Homo Sapiens, or the Intelligent Man is the most advanced and intelligent species on the planet. Within 2,00,000 years, we human beings have managed to catapult to the top of the inter-species food cum dominance chain and are holding on to the spot with an iron grip. What sets us apart from other species is our large brains. We are the only species with the faculty of language and have the technical sophistry to convey many complex emotions, feelings, and ideas. Successive revolutions in different phases of our history such as the Cognitive Revolution and Agricultural Revolution contributed to broadening our mind’s horizons.
What plays a crucial role in ensuring the dominance of our species is the idea of information. According to Yuval Noah Harari, information is the “agglomeration of ideas, concepts and facts that are clubbed together to produce changes that are meaningful and impactful in shaping human institutions and society.”
Information is the central node in the evolution of the human psyche. According to Harari, we are the only creatures on the planet who can process enormous amounts of information.
Harari argues in his book that with the evolution in the sophistry of stories, AI is poised to develop far more sophisticated and credible stories that may not only enrapture the minds of billions but may enable alien intelligence to hold immense sway in the minds of global citizens.
He feels that contrary to conventional wisdom information doesn’t mean enlightenment. In the first chapter of his book, he posits the naïve view of information, which states that more information can lead to better outcomes and contribute to more empowerment. However, he argues that notwithstanding the accumulation of information, how can individuals determine the legitimacy of information? The inability to differentiate negative from positive information poses existential risks for humankind.
The book’s second chapter focuses on the idea of ‘stories’, which he defines as the ability of humankind to weave intricate ideas that play a cohesive role in shaping the cultural, social, political and economic identities of human beings. According to Harari, these stories are inter-subjective because every person interprets them as they deem fit and at the same time, hold value because of their intrinsic nature. For example, the idea of currency. It is inter-subjective in that it has immense value in the minds of the people because of its inherent worth, but the value isn’t objective because the idea of a currency is a figment of one’s imagination that was propounded by human beings to hold and maintain the unity of a society.
In that context, Harari highlights the importance of mythological figures like Santa Claus and biblical figures like King David and Saul, in promoting organic unity among the adherents of different faiths.
The focus of the third chapter is on the idea of documentation. Harari asserts that a document is a piece of encoded information, which holds significance in the minds of the users it is produced for use. The first notable document he writes about is Hammurabi’s Code of Law, the first legal and proper draft of laws anywhere in the world. He cites how documents can make or break not just individuals but societies as well.
He cited the example of Romania in the 1930s, which made it mandatory for Jewish citizens to show proof of their citizenship. He highlighted how documents play a key role in shaping societies.
The fourth chapter of the book focuses on infallibility i.e., the belief among individuals that they can do nothing wrong. The author gave a historical account of this idea emanating from biblical times where he questioned the claims of infallibility by holy books like the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible & the Quran. He delved deeply into the history of errors, especially when information is used for wishful thinking purposes.
He cited the brutal history of witchcraft across Europe where hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children were sent to the gallows simply because the Catholic Church of Rome in its various religious documents known as the papal bull and the author of The Discovery of the Witches & other influential books were convinced that there is a pervasive Satanic conspiracy to bring down the world of God, only to be ruled by Satan.
In this chapter, Harari prophesised that given the burgeoning nature of the information that AI can produce within short periods, it can be only a matter of time before such misinformation labelled as the ‘eternal truth’ can be manufactured to shape the human psyche.
Information is the “agglomeration of ideas, concepts and facts that are clubbed together to produce changes that are meaningful and impactful in shaping human institutions and society,” says Yuval Noah Harari
The next chapter delves into the history of information networks in both democratic and totalitarian forms of government. He delved deeply into the centralising tendencies of totalitarian forms of government like Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and Maoist China where the citizens lived under the threat of constant surveillance.
He highlighted how the German secret police Gestapo on one hand and the Soviet NKVD had an army of officers and bureaucrats who were deployed to constantly monitor every aspect of the life of their respective citizens. He cites the example of Pavel Morozov who is said to have snitched his parents to the NKVD by claiming that his family was critical of the Stalinist regime. They were promptly executed.
