Reflections on reading "A Brief History of the Future" 1

It actually took nearly two months to read Harari's "A Brief History of the Future". Not because this book is difficult to understand and huge, but because I wasted a lot of time because of my impetuous heart and selfish desires. As a liberal arts student, my scientific literacy is really lacking. However, after reading this book, I was deeply attracted and impressed by the author's sharp thoughts, profound knowledge, massive information, and dialectical thinking.

As the name suggests, "A Brief History of the Future" is a book about the future. Based on the earth-shaking changes in human society in the past three hundred years, many reasonable and convincing speculations and imaginations have been made about the future of mankind and human society, although these speculations and imaginations are only possibilities. However, this book is not about the economic system, political system or other institutional arrangements of human beings and human society in the future. Instead, it uses a large amount of space to describe the historical evolution of human society and deduce possible future societies. Moreover, Harari has repeatedly emphasized that this result is only a possibility, which inspires us to think about how to achieve this possibility or avoid this possibility, and what we should do under this possibility.

This is Harari’s handwriting on the title page of the Chinese version of “A Brief History of the Future”: When we face the ultimate problem of this chaotic world, we need Chinese readers to contribute their wisdom.

We are happy when we live in the present. When humans walked out of Africa and spread around the world about 60,000 years ago, how many hardships our ancestors went through! 60,000 years is nothing compared to the age of the earth, which is 4.2 billion years old. However, it was during these 60,000 years that human beings conquered the earth and became the supreme ruler of the earth. From the agricultural revolution to the industrial revolution to the information revolution to today’s Internet of Everything, mankind has created tremendous wealth. This wealth is material, satisfying our material desires; spiritual, satisfying our divinity; and systems, whether autocratic or democratic, make us humans strong and powerful. All this establishes the supremacy of our humanity.

This is a famous photo. In 1990, when the Voyager 1 probe was about to fly out of the solar system, it was 6 billion kilometers away from the earth. NASA ordered it to look back. At a glance, 60 photos were taken, and one of them happened to include the Earth - the bright spot in the picture. Astrophysicist and famous science writer Carl Sagan famously said this about the photo above - In this little dot, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you have ever heard of , and everyone who has ever existed has spent their entire lives there. Here is gathered all the joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and searcher, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and farmer. , every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every parent, inventor and explorer, every moral teacher, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader , every saint and sinner in human history lives here - a mote of dust suspended in the sun.

It should be said that today we have the most comfortable life since mankind. Delicious food, safe, convenient and fast transportation, large and beautiful houses, comfortable and happy jobs, an open and safe society, democratic and free politics, peace under nuclear deterrence, etc., etc. These are all accumulated bit by bit by us humans over 60,000 years. We should cherish the present moment.

Living in the present makes us miserable. Perhaps it is true, as Harari said, that humans suddenly became the masters of the earth, just like the nouveau riche who were not mentally and culturally prepared. The disasters we have brought to this earth are also unprecedented. The extinction of species, climate warming, population explosion, flash floods, earthquakes, plagues, wars, etc. have always troubled mankind. In the endless pursuit of material enjoyment, human beings have also put themselves in dangerous situations.

Harari has this passage in the book:

Experience in the Stone Age: On the first day, I hiked for 10 hours in the primitive deep forest and set up camp in an open space by the river. Stay overnight; on the second day, we canoe down the river for 10 hours and camp beside the river; on the third day, we learn from the locals how to fish in the lake and pick mushrooms in the nearby woods.

Modern proletarian experience: first day, work 10 hours in a polluted textile factory, spend the night in a crowded apartment building; second day, work 10 hours as a cashier in a local department store, return to the same building Sleep in an apartment building; on day three, learn from locals how to open a bank account and fill out loan forms.

Which one will you choose? The answer is obvious.

What is the reason for this dilemma? What happened to humans? Humanity, physicality, or divinity?

