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Science is increasingly seeing life itself an algorithm

• It is not only our economic and political systems that are algorithmic. Dataists believe that life itself is made of algorithms. This view owes a great deal to work such as Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’ and the identification of DNA. Flow of information is essential to living creatures, if our bodies were to halt the transfer of data, we would die — hence, obstructing data-flow is a sin to a dataist. Sam Brinson
• Science is converging on an all-encompassing dogma, which says that organisms are algorithms and life is data processing. Yuval Noah Harari
• Dataism is most firmly entrenched in its two mother disciplines: computer science and biology. Yuval Noah Harari
• Dataism puts [computer science and biology] together, pointing out that exactly the same mathematical laws apply to both biochemical and electronic algorithms. Dataism thereby collapses the barrier between animals and machines, and expects electronic algorithms to eventually decipher and outperform biochemical algorithms. Yuval Noah Harari
• It is believed that Dataism came into existence with the amalgamation of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species and Alan Turing’s Turing Machine. It puts both together, claiming mathematical rules are applicable to both bio-chemical and electronic algorithms. Mayank Lau
• Nature doesn’t feel compelled to stick to a mathematically precise algorithm; in fact, nature probably can’t stick to an algorithm. Margaret Wertheim

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All organisms are algorithms…

• The Dataist idea that ‘organisms are algorithms’ is significant due to its day-to-day practical consequences. Ideas change the world only when they change our behaviour. Yuval Noah Harari
• Organisms are algorithms, and… giraffes, tomatoes and human beings are just different methods for processing data. Yuval Noah Harari
• The development of an organism … may be considered as the execution of a ‘developmental program’ present in the fertilized egg. … A central task of developmental biology is to discover the underlying algorithm from the course of development. Aristid Lindenmayer

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…including ourselves

• We are nothing but the product of billions of years of molecules coming together and ratcheting up through natural selection, we are composed only of highways of fluids and chemicals sliding along roadways within billions of dancing cells, trillions of synaptic conversations hum in parallel, this vast egglike fabric of micron-thin circuitry runs algorithms undreamt of in modern science, and these neural programs give rise to our decision making, loves, desires, fears, and aspirations. That understanding would be a numinous experience, better than anything ever proposed in anyone’s holy text. David Eagleman
• Sensations and emotions are biochemical data-processing algorithms. Yuval Noah Harari

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The human mind is an algorithm

• In fact, there was general agreement that minds can exist on nonbiological substrates and that algorithms are of central importance to the existence of minds. Vernor Vinge

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Our emotions and desires are algorithms…

• What we call sensations and emotions are in fact algorithms. The baboon feels hunger, he feels fear and trembling at the sight of the lion, and he feels his mouth watering at the sight of the bananas. Within a split second, he experiences a storm of sensations, emotions and desires, which is nothing but the process of calculation. The result will appear as a feeling: the baboon will suddenly feel his spirit rising, his hairs standing on end, his muscles tensing, his chest expanding, and he will inhale a big breath, and ‘Forward! I can do it! Yuval Noah Harari
• 99 per cent of our decisions – including the most important life choices concerning spouses, careers and habitats – are made by the highly refined algorithms we call sensations, emotions and desires. Yuval Noah Harari
• Emotions are biochemical algorithms that are vital for the survival and reproduction of all mammals. Yuval Noah Harari
• The algorithms controlling humans work through sensations, emotions and thoughts. And exactly the same kind of algorithms control pigs, baboons, otters and chickens. Yuval Noah Harari
• The scientists not only sanctified human feelings, but also found an excellent evolutionary reason to do so. After Darwin, biologists began explaining that feelings are complex algorithms honed by evolution to help animals make correct decisions. Our love, our fear and our passion aren’t some nebulous spiritual phenomena good only for composing poetry. Rather, they encapsulate millions of years of practical wisdom.  Yuval Noah Harari
• According to current biological dogma, emotions and intelligence are just algorithms. Yuval Noah Harari
• Love was not specified in the design of your brain; it is merely an endearing algorithm that freeloads on the leftover processing cycles. David Eagleman
• When you listen to your feelings, you follow an algorithm that evolution has developed for millions of years, and that withstood the harshest quality-control tests of natural selection. Your feelings are the voice of millions of ancestors, each of whom managed to survive and reproduce in an unforgiving environment. Your feelings are not infallible, of course, but they are better than most other sources of guidance. Yuval Noah Harari