In this chapter, he argues that totalitarian networks, because of their proclivity to concentrate power in their hands, end up becoming bloated, leading to a decline in the effectiveness of the regime. While it is true that efficiency may be high in the first couple of decades of the existence of the regime because of the promptness of the regime, the discouraging of local initiatives tends to the emergence of fissiparous tendencies in the body politic of a country. This, according to Harari, contributed to democracy becoming the most sought-after form of government.
In the sixth chapter, Harari focuses on how computer networks differ from other information networks. According to him, computers i.e., AI unlike other informational entities are much more advanced in that they can compute immense amounts of information within relatively shorter periods. He cited the example of ChatGPT, which took the world of AI and human intelligence by storm when unveiled in 2022. He highlighted Isaac Asimov’s idea of robotics and how AI can play a crucial role in shaping human narratives in the future.
The seventh chapter of the book sheds light on the relentless nature of computer networks and how, unlike human beings, who need to satiate their sentient requirements like food, clothing and shelter before getting involved in work, AI-oriented entities are relentless in their intelligence and commercial operations.
He highlighted the example of AI surveillance technology used by the Iranian clerical regime which uses it to enforce strictly the rule of wearing hijabs in public spaces. He also highlighted how China is using Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) to keep a tab on Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region. This relentless nature of AI-oriented surveillance technology was foretold as a warning by George Orwell in his book 1984.
Computer networks are unlike human beings who need to satiate their sentient requirements like food, clothing and shelter before getting involved in work. AI-oriented entities are relentless in their intelligence and commercial operations
The eighth chapter of this book emphasises the fallible nature of computer networks. Despite harnessing immense amounts of information and using it to run complex operations for billions of people for a multiplicity of purposes, Harari highlights how AI can be a potential source of catastrophe. He defined algorithms, gave a brief description of their history and highlighted the fact that because these are designed by human programmers so the element of biasness based on race, colour, ethnicity, religion etc., may creep in.
He cited the example of Facebook’s algorithm in Myanmar in the 2010s. He gave a detailed account of how in the pursuit of profit maximisation via increasing user engagement, Facebook’s AI algorithms ended up disseminating incendiary content against Rohingya Muslims of the Rakhine state of Myanmar based on the search preferences of the common citizens.
What compounded the matter was that in the 2010s Facebook constituted 80% source of news for the Burmese people. The toxic cocktail of all these factors which was responsible for portraying the Rohingya as the ‘other’ culminated in the security crackdown followed by the ‘genocide’ against the Rohingyas and their subsequent displacement from the country to Bangladesh and other parts of the world.
Chapter nine focuses on a pertinent question – can democracies hold conversations in this age of misinformation and over-information? He argues that there is a strong need to put in place self-correcting mechanisms not only at the level of political and social institutions but also at the level of technological entities that can act as gatekeepers for content that is produced in democracies both in the form of societal dialogues as well as in the realm of cyberspace.
He argues that democracies must ensure the presence of a vibrant civil society and the government should prioritise investing in health, education and infrastructure in order to enlighten citizens about the world around them and the need to be made aware of the dangers of AI’s revolutionary yet hazardous potential.
The author coined the idea of ‘Global Silicon Curtain’ to describe the use of AI as a tool of great power contestation that can lead to what he calls the division of the world into technological haves and have-nots
The next chapter focused on the dangers of AI falling into the hands of a dictatorial regime that can use it to create the most powerful, intrusive and sophisticated surveillance state in history where right from the moment an individual is born to the moment an individual dies, their actions will be recorded. He cites examples of the social credit system that can allot people points based on their social and behavioural cues based on parameters set by the different organs of a totalitarian regime.
Harari coined the idea of ‘Global Silicon Curtain’ to describe the use of AI as a tool of great power contestation that can lead to what he calls the division of the world into technological haves and have-nots. He cited the example of the USA and China as the two most prominent actors engaged in this relentless competition for technological dominance using AI, he also highlighted how India, Brazil and the EU are emerging players in this great game and how it can shape the future of humanity in ways that were unheard of in the past.
In conclusion, the book provides a grim foreboding of sorts to people in general and governments in particular about the need to make conscious decisions and be discrete in the use of AI which, if not handled carefully, can lead to catastrophic ramifications for humankind.
–The writer is currently working as a Research Associate at Defence Research and Studies (dras.in) and is a columnist. The views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
