J'avais aimé
Sapiens et
Homo Deus en admirant la capacité de réflexion et de synthèse de l'auteur alors c'est sans aucun hésitation que je me suis jetée sur ce nouvel opus rédigé par Yuval Noah Harari,
21 leçons pour le XXIe siècle. Cette fois, le jeune historien ne développe pas une thèse sur l'histoire de l'humanité ou son avenir, il se concentre plutôt sur vingt et une questions du monde d'aujourd'hui en tentant d'y apporter ses réponses en allant au coeur des choses, en prenant parfois des risques, en relativisant et sans faux-semblant :
Pourquoi le modèle des démocraties libérales est-il en crise ? Comment expliquer l'invasion des "fake-news" ? Comment réguler la propriété des données ? L'humanité saura-t-elle surmonter ses deux plus grands défis, les questions écologiques et technologiques ? Comment l'individu peut-il trouver une place et du sens dans le monde qui se profile ?
L'auteur développe des sujets liés aux civilisations, à l'Histoire, aux nationalismes, à l'immigration, aux religions, à la technologie, à l'ignorance, à la justice, etc. Une foultitude d'idées qui nous touchent tous, nous humains, et qui sont traités encore une fois avec brio pour alimenter une vraie pensée sur le monde et surtout, la place de l'individu en son sein. Une approche finalement assez philosophique pour aller à l'essence de l'être.
Un auteur brillantissime à lire et à partager pour alimenter non seulement une réflexion personnelle mais aussi la discussion et le dialogue même si certaines idées sont sans doute dérangeantes pour ceux qui sont ancrés dans leurs certitudes.
Quelques "petits" extraits tirés d'un texte par ailleurs parfaitement documenté et étayé :
In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power.
Humans think in stories rather than in facts, numbers or equations, and the simpler the story, the better.
Homo Sapiens is just not built for satisfaction. Human happiness depends less on objective conditions and more on our own expectations. Expectations, however, tend to adapt to conditions, including to the condition of other people. When things improve, expectations balloon, and consequently even dramatic improvements in conditions might leave us as dissatisfied as before.
Feelings are not based on intuition, inspiration or freedom - they are based on calculation.
(...) Feelings are thus not the opposite of rationality - they embody evolutionary rationality.
Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. Consciousness is the ability to feel things such as pain, joy, love and anger. We tend to confuse the two because in humans and other mammals intelligence goes hand in hand with consciousness.
The race to obtain the data is already on, headed by data-giants such as Google, Facebook, Baidu and Tencent. So far, many of these giants seem to have adopted the business model of "attention merchants". They capture our attention by providing us with free information, services and entertainment, and they resell our attention to advertisers.(...)
We aren't their customers - we are their product. (...)
Ordinary humans will find it very difficult to resist this process. At present, people are happy to give away their most valuable asset - their personal data - in exchange for free email services and funny cat videos. It is a bit like African and Native American tribes who unwittingly sold their entire countries to Europeans imperialists in exchange for colorful beads and cheap trinkets. If, later on, ordinary people decide to try and block the flow of data, they might find it increasingly difficult, especially as they might come to rely on the network for all their decisions, and even for their healthcare and physical survival.
Human groups are defined more by the changes they undergo than by any continuity, but they nevertheless manage to create for themselves ancient identities thanks to their storytelling skills.
(...) People often refuse to see these changes, especially when it comes to core political and religious values. We insist that our values are a precious legacy from ancient ancestors. Yet the only thing that allows us to say this, is that our ancestors are long dead, and cannot speak for themselves.
The people we fight most often are our own family members. Identity is defined by conflicts and dilemmas more than by agreements.
Though gods can inspire us to act compassionately, religious faith is not a necessary condition for moral behaviour. (...) Every religion, ideology and creed has its shadow, no matter which creed you follow you should acknowledge your shadow and avoid the naïve reassurance that "it cannot happen to us".
People rarely appreciate their ignorance, because they lock themselves inside an echo chamber of like-minded friends and self-confirming newsfeeds, where their beliefs are constantly reinforced and seldom challenged.
We now suffer from global problems, without having a global community (...) As a species, human prefer power to truth (...) One of the greatest fictions of all is to deny the complexity of the world, and think in absolute terms of pristine purity versus satanic evil.
In truth, everything you will ever experience in life is within your own body and your own mind.
Du même auteur, voir aussi :
Titre anglais : 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Titre français : 21 leçons pour le XXIe siècle
Auteur : Yuval Noah Harari
Première édition : 2108
