazing, thing about about. This question now is that. Whatever, you decide this, will actually happen, previously. With philosophical, discussions, like, you had I don't know Kant. And Schopenhauer, and mill discussing. This issue should, I kill the two kids or should, I sacrifice my, life and even. If they reach an agreement. That. Very, little impact on actual. Behavior, because. Even. If you agree theoretically. This is the right thing to do at the, time of crisis, you'd, philosophy. Has little power you. React from your gut not from, your philosophical theories, but. With a self-driving, car if. You, program, the algorithm, to. Kill the driver and not. A drive the owner of the car and not the two kids you. Have a guarantee. A mathematical. Guarantee, that this is exactly, what, the car will do so. You have to think far more carefully than ever before, what, is the, right answer so. In in this sense. Very. Old spiritual. And philosophical questions. Are now. Practical. Questions, of engineering. Which. You cannot escape if you want for example to, put a self-driving car on the road I want to go back to this concept of religion. Versus spirituality, and, like the role that play in sapiens, your first book you, talk about this concept of.
Human. Fictions, or like stories, that we create as humans, I guess, to get us. Through. Life and to get us through our interactions, with each other. Those. Fictions, those stories, as you put it they've they've, served, us well they've, resulted. In a lot of good for humankind. But, have also been the source. Of, wars. And conflict. And and, human, suffering yeah how. Do you square that with this moment we're in where spirit, spirituality. Is, an integral, part in how we think. About integrating. Technology, in our lives. Big. Question, well. So. Far in history in order, to organize. Humans. On a large scale you, always had, to have some. Story. Some. Fiction, which. Humans invented. But. Which, enough. Humans, believed in, order to agree on how to behave it's. Not just religion, if this is the obvious example. That. Even. Religious people would, agree that all religions. Except, one are fictional, stories. It's, the first line by religion, if. You ask a Jew then, they will tell you yes Judaism. Is the truth that's for sure but all these billions of Christians, and Muslims and Hindus they believe in fictional stories I mean all this story about Jesus rising, from the dead and being the Son of God this is fake news wait that's not true if. You ask a Jew like a rock hey, you know rabbis tend to be like to hedge their back. Maybe. Not but then you go to the Christians, they will say no no no no no no no this, is true but. The Muslims, they believe in fake news all, this story about Muhammad meeting the Archangel, Gabriel and the Quran coming, from heaven this is all fake news and enough the Muslims they'll tell you this about Hinduism, so even the in religion, it's very clear the. More. Interesting. Thing is that the same is true in in something like in the economy. Cooperation. You can't have a modern economy without, corporations. Like Google and, without. Money like dollars but. Corporations. And currencies, they are also just stories. We invented, Google. Has no physical. Or biological reality. It is. A story. Created. By the powerful, shamans, we call lawyers. Even. If you ask lawyer, what is Google like. You push them to the what is, they, will tell you it's a legal fiction, it's. Not the, it's not this chair it belongs to Google I think but. This, is not it's. Not it it's not the money it's not the manager it's not the workers, it's a story, created, by lawyers and for, example I mean if you somehow. It's some natural, calamity, destroy. Is like, there is an earthquake and, the Googleplex, collapses, Google. Still exists, even. If many of the workers and managers are killed, it just hires new ones and, it still has money in the bank and even. If there is no money in the bank they can they can get alone and build, new buildings and hire new people and everything is okay but. Then if you have one of these the most powerful. Shaman like, the Supreme Court of the United States. Come. And said I don't like your story I think. You need to be broken into two different fictions. Then. That's the end so. So. You. That's. A lotta impact. So. That the advent, that we're in now with fake news and really. Seriously. Questioning, what veracity, means and, and how. Veracity. Impacts. These this, kind of foundational, things. That you laid out earlier in, your, remarks that have allowed us to. Work. With each other and work across borders, etc. With. This where. You are on this this notion of stories, and and fictions, that we have is this, advent, of fake news is that is that. A reality is that yeah. We should be in terms of questioning what's true and what's not true on. The one hand fake, news is old news we've, had them throughout history. And. In some times in much worse form.
