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AR 22:9 - Could "big data" fuel a new religion?
In this issue:
HUMANISM 2.0 - "Science is converging on an all-encompassing dogma"?
Apologia Report 22:9 (1,329)
March 2, 2017
HUMANISM 2.0
Human God, by Yuval Noah Harari, professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem -- actually, that's the English version of the real title - Homo Deus [1]. Harari is receiving a lot of media attention, some of it quite understandable.
Attorney and freelance reviewer Harvey Freedenberg explains: "Harari's thesis is that an emerging religion he calls Dataism - which 'collapses the barrier between animals and machines' as it 'expects electronic algorithms to eventually decipher and outperform biochemical algorithms' - will gradually overtake, and perhaps supplant, humankind. This new faith, fed by the ceaseless flow of information from our smartphones, computers and devices yet unimagined, will supersede the worldview of liberal humanism - with its emphasis on the exercise of individual free will....
"On occasion Harari dwells overlong on arcane subjects like whether animals possess consciousness, or in contending that the idea of an eternal human soul is nothing more than a 'monotheist myth.' ...
"For someone whose portrait of the human (and potentially post-human) future is as bold as the one sketched out in Homo Deus, Harari's conclusion is restrained. 'We cannot really predict the future,' he writes. 'All the scenarios outlined in this book should be understood as possibilities rather than prophecies.'" Shelf Awareness Pro, Jan 26 '17. <www.goo.gl/NUcX9U>
Olivia Solon interviews Harari for WIRED magazine. She begins: "Humanity has had astonishing success alleviating famine, disease, and war. (It might not always seem that way, but it’s true.) Now, Homo sapiens is on the brink of an upgrade - sort of. As we become increasingly skilled at deploying artificial intelligence, big data, and algorithms to do everything from easing traffic to diagnosing cancer, we’ll transform into a new breed of superhuman, says historian and best-selling author Yuval Harari in his new book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Which is great, except that we might also become so dependent on these tools that our species will become irrelevant - our value determined only by the data we generate. ...
"WIRED: In your book you predict the emergence of two completely new religions. What are they?
"HARARI: Techno-humanism aims to amplify the power of humans, creating cyborgs and connecting humans to computers, but it still sees human interests and desires as the highest authority in the universe.
"Dataism is a new ethical system that says, yes, humans were special and important because up until now they were the most sophisticated data processing system in the universe, but this is no longer the case. The tipping point is when you have an external algorithm that understands you - your feelings, emotions, choices, desires - better than you understand them yourself. That’s the point when there is the switch from amplifying humans to making them redundant. ...
"WIRED: What does this mean for Homo sapiens?
"HARARI: We become less important, perhaps irrelevant. In the humanist age the value of an experience came from within yourself. In a Dataist age, meaning is generated by the external data processing system. ...
"WIRED: So tech companies become our new rulers, even gods?
"HARARI: When you talk about God and religion, in the end it’s all a question of authority." (The pull-quote on page 19 reads: "We're shifting authority to algorithms - and losing the ability to find our own way.")
"WIRED: Can we opt out?
"HARARI: The simplest answer is no. It will become extremely difficult to unplug, and it has to do with health care, which will increasingly rely on internet-connected sensors. ...
"WIRED: What can we be hopeful about?
"HARARI: There’s a lot to be hopeful about. In 20 to 30 years the hundreds of millions of people who have no health care will have access to AI doctors on their mobile phones offering better care than anyone gets now. Driverless cars won’t eliminate accidents, but they will drastically reduce them.
"WIRED: Phew … so we’re not doomed?
"HARARI: Humanity has proven its ability to rise to the challenge posed by dangerous new technologies.... I hope we’ll also be able to rise to the challenge of technologies like AI and genetic engineering, but we don’t have any room for error." Wired, Mar '17, pp18-19. <www.goo.gl/cIf043>
And in Nate Hopper's interview for Time magazine:
"TIME: You write that humanity, after eradicating plague, war and famine, will use technology to seek bliss, immortality and divinity.
"TIME: What goal would you add to that list?
"HARARI: I would add truth, and in particular understanding ourselves, our minds. ... In the 21st century, we are going to gain the power to control the world inside us, to kill the [annoying] thoughts and not just the mosquitoes. The danger is that we will misuse this power and end up with an internal ecological disaster — a complete mental breakdown.
"TIME: So ignorance isn't bliss?
