DLers:

This AM, Yuval Harari appeared on CBS News, continuing his book-tour for "21 Lessons for the 21st Century."

https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-21st-Century-Yuval-Harari-ebook/dp/B079WM7KLS

The clip is well worth reviewing --

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/video/why-the-rise-of-ai-makes-mental-resilience-so-important/vp-BBMOGlE

His comments are what has now become standard-fare. Not surprising, since he's a "historian" and not a "futurist," he mistakenly said, "No one knows the future."  That, is, of course a silly thing to say.  "Knowing" isn't the point.  Anticipating, however, is the point and, as it turns out, some people are pretty good at doing that.  He's apparently not one of them.

He compounds his errors by, once again repeating what others are saying, "Technology isn't deterministic . . . Radio created both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia . . . it's all a matter of what we do with the technology."  This also silly.  "Determinism" refers to *efficient* (or what we'd rather call *kinetic* cause) and it has nothing to do with the action of technology on society.  And, of course, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were, in structural terms, actually quite alike.

In this, Harari is repeating what his audience wants to hear: It's all a matter of choice.  No, not really.  Technology, as McLuhan told us in 1964, "shapes our behaviors and attitudes."  That is because "behaviors and attitudes" are *forms* which come about as a result of Culture -- which, in turn, is "structured" by the technologies it uses.  Harari has committed the typical mistake of "social constructionists," who mistakenly think that Culture can be whatever we want it to be.  That has never been the case.  We, at the Center, on the other hand, are "technological constructivists."

He is, however, clear that what we are facing is a massive psychological problem.  He is also correct that today's schools aren't doing anything to address this.  He is, however, wrong that the answer is "resilience" and had to admit that he must meditate 2 hour every day to keep his own balance.  That approach, like much of what he says, is just the same-old TELEVISION answer -- or, what McLuhan called the "Inner Trip" into which TV "flips" (as described in the 1988 "Laws of Media.")

There is no hint in what I've read by Harari that he understands any of this.  The shift from TELEVISION Fantasy to DIGITAL Memory doesn't seem to have occured to him.  Perhaps someone will help him with a clue along the way . . . <g>

Mark

 

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