Than. What we see today, but. Is there is there such thing as truth. Yes there is absolutely, I mean there there is reality I mean, you have all these stories people tell about reality. I see but, ultimately there, is reality. The. Best test of reality that I know is the test of suffering, suffering, is the most real thing in the world if. You want to know whether it's so is about, a real entity or, a fictional, entity, you should just ask can, this entity actually suffer, now, Google cannot suffer, even. If the stock, goes down even. If a judge comes, and says this is a monopoly, you have to break it up he. Doesn't suffer, humans. Can suffer, like. The the. Managers, the the. Owners of the stocks the employees. They can suffer my girls yeah, they can certainly suffer, but. We. Know we can know very easily that Google is just a story by this simple test that it cannot suffer, and, it's the same of nations, it's the same of currencies, the dollar is, just a, fiction, recreated, the dollar doesn't suffer if it loses its value let me push you on there right so. Oftentimes. Like just in the US they say the kind, of the. System, we set up in the u.s. is an experiment, it's often styled. As an experiment, democracy. With checks, and balances etc. Under. One view of that you can say that that's that's kind of a story. That we've created in America right we've created this there's, kind of really nice story. But if that, was broken apart like that, entity is not not not, suffering, but. If that experiment, is. The. Thing, the. The the proper functioning, of those institutions and the things that support that so we know, these functions, properly because. It, alleviates. Suffering. It provides. Health care it provides, safety, and, if it doesn't then. We would say the experiment, doesn't. Work the, experiment. Will you say that experiment. Is a. Fiction, or that experiment. Reality. Is it a thing the experiment. Is a story, that we share it's. Things that we, humans, have, invented, and created in, order to serve certain. Needs, and. Desires, that, we have, it. Is as a, created. Story and not an, objective. Reality but. It is nevertheless the one of the most powerful forces in the world when I say that something is a fiction, or a story I, mean to imply it's banned or that. It's not important, no some of the best things, in the world and, the most powerful, forces, in the world are these, shared, fictions. Nations. And, corporations, and. Banks and, and so forth they are all stories, we created, but. They, are the most powerful, forces today, in the world far, more powerful than any human, being or any animal and, they. Can be a tremendous, force for good the. Key is to, remember that we created them, to serve us and, note. That we are here, in order to serve them, that, the trouble, really begins when, people lose sight of. The. Simple reality that. We are real they, are not and a, lot of people throughout history and, also today they. Kind of take it upside. Down they, think the nation is more real, than me I am here to serve it and not, it is here, to serve me, and and my fellow humans, very. Interesting so we're. Gonna open it up for questions from the audience in a few minutes here but I want to try to get an. Easy win so in in 21 lessons, you you tackle really big. Challenges. And questions that we're wrestling with today. Of. Those those, questions. Which. Do you think is the easiest to, solve and what should we be doing to go about solving it ooh what. Is the easiest to solve. Trying. To get quick wins on the board here yeah, for so. The. Rest the fake news. Question. Not because it's the easiest to solve but also maybe because it's one of the most relevant to what. You're doing here in in Google and I, would say that the, current incarnation of, the. Fake news problem, has, a lot to do with the model of, the. News and information, market. That. We. Have constructed. A model, which. Basically says. Exciting. News for free. In exchange for your attention. And this. Is a very, problematic model. Because. It it, turns, human attention into, the most scarce, resource, and you get more and more competition for. Human attention. With, more and more exciting, news that again, in in some of the smartest people in the world have, learned how to excite, our brain how, to make us click on the next news, story and truth. Gets completely, pushed aside it's. Not part of the equation. The.
Equation Is, excitement, attention. Excitement, attention, and. On. The collective, level I think the solution, to this problem would. Be to change, the. Model of the news market, to. High, quality news. That, cost you a lot of money but. Don't abuse your attention. It's, very. Strange that we are in a situation when, people are, willing to pay a lot of money for. High quality food, and high. Quality cars. But, not for high quality news. And. This. Is a lot, to do with the architecture. Of, of. The information, market and I think there is there are many things that you here in Google can do in, order to help society. Change that. The model of the news market I'd, want, to, continue. Explore that and whether that would be create like economic. Divide or exacerbate, the current, divide. But I'm gonna open it up now for audience. Questions we. Have a microphone, here on, the side. Start, with you hi thank. You so much for writing your books they're completely wonderful and I've had a joy reading them. So. One. Of the things that you kind of explore here is we are facing a couple, of global, problems. And. Historically. We, have never created, global. Global. Organizations, which is responsible for solving global problems, who. Had any ability to enforce them and even. When we have created them they have come after great. Tragedies. So. How, can we sort of make. That happen, and make somebody responsible, and, have the ability to, have. Those organizations. Enforce those solutions. Yeah. I mean it's it's not going to be easy and. But. I think the most important, thing is to change. The. Public. Conversation and. Focus. It on the global problems, if. People. Focus. On, local. Problems, they. Don't see, the need for effective. Global, cooperation. So. The first step is to. Tell people again, and again and again look, the, three biggest, problems, that everybody, on the planet is now, facing, our. Nuclear, war climate. Change and technological, disruption, and, even, if we are able to prevent. Nuclear war and climate change it's, still AI, and, biotech, are going to completely, disrupt the. Job market, and even the human body and we. Need to figure out how. To regulate. This and how, to prevent, the dystopian. Consequences. And make sure that the more utopian. Consequences. Materialized, and for that we need global, cooperation, to be obvious, to everybody you, cannot. Prevent. Climate change on a national, level and you. Cannot regulate AI on, a national, level whatever, regulation, the u.s. adopts, if the Chinese, are not adopting it it, won't do much help so, you need cooperation, here, and.