"HARARI: Ignorance is not too dangerous. If you combine it with power, then this is a toxic mix. ...
"TIME: Why do you think data has become a more popular religion than combating climate change?
"HARARI: Because it promises far greater power. ...
"TIME: You believe that, one day, algorithms could be sued like corporations are today. What would that look like?
"HARARI: Cases come to mind in which algorithms could discriminate against people in unlawful ways. ...
"TIME: As a gay man, which discrimination do you prefer?
"HARARI: I mean, there would really have to be some evil algorithm to do worse than human beings. ...
"TIME: Is it safe to assume you are skeptical of handing over data about yourself?
"HARARI: There is a saying that if you get something for free, you should know that you’re the product. ...
"TIME: What would persuade you to buy an Amazon Echo?
"HARARI: I won’t be left with any choice. ... If Amazon knows you better than you know yourself, then the game is up." Time, Feb 27 '17, p116. <www.goo.gl/pgh8MT> (Note: The online article includes more content than the print version.)
And with a belligerent undertone toward Christianity, Kirkus (Dec '17 #1) notes: "Throughout history, humans prayed for deliverance from famine, disease, and war with spotty success. For centuries, prophets agreed that all of the suffering was 'an integral part of God's cosmic plan.' Today, obesity kills more humans than starvation, old age more than disease, and suicide more than murder. Having reduced three horsemen of the apocalypse to technical problems, what will humans do next? Harari's answer: We will become gods - not perfect but like Greek or Hindu gods: immortal and possessing superpowers but with some foibles. ... Modern culture is the most creative in history, but, faced with 'a universe devoid of meaning,' it's 'plagued with more existential angst than any previous culture.'"
Library Journal (Jan '17 #1), at least, observes that Harari "leaves readers with questions about consciousness and conscience and whether unrestricted data flow will necessarily lead to wisdom."
Publishers Weekly (Jan '17 #2) goes as far as calling it a "deeply troubling book" because Harari "builds a strong case for a very specific outcome" which they find "a dystopian world." [4]
The book's structure tells a story. The first of three parts is named "*Homo Sapiens* Conquers the World," followed by "*Homo Sapiens* Gives Meaning to the World," and "*Homo Sapiens* Loses Control."
Part III begins with Chapter 8, "The Time Bomb in the Laboratory," which asks (p306): "What, then, is the meaning of life? Liberalism maintains that we shouldn't expect some eternal entity to provide us a ready-made meaning. ...
"The life sciences, however, undermine liberalism, arguing that the free individual is just a fictional tale concocted by an assembly of biochemical algorithms. ...
"Just as Christianity didn't disappear the day Darwin published *On the Origin of Species,* so liberalism won't vanish just because scientists have reached the conclusion that there are no free individuals.
"Indeed, even Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and the other champions of the new scientific world view refuse to abandon liberalism." (However, Harari can clearly hear the ticking of the bomb. - RP)
Chapter 9, "The Great Decoupling," concludes: "If scientific discoveries and technological developments split humankind into a mass of useless humans and a small elite of upgraded superhumans, or if authority shifts altogether away from human beings into the hands of highly intelligent algorithms, then liberalism will collapse. What new religions or ideologies might fill the resulting vacuum and guide the subsequent evolution of our godlike descendants?"
Answer? Chapter 10, "The Ocean of Consciousness." Harari's first paragraph states: "Just as socialism took over the world by promising salvation through steam and electricity, so in the coming decades new techno-religions may conquer the world by promising algorithms and genes. (Harari might have reconsidered if he'd read AR's issue related to the merging of occultism and technology in Silicon Valley <www.goo.gl/M2a5Oh> last year.)
Harari concludes the chapter: "We can never deal with [technological progress] as long as we believe that the human will and the human experience are the supreme source of authority and meaning. ...
"As of 2016, there is one candidate sitting in history's reception room waiting for the job interview. This candidate is information. The most interesting emerging religion is Dataism, which venerates neither gods or man - it worships data."
Hence the final chapter, "The Data Religion," that ends: "1. Science is converging on an all-encompassing dogma, which says that organisms are algorithms and life is data processing; 2. Intelligence is decoupling from consciousness; 3. Non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithms may soon know us better than we know ourselves." Harari rephrases these into three questions which may essentially be summed up: "What if I'm right? Then what?" THE END.
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, by Yuval Noah Harari (Harper, 2017, hardcover, 464 pages) <www.goo.gl/El4sdX>
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