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…algorithms developed over millions of years of evolution

• When you listen to your feelings, you follow an algorithm that evolution has developed for millions of years, and that withstood the harshest quality-control tests of natural selection. Your feelings are the voice of millions of ancestors, each of whom managed to survive and reproduce in an unforgiving environment. Your feelings are not infallible, of course, but they are better than most other sources of guidance. For millions upon millions of years, feelings were the best algorithms in the world.  Yuval Noah Harari

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Traditionally it’s been our ability to process data that makes us humans special

• 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. Yuval Noah Harari
• Dataists explain to those who still worship flesh-and-blood mortals that they are overly attached to outdated technology. Homo sapiens is an obsolete algorithm. After all, what’s the advantage of humans over chickens? Only that in humans information flows in much more complex patterns than in chickens. Humans absorb more data, and process it using better algorithms. Yuval Noah Harari
• Throughout this book we have repeatedly asked what makes humans superior to other animals. Dataism has a new and simple answer. In themselves human experiences are not superior at all to the experiences of wolves or elephants. One bit of data is as good as another. However, humans can write poems and blogs about their experiences and post them online, thereby enriching the global data-processing system. That makes their bits count. Wolves cannot do this. Hence all the experiences of wolves – as deep and complex as they may be – are worthless. Yuval Noah Harari
• What’s the advantage of humans over chickens? Only that in humans information flows in much more complex patterns. Yuval Noah Harari

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Technology has become the creative force religion once was

• With its world-changing inventiveness, technology has become the force religion once was.  Yuval Noah Harari
• Nowadays, the most interesting place in the world from a religious perspective is not Syria or the Bible Belt, but Silicon ­Valley. That is where hi-tech gurus are brewing for us amazing new religions that have little to do with God, and everything to do with technology. They promise all the old prizes – happiness, peace, justice and eternal life in paradise – but here on Earth with the help of technology, rather than ­after death and with the help of supernatural beings. Yuval Noah Harari

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Technology gives rise to new religions and new Gods

• New religions will emerge from research laboratories. Brave new religions that have little to do with God, and everything to do with technology. They promise all the old prizes – happiness, peace, prosperity and even eternal life – but here on earth with the help of technology, rather than after death with the help of celestial beings. Yuval Noah Harari
• New technologies kill old gods and give birth to new gods. That is why agricultural deities were different from hunter-gatherer spirits, why factory hands and peasants fantasised about different paradises, and why the revolutionary technologies of the 21st century are far more likely to spawn unprecedented religious movements than to revive medieval creeds. Yuval Noah Harari
• History tells us that new technologies and scientific discoveries have continually shaped religion, killing old gods and giving birth to new ones. Olivia Solon

The algorithm is becoming the new God…

• God Is an Algorithm. Kev Minney
• The algorithm is the new God. It moves in mysterious ways. When things go wrong, someone will now just say the ‘algorithm decided’. Harsha Perera
• A new religion may be emerging that also comes with a code of conduct but that does away with the traditional notion of God, replacing him with an algorithm. In this emerging ideology, called Dataism, the ultimate goal is to increase the amount of information flow through the algorithm.  Sam Brinson

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…and dataism is becoming the new religion…