The future must be bright. This is my assertion and my firm belief. Even though Harari says we can’t really predict the future, even though he attributes the religion of the future to dataism rather than humanism. Dataism may be the religion of the future. People can attribute everything to data, but people, humans, will definitely play a decisive role in this new religion. Religion without people, whether it is God, people themselves, or ubiquitous data, will be meaningless and worthless. No matter how powerful the power of data is, like the omnipotent God, it is all given to them by humans. Everything humans pursue is self-centered, not burying themselves. Humans, because they are human, are constantly making mistakes. But humans have been correcting their mistakes and moving towards a better future.

Editor's postscript: Israel's Harari is simply a "wonderful person". Born in 1976, he wrote a world history book that attracted the attention of the global academic community at a young age. This "unparalleled rarity" "The genius historian" combined so many "hard sciences" at once to write a complete "history of the future of mankind". His extraordinary imagination is somewhat incredible. Just as we know that "if there are a thousand readers, there are a thousand Hamlets", how can we understand the thoughts expressed by the author without experiencing them personally. The author of the review "The Future Must Be Beautiful" is a liberal arts student in the Department of Philosophy. It is not easy to find some time to read Harari's masterpiece despite his busy schedule, but it also requires perseverance. In today's era of rampant Internet and electronics, there are too few people who are willing to spend time reading books, so they can also be called "strange people". When "strange people" look at "strange people", how many sexual sparks will be created when they collide, and how many sparks will be produced. It's a lot of reverse thinking, but the main point is the same: the future of our mankind must be beautiful. Although there have been many "doomsday theories" before, human beings can only grasp the technology they have, use technology correctly, and follow the laws of nature, so that people can become or get closer to more intelligent gods. Before the "Big Bang", let our "levitation" Before the curtain call ends, the human beings on "Mote of Dust in the Sun" cherish the time together and live each day of their coexistence to the fullest. Thoughts after reading "A Brief History of the Future" 2

Preface

One time during a chat on WeChat, I asked Nobita what he thought of the general development trend of the world in the next hundred years, because we are People of this generation lived roughly during this period of time. He highly recommended me to read the book "A Brief History of the Future".

After reading it, it was indeed quite enlightening. Many of the issues that the author thinks about are also issues that I have been thinking about for more than ten years, but the author's thinking is more systematic and his expression is clearer. While reading, I had another idea, which is that in an era when social division of labor is becoming more and more detailed, people like Harari are actually "professional thinkers". We ordinary people always have this and that in our lives. chores, laziness, or directionlessness, and professional thinkers like Harari are just complementary to us ordinary people.

The author mentioned a phrase, Neanderthal hunters on Wall Street, which is very appropriate to use to describe our modern lives. Today, it is increasingly difficult for us to fully understand the world around us. Technology has become extremely complex, and it has gradually become impossible to understand the principles behind it. The organizational structure and processes have also become cumbersome and difficult to grasp. It is even more difficult to clarify the connections between various events, large and small. In the end, it is very likely to just give up. If you don’t understand, just don’t understand, and live your life as usual.

But the author did not give up. Although the micro social phenomena were too complex to grasp, he found a macro framework to interpret the real world. "A Brief History of the Future" is his interpretation of the present. Observations and predictions about the future provide a very grand perspective to help readers understand how the world works.

This book is very rich in content. There are four points that are very inspiring and impressive to me. They are briefly introduced below.

(1) Web of Meaning

The author proposed the concept of "web of meaning". It is this web of meaning that has been changing over thousands of years of recorded human history.

The organization and operation of society is to spread a set story through communication and interaction between people. This story will determine the meaning of everyone’s life, good or bad, beauty or ugly, right or wrong. All will be judged within this web of meaning.

From the earliest religions, to socialism, to humanism, different eras tell different stories. People who believe in the same story interact on the same network.

With this understanding, we will gain a slightly different view of many common social concepts.

(2) Narrative self

The author divides the self into the experiencing self and the narrative self.

The current feeling is the experience of self, and you can feel pleasure and pain.