And. Then it goes into practical, political issues. I mean you have an elections, coming up midterm elections, in the US so, if you go to a town. Meeting, with an inspiring, congressman. Or congresswoman, so. We just ask them what. Are you going if I elect you what, will you do about the danger of climate change about the danger of nuclear war and about. Getting. Global, regulations, for. A iron for biotech, what's your plan and. If they say oh I haven't thought about it. Then. Maybe, don't vote for, that person. Question. Hi. You go thanks, for coming here today so. In, one of your talks you suggested, that to, avoid, getting our hearts hacked we. Need to stay ahead by, knowing ourselves better and, it. Seems to me that the process, of knowing yourself needs, a lot of intelligence and in some ways it's a skill that needs, to be developed I mean, the intellect, that we have, as human seems, fairly, new, when compared, to other properties. That we got evolutionarily. So. How. Do you suggest that we can learn to think and use our intelligence better, and also, do that at a scale because. If only. Some people know themselves but millions, are on your billions around you don't then. Then. You can only go so far well. I don't think that knowing yourself is necessarily. About. All, about intelligence. Certainly, not in the narrow sense of intelligence, if you include emotional. Intelligence and so forth and yes but, in in the more narrow, sense, of like IQ I think, this is not some. Of the many. Very, intelligent. People in the world who don't know themselves at all. Which. Is an extremely dangerous combination. Now. Some, people. Explore. Themselves, through, therapy, some. Use meditation, some use out some, use sports they like go on a long hike go. For, a month to the Appalachian, Trail and, and. Get, to know themselves on, the way there are many ways to do it which. Are not necessarily, about intellect, it's not like reading. Articles. About, brain, science and that's gonna help in some. Ways and in, this sense I think it's a very kind of. Democratizing. Ability. Or force, to get to know yourself after. Afros in you you're always with yourself, it's, not like you need some special Abra Tory and to get some very. Rare. Machines, from. I don't know that cost millions of dollars, you just need yourself sure. But what, about the art of thinking like. What. About the art of. The. Art of thinking I, mean. People are very intelligent, but they don't really use. Their intelligence to understand themselves right yeah. And. There. Is no easy way to do it if, it was easy to, get to know yourself better everybody, would do it long ago and we, would be living in a very very different world. We, have we have folks joining us from all around the world as well so I have a question, from from. The question. Bank, compassion, is the critical underpinning. Of any successful, society, yet, I believe that technology is, reducing, our capacity, capacity, for empathy it, feels that we no longer value, compassion, perhaps, even seeing compassion, as weak, what. Are in your view effective, ways to motivate members, of society, to develop their compassion, I, don't. Think the technology, is inherently. Undermining. Compassion. It, can go both, ways. Certainly. Communication. Technology. Can. Make you aware of the, plight of people on the other side of the world and, without. That you may be extremely, compassionate about.
Your Immediate, like family, members and neighbors and, won't, care at all about people. On the other side of the world so. I don't think there is an inherent, contradiction. Or collision. Between. Technology. And compassion. But. It is true that, the. Way we. Design, technology. Can. Make us. Less. Compassionate. And even the way that we design ourselves. For. Most of history so you had economic. And political systems. Trying, to shape people, and in. The past they live with education. And with our. Culture, and in. The president, future, we, are likely to do it more and more with biotech, and with, brain computer, interfaces. So. Our ability to manipulate, ourselves. Is growing. And therefore. It extremely important. To. Remember. To, take compassion, into account otherwise. The danger is the. You know armies, and corporations. And government, in many cases, they want something, like intelligence, they, want more intelligent. Workers and soldiers they. Want more decisive. Workers, and soldiers don't take a whole day to decide, I want, you to decide, this in half an hour and as. Our ability to manipulate humans. And I mean manipulate, our, ear engineer, that that the body in the brain as it grows. We, might. Engineer. More. Decisive. And intelligent. Humans, at the price of compassion. Which. Many, corporations, and, armies, and governments, find, either, irrelevant. Or even, problematic. Because, it causes people to be hesitant. And to take more time about the decisions, and so on and so forth so, we. Need to remember, that the, enormous importance, of compassion. And. Again. It goes back also to the question about getting. To know yourself. Which. I think is the key to developing compassion. Not. Just because when, you understand, your own that this, makes me miserable then, you understand, all the same thing may make other people also miserable, it's, even, much deeper than that. When. You really get, to know yourself you, realize that when. You, ignore. Others, and when, you mistreat, others, very. Often, it harms you even. Before it, harms them it's, a, very unpleasant, experience to. Be angry. So, your anger, may have harm other people or maybe not maybe you're boiling. With anger about, somebody, and you don't do anything about it because she's, your boss. But. You. Don't harm her but your your anger harms you so. The more you, you. Understand, yourself the, greater, incentive. You have to. Do something about my anger about, my hatred about my fear and most. People discover, that as they develop more compassion. Towards, others, they. Also experience, far more peace within, themselves.