• Like capitalism, Dataism too began as a neutral scientific theory, but is now mutating into a religion that claims to determine right and wrong. The supreme value of this new religion is “information flow”. If life is the movement of information, and if we think that life is good, it follows that we should extend, deepen and spread the flow of information in the universe. According to Dataism, human experiences are not sacred and Homo sapiens isn’t the apex of creation or a precursor of some future Homo deus. Humans are merely tools for creating the Internet-of-All-Things, which may eventually spread out from planet Earth to cover the whole galaxy and even the whole universe. This cosmic data-processing system would be like God. It will be everywhere and will control everything, and humans are destined to merge into it. Yuval Noah Harari
• Modern creeds prefer to call themselves “ideologies” rather than “religions” but, seen from a long-term perspective, they play a role analogous to that of traditional faiths such as Christianity and Hinduism. Both Christianity and communism were created by human beings rather than by gods, and are defined by their social functions rather than by the existence of deities. In essence, religion is anything that legitimises human norms and values by arguing that they reflect some superhuman order. Yuval Noah Harari

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…a religion that worships the data that feeds algorithms

• Dataism as a new form of religion that celebrates the growing importance of big data. Yuval Noah Harari
• The most interesting emerging religion is Dataism, which venerates neither gods nor man – it worships data. Yuval Noah Harari
• This trending ideology believes that liberating the flow of data is the supreme value of the universe, and that it could be the key to unleashing the greatest scientific revolution in the history of humanity. Steven Parton
• There’s an emerging market called Dataism, which venerates neither gods nor man – it worships data. From a Dataist perspective, we may interpret the entire human species as a single data-processing system, with individual humans serving as its chips. Yuval Noah Harari
• AI is only as good as the data that we can feed it. Byron Reese
• The fuel you need for AI is just pure data. Nick Polson

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Dataism sees the world as a network of information…

• The burgeoning field of computer science has shifted our view of the physical world from that of a collection of interacting material particles to one of a seething network of information. In this way of looking at nature, the laws of physics are a form of software, or algorithm, while the material world-the hardware-plays the role of a gigantic computer. Paul Davies

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…and will increasingly revolve around the Internet of things where all information is connected

• If humankind is indeed a single data-processing system, what is its output? Dataists would say that its output will be the creation of a new and even more efficient data-processing system, called the Internet-of-All-Things. Once this mission is accomplished, Homo sapiens will vanish. Yuval Noah Harari
• And “everything” means more than just humans. It means every thing. My body, of course, but also the cars on the street, the refrigerators in the kitchen, the chickens in their coop and the trees in the jungle – all should be connected to the Internet-of-All-Things. The refrigerator will monitor the number of eggs in the drawer, and inform the chicken coop when a new shipment is needed. The cars will talk to one another, and the trees in the jungle will report on the weather and on CO2 levels. We mustn’t leave any part of the Universe disconnected from the great web of life. Yuval Noah Harari
• The goal of the dataist is to create a more efficient system called the Internet-of-All-Things — that includes every literal thing, from people to plants, cars to couches, ovens to each pair of shoes. If life is the movement of information, then we should extend and deepen it to include everything within the universe. Sam Brinson
• We mustn’t leave any part of the universe disconnected from the great web of life. Yuval Noah Harari
• First and foremost a Dataist ought to maximise dataflow by connecting to more and more media. Its second commandment is to link everything to the system,all should be connected to the Internet-of-All-Things. Yuval Noah Harari

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The first commandment of dataism is to maximise data flow and freedom of information…

• Dataism isn’t limited to idle prophecies. Like every religion, it has its practical commandments. First and foremost, a Dataist ought to maximise data flow by connecting to more and more media, and producing and consuming more and more information. Like other successful religions, Dataism is also missionary. Its second commandment is to connect everything to the system, including heretics who don’t want to be connected. Yuval Noah Harari
• The greatest sin is to block the data flow. What is death, if not a situation when information doesn’t flow? Hence Dataism upholds the freedom of information as the greatest good. Yuval Noah Harari
• Dataism is the first movement since 1789 that created a really novel value: freedom of information. We mustn’t confuse freedom of information with the old liberal ideal of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression was given to humans, and protected their right to think and say what they wished – including their right to keep their mouths shut and their thoughts to themselves. Freedom of information, in contrast, is not given to humans. It is given to information. Moreover, this novel value may impinge on the traditional freedom of expression, by privileging the right of information to circulate freely over the right of humans to own data and to restrict its movement. Yuval Noah Harari
• In this ideology, freedom of information is the greatest good. Unlike freedom of expression, freedom of information is a right given to the information rather than to any person. Sam Brinson
• We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access. Aaron Swartz
• Just as capitalists believe that all good things depend on economic growth, so Dataists believe all good things – including economic growth – depend on the freedom of information. Yuval Noah Harari
• Aaron Swartz believed that information wants to be free, that ideas don’t belong to the people who created them, and that it is wrong to lock data behind walls and charge an entrance fee. Yuval Noah Harari