The long-term decisions in life depend on the narrative self. Everyone weaves a story for himself and lives his life according to this story. When we write our own stories, we refer to the stories of those around us, as well as the stories of experts and successful people, and we join the web of meaning.

When we talk about "I", we actually refer to me in this story.

(3) Knowledge formulas

The author summarizes the knowledge formulas of three eras:

1. The Middle Ages: Knowledge = Classical Meanings X Logic

2. Now: Knowledge = Empirical Data X Mathematics

3. New Humanism (Future): Knowledge = Experience Argument, let us see that () the form of knowledge itself is also changing. Currently in our society, knowledge based on empirical observation and mathematical statistics still dominates. But we can also find that the importance of personal experience is gradually increasing.

In activities such as various designs and artistic creations, experience and sensitivity are increasingly of special value. In fact, they can also be regarded as a kind of knowledge.

(4) Data and Algorithms

Markets, governments, and even people themselves are all ways of processing data.

The author said that the scientific community is gradually forming a consensus that biology is just an algorithm that processes all kinds of data. It is very possible to create algorithms that surpass humans. Humans' ability to store and process data is far inferior to that of large computers.

We are actually already in the world of algorithms, and social algorithms are constantly evolving. This year our country has begun to offer "data analysis and big data technology" majors in many universities.

Threats that all people may face in the future: A few people have been upgraded to become superhumans. They have surpassed the algorithm and have unprecedented abilities and creativity, so they can make the most important decisions in the world. Algorithms The system cannot understand or control these people. But most people don't know how to upgrade, so they become lower animals, controlled and dominated by algorithms and superhuman beings at the same time.

Summary

Biotechnology and intelligent technology may gradually combine in the future to develop "new humans" that surpass current humans and may achieve immortality. In fact, some people are already doing this Related research. "A Brief History of the Future" is a summary of our era. Our most essential desires, such as eternal youth and immortality, have not changed for thousands of years. In the past, we could only fantasize about it in religious rituals, but with the development of science and technology Many problems have been solved and new hope has been given to mankind. Thoughts after reading "A Brief History of the Future" 3

This morning I read an emotional article in the Longxing Fa group, talking about the emotions of Lin Huiyin, Liang Sicheng, and Jin Yuelin. At that time, the three of them sat down to talk about who they loved more. Lin Huiyin turned out to be Liang Sicheng, so Lin and Liang chose to get married. What was ridiculous was that Lin Huiyin died and Liang Sicheng immediately married again, while Jin Yuelin refused to marry for Lin Huiyin's life. Who loves more. After reading it, I actually found it a bit ridiculous. Everyone thinks that their views are correct, so the published words are unquestionable. Maybe everyone thinks that Jin Yuelin will never marry because of Lin Huiyin, and how can he know how to be a fish if he is not a fish.

Perhaps Jin Yuelin is like most of our leftover men and women today. He missed a relationship at that time, and then it was hard to find the person who liked each other after all the sudden moves. It was not because of Lin Huiyin that he didn't marry.

This corroborates the words in the book that our group started a book club to read. This book is "A Brief History of the Future", and this is what it says about "the web of meaning". : People feel that there are only two types of reality: objective reality and subjective reality. As everyone knows, there is another situation: intersubjectivity. We assign a meaning to many things, but they are actually fictitious. Human beings will continue to strengthen each other's beliefs in a way that continuously circulates themselves. Every time we confirm each other, the net of meaning will be drawn closer. So many things that don’t exist, everyone thinks they are like this, then it is like this. Many things do not exist, but we all think that they exist, so they exist, just like the relationship between Lin, Liang, and Jin above. Looking at all the articles, it is believed that Jin Yuelin did not marry Lin Huiyin for the rest of his life, so most people believe that No doubt, but who knows whether the result will be like this. This is just an example. Maybe you think their feelings have nothing to do with me and I just need to live my own life. But that is just an example and it applies to many things. Therefore, when judging and imagining something, don't always think that you are so right, and don't be so convinced of your own thoughts.

