A book for fourth industrial travellers, this the third of Yuval Harari’s masterpieces, following his earlier works in the series: Homo Sapiens and Homos Deus.
The first book, Homos Sapiens (2014), offers a unique take on people and society, examining who we are and what makes us human through the lens of history. The second, Homo Deus (2016), examines who we are becoming in the next 100 years. A seminal work, it challenges us to follow the exponential curve of history to its illogical consequence. In contrast, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018) is much more about the here and now. It looks at questions that we should be asking ourselves today.
“If the future of humanity is decided in your absence, because you are too busy feeding and clothing your kids – you and they will not be exempt from the consequences. This is very unfair; but who said history was fair?”
Harari has a way of putting his questions to the reader with the raise of an eyebrow: he wants you to do something. Given the questions he asks are about wicked problems – unsolved and complex – this is an uncomfortable stare-down of a read, but one very much worth engaging in.
Among the topics Harai covers are mass unemployment risks resulting from the twin information and biotechnology revolutions, the threat to social stability of the emergence of an “irrelevant class” of people, the possibility of digital dictatorships, the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on ethics, democracy and decision making, our increasing personal dependence on networks and our loss of individuality to those who control the data. He also stares down the barrel of the West’s current state of disillusionment with the ideals of liberalism.
The questions, he claims, have been raised by readers of his earlier works. They are what we are asking ourselves already. What Harari brings to them is context: why the pattern has emerged, where it might be going, and in some cases what we can do about it. One point he makes, with expressed concern, is that all of the mega trend challenges of today are global problems and therefore require global cooperation during a period of nationalist revival. Much like climate change, this poses somewhat of an existential threat to our ability to drive positive change.
Yet, despite the light that Harari sheds on the dark side of today’s mega-trends, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is not so much a portent of doom as a beacon of hope. Grappling with these issues is only possible if we are first aware of them, he argues. Harari has mapped the patterns of the revolutions of our globally integrated society so that we may lead through them toward a different future. As he said in a 2018 interview with Steve Paulson:
“Things are better than ever before. Things are still quite bad. Things can get much worse. This adds up to a somewhat optimistic view because if you realise things are better than before, this means we can make them even better.”
At the end of the book the only question really left unasked is “what will you do?” As a clarion wake up call, this book is a must read for leaders of every kind.