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…for this, the argument goes, leads to a better world

• Why are Americans healthier, wealthier and happier than Iranians or Nigerians? Thanks to the freedom of information. Yuval Noah Harari
• To convince sceptics, Dataist missionaries repeatedly explain the immense benefits of the freedom of information. Just as capitalists believe that all good things depend on economic growth, so Dataists believe all good things – including economic growth – depend on the freedom of information. Why did the USA grow faster than the USSR? Because information flowed more freely in the USA. Why are Americans healthier, wealthier and happier than Iranians or Nigerians? Thanks to the freedom of information. So if we want to create a better world, the key is to set the data free. Yuval Noah Harari

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With the advent of dataism, data is now the most valuable commodity on the planet

• In 2017, The Economist declared that data was the most valuable resource on the planet—even more valuable than oil. Steven Parton
• More data beats clever algorithms, but better data beats more data. Peter Norvig
• We dont have better algorithms, we just have more data. Peter Norvig
• In the heyday of European imperialism, conquistadors and merchants bought entire islands and countries in exchange for coloured beads. In the twenty-first century our personal data is probably the most valuable resource most humans still have to offer, and we are giving it to the tech giants in exchange for email services and funny cat videos. Yuval Noah Harari

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Dataism promises to make us feel part of something bigger than ourselves…

• Many of us are already willing participants in this. We are plugged into our networks, consuming, uploading and sharing information while in many instances giving up our privacy to do so. Part of the allure, Harari suspects, is that by immersing ourselves in this system, we become part of something bigger than ourselves. Sam Brinson
• The individual is becoming a tiny chip inside a giant system that nobody really understands. Every day I absorb countless data bits through emails, calls and articles; process the data; and transmit back new bits through more emails, phone calls and articles. I don’t really know where I fit into the great scheme of things, and how my bits of data connect with the bits produced by billions of other humans and computers. I don’t have time to find out. Yuval Noah Harari

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…and connecting to the data flow becomes the source of all meaning and purpose

• As the global data-processing system becomes all-knowing and all-powerful, so connecting to the system becomes the source of all meaning. Humans want to merge into the data flow because when you are part of the data flow you are part of something much bigger than yourself. Yuval Noah Harari
• Traditional religions told you that your every word and action was part of some great cosmic plan, and that God watched you every minute and cared about all your thoughts and feelings. Data religion now says that your every word and action is part of the great data flow, that the algorithms are watching you and that they care about everything you do and feel. Most people like this. For true believers, to be disconnected from the data flow risks losing the very meaning of life. What’s the point of doing or experiencing anything if nobody knows about it, and if it doesn’t contribute something to the global exchange of information? Yuval Noah Harari

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To merge with God becomes analogous to merging with the data flow

• This vision is reminiscent of some traditional religious visions. Thus Hindus believe that humans can and should merge into the universal soul of the cosmos – the atman. Christians believe that after death, saints are filled by the infinite grace of God, whereas sinners cut themselves off from His presence. Indeed, in Silicon Valley, the Dataist prophets consciously use traditional messianic language. For example, Ray Kurzweil’s book of prophecies is called The Singularity is Near, echoing John the Baptist’s cry: “the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2). Yuval Noah Harari
• Perhaps, in the years to come, we will merge with these algorithms. Rather than lose all importance and cede total control to the network, we could join it by giving it all the information that makes you you. Then we will all become data flowing through the system. Humanity, in Harari’s words, could be just a ripple in the cosmic data flow. Sam Brinson