Read "A Brief History of the Future" and share it in the book club. I think it is a little difficult for me to express this type of opinion for the time being. I am better at writing it down. Before reading this book, I always thought of myself as a non-religious person. Because I am indeed not religious, and I also believe that there is no God. Maybe most people are the same as me. But after reading this book, I consider myself an out-and-out religious believer. Why? Because I always believe in destiny. In American blockbusters, you are always made to believe that this is destiny at the end. I usually believe that many things happen somehow, and I believe that many things are destiny, such as marriage. I have been wondering why I can't always find the right person to marry, so I think This is something that happens somewhere, and there will always be someone waiting for you somewhere. But after reading "A Brief History of the Future", I couldn't help but feel a little desperate, because there is no destiny at all in this book. Everything is an algorithm. Even consciousness and feelings are algorithms. It can be said that they are all nothingness at all. How can there be such a thing? What about destiny?

Another example is that I like to talk about following fate. According to the meaning of "A Brief History of the Future", there is no such word as fate. Everything is an illusion in consciousness. How can we follow fate, but This reminds me of something. My good friend Liu Tao, we have known each other for many years. We have been friends since high school. When he was not married, he asked me to introduce his girlfriend. I said to him, "Why are you in such a hurry? Just let it happen." This is what he replied to me at the time. 's: "If I had followed your fate, I probably wouldn't have been able to marry a wife in this life." He has been married for a long time now. It's a bit funny. Indeed, sometimes you really shouldn't believe too much in fate. Maybe there is no fate at all in this life.

Secondly, after reading this book, I still feel that life is very good now, because one day in the future, the whole world will be a digital age, and everything will be algorithms, your thinking, and your perception. They are all just algorithms. I can’t help but feel that it was a cold era, because even emotions and experiences can be bought with money, just like buying an ice cream cone. No one is unique. You can buy the talent of an artist, the wisdom of a scientist, anything you can imagine. They can all be stored in your body like a chip, and you can become omnipotent and upgrade to a god. Then I think I still don’t want to be a god. I still want to live in this world as an ordinary person, experiencing ordinary life, old age, illness, death, love, hate, and hatred.

In the past, I mostly read literary works such as Dream of Red Mansions, Zhang Ailing, world classics, and Chinese classics. Thanks to a big celebrity in the group, I was exposed to many things that I had never been exposed to before. thing. I read some books that I had never thought of reading before, such as "The Three-Body Problem", "General History of the World", "A Brief History of the Future", "Tao Te Ching", etc. These books may never have entered my world before, but now I But I will be fascinated by it. Reading may not be of any substantial help to my life. It cannot help me find a job with a higher salary, or let me live a different life.

But it did broaden my horizons and suddenly broadened my mind from just focusing on my own little love. I will understand that standing in the long river of history and standing at the height of the universe, I am really not even a grain of sand. So many times you don’t have to worry so much about your own depression. Although in the end I returned to my little world and wrote some words about my own little emotions. But at least I understand that there are still so many people in this world who are struggling on a human level.

Finally, I would like to give you a poem:

"Confusion"

Am I really in love with you?

Am I really in love with you? No

I am in love with the youth that will never return

That flower

withered before it bloomed

And such a hasty summer

That painting

that was discarded before coloring

And such a careless parting

Am I really in love with you?

Otherwise, how could I do it?

Falling in love

Reading "A Brief History of the Future" in such an unbearable youth Thoughts 4

In the training some time ago, I just experienced the matching of "aboriginals", "immigrants" and "refugees" about the Internet. Harari's "A Brief History of the Future" once again shocked and shocked me. think. Facing the future, what will happen to me? What else can I do?

The author is really a strange person. He broke my habitual thinking and grafted history and future. The book has nearly 400 pages. It takes the future era after mankind bids farewell to disease and war as a timeline, and proposes a goal society of human happiness, immortality and divinity. By reviewing the evolution history of Homo sapiens and comparing it with other animals, it reveals what Homo sapiens is. What kind of existence, and how humanism became the religion of the world. The book describes for us a future society that is more specific and clear than the communist society described by Marx: overcoming famine, plague and war, all people enjoy prosperity, health and peace, and gain eternal life, happiness and incarnation. god.