Another, Live question. Thank. You, after reading your books it occurs to me that you've most likely educated. Yourself both. Broadly and deeply to, be the foundation for your ideas for, those of us that are interested in cultivating, our mind similarly, wonder, if you could share a little bit about your reading habits and how you use what to consume what. Am i reading habits, um I read. Very eclectically. Like. No. Book is bad. From. From, entering the the, book list but. Then I tend to be extremely impatient. About the, books I actually read, I would begin like 10 books and drop, 9 of them after 10. Pages. It's. Not always the, wisest, policy, but it's my policy that. If a book, didn't, really. Teach. Me something, new had some interesting, insight, in the first 10 pages the. Chances, it will it, could be that in on page 100, there'll be some mind-blowing, idea that I am now missing. But. There's, so many I keep, thinking there are so many books. Out wonderful. Books out there that. I will never read. So. Why, waste, waste time, on a. Less optimal, optimal, book so. I would try like a book on biology and then economics, and then psychology. And then fiction, and whatever, and just go through them quite, quickly until I find something that really grabs me. Another. Live question I. Mr.. Ari thanks, for being here fascinating, talk is as always I, do. A little bit of meditation myself, and I've heard that you do a lot of meditation on the order of hours a day is that right I, try. To do 2 hours every day and I try to go every year to a long reach rate of 45, or 60 days, so. I was wondering how do you feel that has influenced, your life and and the ideas that you have a. Tremendous. Influence I. Think. Both on. My inner peace of mind but. Also on my work, as a scientist, maybe, the two most important, influences, is that, first it, enable me to to, have more. Clarity and more, focus, and certainly. When you write about such big subjects. Like, trying to summarize the, whole of history in, 400 pages, so. Having, a very very focused, mind, is very important, because, the great. Difficulty, is that you everything. Kind of currently strikes you you start writing. About the Roman Empire and you said well I have to explain this and this and this and this and and you end up with 4,000 pages so. You have to be very what is really, important, and what can be left outside and, the. Other thing is that. At. Least of limitation, that I I practice. Which is Vipassana, meditation it's. All about really. Knowing the difference, between. The. Fictions, and story is generated, by our mind and the reality. What, is really happening right.
Now And. When. When when I meditate. The. Things that happens is that constantly, the mind is like a factory, that, constantly. Generates. Stories. About, myself about, other people, about the world that. And they are very attractive and like I get. Identified, with them and the meditation, is constantly don't it's. Just a story leave, it just try. To stay, with what is really happening right. Now and. This. Is the central, practice, in in meditation, it's also a. Guiding. Principle when. I study. History or when, I study what's happening in the world. Hey. Thank you let's. Take another question from the from, the dory with, inequality. Rising across most nation in the last few decades what, is your perspective on how we can use, technological. Growth to solve this problem and create, a more equitable world do, we need a different economic, paradigm. To achieve this, yes. We probably need a different economic, paradigm. Because, we are entering kind of uncharted, waters, especially. Because of the automation revolution, and the. Growing, likelihood that more and more people will. Might, be completely, pushed out of the job market, not, just, because there won't be enough jobs but. Simply because the. The. Pace of change in, the job market will, accelerate so. Even if there are enough, jobs, people. Don't have the psychological. Balance. And stamina. To constantly. Retrain. Rescale, reinvent, themselves. And. So, I think that the biggest problem in that job market is really going to be this, psychological. Problem and then. What do you do when more and more people are, left. Out and. There. Are explorations. Of new models like universal, basic income and, so forth which. Of worth, exploring, I don't have the answers I would, just say that anybody. Who thinks in terms like, universal, basic income should. Take the word Universal. Very. Very seriously, and not. Settle. For national. Basic, income because. The, the greatest inequality. We're, facing will. Probably, be inequality. Between, countries. And not, within countries, some. Countries, are likely to become extremely. Wealthy, due. To the automation, revolution, and, California. Is certainly, one. Of these places other. Countries, might, lose everything.