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Our value as humans will increasingly be determined by how much data we contribute to the system

• Today the universe’s pulse is data flow; the value of humans or an enterprise is assessed by its ability to contribute to data processing and reaping fruits out of it. Mayank Lau
• What’s the point of doing or experiencing anything if nobody knows about it, and if it doesn’t contribute something to the global exchange of information? Yuval Noah Harari
• What makes humans superior to other animals? Dataism has a new and simple answer. In themselves, human experiences are not superior at all to the experiences of wolves or elephants. One bit of data is as good as another. However, a human can write a poem about his experience and post it online, thereby enriching the global data-processing system. That makes his bits count. A wolf cannot do this. No wonder we are so busy converting our experiences into data. It isn’t a question of trendiness. It is a question of survival. We must prove to ourselves and to the system that we still have value. And value lies not in having experiences, but in turning them into free-flowing data. Yuval Noah Harari
• Dataism declares that the universe consists of data flows, and the value of any phenomenon or entity is determined by its contribution to data processing. Yuval Noah Harari
• Dataism adopts a strictly functional approach to humanity, appraising the value of human experiences according to their function in data-processing mechanisms. Yuval Noah Harari
• We must prove to ourselves and to the system that we still have value. And value lies not in having experiences, but in turning these experiences into free-flowing data. Yuval Noah Harari

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Traditionally, algorithms have had some limits but these are fast falling away

• There is no algorithm for creativity. Andy Hargreaves
• There are lots of different ways that algorithms can go wrong, and what we have now is a system in which we assume because it’s shiny new technology with a mathematical aura that it’s perfect and it doesn’t require further vetting. Of course, we never have that assumption with other kinds of technology. Cathy O’Neil
• There’s a belief that whatever it is I’m looking for is out there, but I have a really difficult time finding it. Search algorithms alone are falling short in being able to provide real context around information. Chris Shipley

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More and more, we are surrendering our lives and decisions to algorithms…

• Now, big data and machine learning are proving themselves more sophisticated, and dataists believe we should hand over as much information and power to these algorithms as possible, allowing the free flow of data to unlock innovation and progress unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Steven Parton
• The algorithms that orchestrate our ads are starting to orchestrate our lives. Eli Pariser
• Algorithms will know you better than you know yourself, and will therefore make most of the important decisions for you – and you will be perfectly happy with that. Yuval Noah Harari
• If you want to know yourself in the twenty-first century, there are much better methods than climbing mountains, going to museums or writing diaries. Here are some practical Dataist guidelines for you: ‘You want to know who you really are?’ asks Dataism. ‘Then forget about mountains and museums. Have you had your DNA sequenced? No?! What are you waiting for? Go and do it today. And convince your grandparents, parents and siblings to have their DNA sequenced too – their data is very valuable for you. And have you heard about these wearable biometric devices that measure your blood pressure and heart rate twenty-four hours a day? Good – so buy one of those, put it on and connect it to your smartphone. And while you are shopping, buy a mobile camera and microphone, record everything you do, and put it online. And allow Google and Facebook to read all your emails, monitor all your chats and messages, and keep a record of all your Likes and clicks. If you do all that, then the great algorithms of the Internet-of-All-Things will tell you whom to marry, which career to pursue and whether to start a war.’ Yuval Noah Harari
• Humans are relinquishing authority to the free market, to crowd wisdom and to external algorithms partly because we cannot deal with the deluge of data. Yuval Noah Harari

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…giving our data over to them…

• If recent history has taught us anything, it’s that humans are willing to give up more privacy than they like to think. Fifteen years ago, it would have been crazy to suggest we’d all allow ourselves to be tracked by our cars, phones, and daily check-ins to our favorite neighborhood locations; but now most of us see it as a worthwhile trade for optimized commutes and dating. As we continue navigating that fine line between exploitation and innovation into a more technological future, what other trade-offs might we be willing to make? Steven Parton
• Maybe you don’t need convincing, especially if you are under 20. People just want to be part of the data flow, even if that means giving up their privacy, their autonomy and their individuality. Yuval Noah Harari