There is a sentence in the book: "Knowledge is useless if it cannot change behavior, but once knowledge changes behavior, it immediately loses its meaning. The more data we have, the better we understand history. The deeper we go, the faster the trajectory of history changes, and the faster our knowledge becomes outdated. "Our society changes too fast, our knowledge is consumed too fast, and our normal accumulation and accumulation can no longer make ends meet, as Director Fu put forward that day. , we are too close to wait, let alone wait.

"A Brief History of the Future" tells us that our generation may catch up with the dividends of the development of biological sciences and medical sciences. We have the opportunity to eliminate the impact of diseases such as cancer and achieve ultra-long life span. However, when I closed the book, I realized that I was really not ready for such vitality. On my 40th birthday, I wrote an essay and published it in "Pujiang Today". I made a qualitative assessment of my 80-year-old life and found that half my life had passed. In the blink of an eye, when you reach the age of 50, you may still have half your life to live, and then you are no longer the age to prepare for retirement. This is really a bit at a loss as to how to deal with it.

With the advent of the era of artificial intelligence, how can we cope with and transform the professions and lives we face? It may be more than just an expectation to truly upgrade oneself from a human to a "god". Physical adaptation cannot cope with psychological adaptation, and one becomes a "refugee" in a future era or society. Even if one is lucky enough to escape to that era, he will just become a The useless class who are at the mercy of smart devices cannot control their own destiny. This may also be a painful life experience.

Faced with such a beautiful and tragic future, Harari gave us a way out: keep learning throughout our lives and keep building a new self. Most people, including myself, probably can't do this.

As for how to be a lifelong learner, Harari did not express it in the book. In fact, this is not what a brief history should interpret. This is what "A Brief History of the Future" gives us. Homework for people who don’t want to be eliminated, right?

We long for the future, but we must base ourselves on the present, improve ourselves, not be too far away from this society, and don’t let society abandon us.

Maybe we can't wait for the future we long for, and we can't evolve into gods, but at least we can make ourselves fulfilled and happy. 50 years old may really be just the beginning of another life! Thoughts on reading "A Brief History of the Future" 5

Although it is difficult to say, I have to say honestly that I finally read "A Brief History of the Future" intermittently for nearly a month, and it was It should be said that skipping reading does not mean reading through it consistently, let alone understanding and reading through it. Among all the recommended books during the training, this book was the first one I read. It was the word "history" that attracted me. It should be said that I am an representationalist and an image thinker, and I like historical biographies and historical themes. Stories, I don’t like books or tomes that are too academic. Those profound theories, models, formulas and endless arguments that are difficult to understand even after thinking about them give me a headache. I can only stop and sigh. .

Ever since middle school, I have liked reading translated works because I like the writing style of the translated articles. Inverted sentences and long parallel sentences are common. The humorous atmosphere such as metaphors and personification all attract me. , has the feeling of an essay. But after reading "A Brief History of the Future", I was wrong. Because "A Brief History of the Future" is not only "history" but also "history" that "deduces the future"; it is history, philosophy, science, and futurology. I found this translation a bit difficult to read, mainly for the following reasons: First, most of the examples cited in foreign history books are from around the world and are not familiar to me; second, future technologies, information and concepts, due to Ignorant and ill-informed people find it difficult to speak out, and often have to look up some information to learn, such as information and biotechnology, humanistic characteristics, religion and historical events, etc. If you can't get past some topics, you have to read them several times; the third is Different from the biographical, chronological and chronological history formats we are familiar with, this "history" is centered on people and includes science, technology, consciousness, and predictions. It uses flashbacks and interludes to classify, explain and narrate in chunks. It is based on the past 300 years. Thoughts and hopes for the year are directed toward the future. Fourth, in recent years, I have been reading short commentaries and gossiping on my mobile phone, and have lost the state of mind, perseverance and habit of reading large and academic works quietly.