Because. Their entire, economy. Depends. On things like manual. Labor which. Will lose its importance, and they, just don't have the resources, and the educational, system to. Kind of turn themselves into, high-tech hubs so. The really crucial question. Is not how. Do we, what, what do we do about, I. Don't. Know Americans, in Indiana who, lose their jobs the, really, important, questions, is what do we do about people in Guatemala, or, Bangladesh who, lose their jobs, this, should be I think the focus. Of this question of inequality, okay. Look take another live question. Hello. Mr. Ari all right thank you for doing this QA so. At Google we have a responsibility to build products and services which not only achieve, results for our shareholders but also that actually benefit our end users so in order to, spend, less time hacking, humans and. Spend more time reducing suffering we need to understand what's of a future we want to build so. What I want to ask you is what are your personal methodologies, for making predictions about the future and what, suggestions would you give to Googlers who want to have a more vers understanding, of the future. Well. As I said in the very beginning I don't think we can predict the future but I think we can influence it, what. I try, to do as a. Historian, and I even, when I talk, about the future I define, myself as a historian because. I think that history is, not the study of the past history. Is the study of change, how. Human, society is and in political systems and economies, change and what. I try to do is, to. Map different. Possibilities. Rather, than make predictions. This is what will happen in 2050, and we. Need to keep. A very broad perspective, one. Of the biggest dangers is when, we have a very narrow perspective like. We develop, a new technology and we, think oh this, technology. Will. Have this outcome and we. Are convinced. Of this prediction, and we. Don't take into account that, the same technology, might. Have very, different, outcomes. And. Then. We don't prepare and we, don't and as. I, said at the beginning it's, especially important. To take into account the, worst possible. Outcomes, in order. To be aware of them. So. I would say whenever you're thinking about, the. Future the future impact of added, technology I'm developing, create. A map of different. Possibilities, if you see just one possibility. You're, not looking wide enough if you, see two or three it's probably also not wide enough you, need a map of like four or five different possibilities. Minimum. Let's. Take another live. Question. Hey. I'm, sir hurry so. My question is I'll, start. Very, broad and then I'll know it down for, the focus I'm really interested in what, do you think are the components, that make these fictional. Stories so, powerful. In how they guide human nature and my. And then if I narrow it down is, I'm specifically. Interested in this self-destruction. Behavior. Of humans how, can these, fictional. Stories. Led. By a few people. Convinced. The mass to, literally kill. Or die for that. Fictional story it's. It again goes back to to hacking the brain and hacking.
The Human animal. It's. Been done throughout history, previously. Just. By trial and error without. The. Deep knowledge of, of, brain. Science and evolution, we have today but, to give an example like, if you want to convince people, to. Persecute. And. Exterminate. Some. Other group of people what, you need to do is really, latch onto the. Discussed, mechanisms. In the human brain. Evolution. Has. Shaped. Homo. Sapiens, who, is very powerful discussed. Mechanisms. In the brain to, protect us against. Diseases. Against. All kinds of sources of, potential. Disease. And if. You look at the, history of bias, and, prejudice. And genocide. One. Recurring theme is that it, repeatedly. Kind, of latches. On to these discussed, mechanisms. And so. You, would find things like women. Are impure or. These. Other people, they smell, bad and they, bring diseases. And. Very. Very often discussed, is at, the center so. You'll, often find comparison. Between. Certain. Types of humans, and rats or. Cockroaches. Or all kinds of other disgusting, things, so. If you want to, instigate. Genocide, you, start, by, hacking. The, discussed mechanisms. In the human brain and this. Is very very deep. And. If, it's done from an early age it's. Extremely. Difficult after. Words people, can they, know intellectually. That, it's, wrong to say that these, people are, disgusting, that, are, these people they smell, bad and then David but, the anointing tool actually but. When, you, you place them like in a brain scanner, they. Can't help it if, they. Were raised, I mean so we can still do something about it we can still kind of defeat, this but, it's very difficult because it's it really goes to the core of the brain. So. I'll end on a final question because we're at time when. Larry and Sergey when they founded Google they, did show with this this. Deep belief in technology's, ability to. Improve. People's lives everywhere. So. If you had a magic wand and, you could give, Google. And the next big project for us to work on and, in 30 seconds or less what would what would you, grant. Us is our assignment an AI. System that. Gets to know me in order, to protect me, and not. In order to sell, me products, or make me click on advertisements, and, so forth all. Right mission, accepted. Thank. You. You.
2018-10-17