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… trusting algorithms to make our decisions and choices for us…

• In God we trust; all others bring data.  W. Edwards Deming
• In God we trust, everybody else bring data to the table.  Narayan
• Because the data pool is too large and the system too complex for people to fully grasp, we rely on machines to do most of the heavy lifting. The more information we feed them the better they get, from spotting diseases to recognising faces and translating languages. The more we entrust these systems to make decisions, the more we admit that the human algorithm just isn’t capable of handling the influx of information. Sam Brinson
• From a dataist perspective, it seems we are both at a loss for handling the data the world produces, and even in understanding our own minds and bodies. We should instead relinquish our decisions to the algorithms that know us better, they will decide who we date, what we eat, and where we go. We will all be happier and healthier for it.  Sam Brinson
• Dataism inverts the traditional pyramid of learning. Hitherto, data was seen as only the first step in a long chain of intellectual activity. Humans were supposed to distil data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom. However, Dataists believe that humans can no longer cope with the immense flows of data, hence they cannot distil data into information, let alone into knowledge or wisdom. The work of processing data should therefore be entrusted to electronic algorithms, whose capacity far exceeds that of the human brain. In practice, this means that Dataists are sceptical about human knowledge and wisdom, and prefer to put their trust in Big Data and computer algorithms. Yuval Noah Harari
• ‘People might abandon their own psychological judgements and rely on computers when making important life decisions, such as choosing activities, career paths, or even romantic partners. It is possible that such data-driven decisions will improve people’s lives.’ Yuval Noah Harari
• If Google makes enough good decisions, people will grant it increasing authority. Yuval Noah Harari
• Google will therefore be able to vote not according to my momentary state of mind, and not according to the fantasies of the narrating self, but rather according to the real feelings and interests of the collection of biochemical algorithms known as ‘I’. Yuval Noah Harari

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…increasingly trusting algorithms over our feelings

• Over millions of years, our feelings evolved into the best algorithms for looking inside and understanding yourself. But as we come to pull apart the genome and piece together the workings of the brain, we will find that computers eventually tell us more about who we are than our feelings ever could. Sam Brinson
• Dataists believe that data-flow trumps human feelings. They don’t have anything against feelings, but rather believe they have no intrinsic value. Yuval Noah Harari
• Whereas humanism commanded: ‘Listen to your feelings!’ Dataism now commands: ‘Listen to the algorithms! They know how you feel.’ Yuval Noah Harari
• Consequently you should stop listening to your feelings and start listening to these external algorithms instead. Yuval Noah Harari
• Yet in the twenty-first century, feelings are no longer the best algorithms in the world. We are developing superior algorithms that utilise unprecedented computing power and giant databases. Yuval Noah Harari

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Algorithms are increasingly becoming too complex to fathom…

• Dataism declares that the human brain cannot fathom the new master algorithms. Yuval Noah Harari
• The individual is becoming a tiny chip inside a giant system that nobody really understands. Yuval Noah Harari
• The really important algorithms – such as the Google search algorithm – are developed by huge teams. Each member understands just one part of the puzzle, and nobody really understands the algorithm as a whole. Moreover, with the rise of machine learning and artificial neural networks, more and more algorithms evolve independently, improving themselves and learning from their own mistakes.  Yuval Noah Harari
• Once you succeed in writing the programs for [these] complicated algorithms, they usually run extremely fast. The computer doesn’t need to understand the algorithm, its task is only to run the programs. Robert Tarjan

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…and are starting to take on a life of their own