However, I have to say that "A Brief History of the Future" is both shocking and interesting. It not only informs us about the past that we are familiar with, but also has experienced and experienced, and also uses various cruel and ruthless or subtle ways to describe things. The method either corrects or subverts our thoughts, reflections and ideas about the present. More importantly, while presenting history to us, it allows us to try to feel, see and understand the future and where mankind will eventually go. Therefore, the profound and profound "A Brief History of the Future", as of writing this experience, I have not yet had a glimpse of it, and I have not been able to enter into it.

The basic judgment is that mankind has basically solved the three major problems of "famine, plague and war" that have been troubled for thousands of years and have been constantly reformed, innovated and fought for. Why it is said that it has been basically solved is because these three problems still exist in a small local area and may occur from time to time. But we have the ability to control its spread, which means the risk is controllable. In the near future, and even today, human beings who are never satisfied will face three major propositions: immortality, happiness and becoming a god. This article can only raise a few doubts and thoughts about "immortality" to see if my friends share the same feelings. It can also be regarded as collecting some information from the perspective of dataism...

We are eager to extend ourselves. The length of life is about extending the breadth and depth of our survival value, and about constantly pursuing and becoming more perfect. Matter is immortal. As a material body, human beings themselves are also composed of multiple components and parts (technically called organs, tissues and nerves). On a microscopic level, they are also composed of atoms, molecules, etc., and they will also live forever. Last forever. The key is to find a technology to avoid corrosion of this material and avoid all physical and chemical changes. In recent years, the significant development of biogenetic technology has enabled us to master powerful weapons against death, decipher the code of life, and master the art of immortality. We will no longer lament the hardships of the past, and we will no longer need to buy time without money. We will have a lot of time and energy to focus on our interests and hobbies, specialize in our work and career, and achieve everything to the extreme. How comfortable and happy that will be.

But "immortality" gives us hope and makes us fear; it gives us certainty and makes us feel lost.

The joy and meaning of life lies in the sense of accomplishment and having something to do. If life grows to the point where there is nothing to do, nothing to love and nothing to fear about death, will the next important issue for mankind be to find a happy, quick and non-moral ending? way of life.

"A Brief History of the Future" says: Knowledge is useless if it cannot change behavior, but once knowledge changes behavior, it immediately loses its meaning. With the development of medicine and biology, we may be able to achieve ultra-long lifespan. This is a blessing, but it is also cruel and ruthless. In the past, when we retired at 60, it would take us 20 years to rest. In the near future, we find that after we retire at 60, we still have 60 years to survive. So what are we going to do? How are we going to face it? What kind of knowledge reserve should we use to face it? Where will our future competitiveness lie?

If you don’t push the old, how can you come up with something new? If you don’t die on the beach with the previous wave, how can you follow the wave after wave after wave. How do we deal with reproduction and inheritance? The original understanding is that death is a natural law, and without death there would be no rebirth. Today, in order to avoid overcrowding and an unemployment rate of 50% or higher, which will lead to a new round of "famine, plague, and war," do we have to cut off new life for the sake of eternal life? I can't think of this question, and the author doesn't seem to tell us the exact answer. Friends are welcome to tell me.

"A Brief History of the Future" is the author's prediction, with mixed optimism and pessimism. But the overall purpose is to provoke thought. In this regard, we losers are just afraid that we will not be able to adapt to the future, have difficulty controlling the future, and be abandoned by the future. We express our feelings. It is called reading experience, but it is actually to complete the reading tasks assigned by Master Zou to love and care for us... Not afraid of not knowing, just afraid that you don’t know that you don’t know. Regardless of whether you are optimistic or pessimistic, the future will eventually come. While there is still time and opportunity, think more about various possibilities, understand some future trends, learn more new knowledge, master more skills, and become a person with various abilities. It never hurts to be a jack of all trades.

Finally, let me make a soup with an aphorism: Live until you are old and learn until you are old.