• Even the tech creators are unable to predict the behaviour of their own algorithms completely. This is a feature of complex systems with their numerous, subtly interacting parts, where emergence becomes a property. Emergence happens when the many interactions lead to outcomes that cannot be predicted from an understanding of each individual bit. The higher-level behaviour has different properties to the summation of the behaviour of each part. Harsha Perera
• This relentless flow of data sparks new inventions and disruptions that nobody plans, controls or comprehends. No one understands how the global economy functions or where global politics is heading. But no one needs to understand. Yuval Noah Harari
• The really important algorithms – such as the Google search algorithm – are developed by huge teams. Each member understands just one part of the puzzle, and nobody really understands the algorithm as a whole. Moreover, with the rise of machine learning and artificial neural networks, more and more algorithms evolve independently, improving themselves and learning from their own mistakes. Yuval Noah Harari

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Increasingly algorithms will out-perform the human mind…

• The crucial problem isn’t creating new jobs. The crucial problem is creating new jobs that humans perform better than algorithms. Yuval Noah Harari
• What will conscious humans do once we have highly intelligent non-conscious algorithms that can do almost everything better? Yuval Noah Harari
• Humans have two basic types of abilities: physical and cognitive. As long as machines competed with us humans merely in physical abilities, there were countless cognitive tasks that humans performed better. So as machines took over purely manual jobs, humans focused on jobs requiring at least some cognitive skills. Yet what will happen once algorithms outperform us in remembering, analysing and recognising patterns? Yuval Noah Harari
• If we could create a data-processing system that absorbs even more data than a human being, and that processes it even more efficiently, wouldn’t that system be superior to a human in exactly the same way that a human is superior to a chicken? Yuval Noah Harari
• It is quite possible that the feature of being human that has made us the intelligent, most powerful creatures on the planet, is our ability to distil external information into internal knowledge. We are quick learners. But we can no longer keep up, and machines are becoming the only algorithms capable of handling all this information. Sam Brinson

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…and there will come a time when algorithms will know us better than we know ourselves

• Cortana will know me so well that it will know exactly what inner buttons to push in order to make me follow its ‘advice’. Yuval Noah Harari
• Soon, books will read you while you are reading them. And whereas you quickly forget most of what you read. Yuval Noah Harari
• If you happen to have clicked 300 Likes on your Facebook account, the Facebook algorithm can predict your opinions and desires better than your husband or wife! Yuval Noah Harari
• Non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithms may soon know us better than we know ourselves. Yuval Noah Harari
• A recent study commissioned by Google’s nemesis – Facebook – has indicated that already today the Facebook algorithm is a better judge of human personalities and dispositions than even people’s friends, parents and spouses. Yuval Noah Harari
• Liberalism will collapse on the day the system knows me better than I know myself. Which is less difficult than it may sound, given that most people don’t really know themselves well. Yuval Noah Harari
• According to the life sciences, organisms are algorithms, and humans are not individuals – they are ‘dividuals’. That is, humans are an assemblage of many different algorithms lacking a single inner voice or a single self. The algorithms constituting a human are not free. They are shaped by genes and environmental pressures, and take decisions either deterministically or randomly – but not freely. It follows that an external algorithm could theoretically know me much better than I can ever know myself. An algorithm that monitors each of the systems that comprise my body and my brain could exactly who I am, how I feel and what I want. Once developed, such an algorithm could replace the voter, the customer and the beholder. Then the algorithm will know best, the algorithm will always be right, and beauty will be in the calculations of the algorithm. Yuval Noah Harari

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As data flows increase, the human brain is increasingly having trouble keeping up

• Hitherto, data was seen as only the first step in a long chain of intellectual activity. Humans were supposed to distil data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom. However, Dataists believe that humans can no longer cope with the immense flows of data, hence they cannot distil data into information, let alone into knowledge or wisdom. The work of processing data should therefore be entrusted to electronic algorithms, whose capacity far exceeds that of the human brain. Yuval Noah Harari
• We just don’t know what to pay attention to, and often spend our time investigating and debating side issues. In ancient times having power meant having access to data. Today having power means knowing what to ignore. Yuval Noah Harari

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As a result, authority will increasingly shift from humans to algorithms and the data that feeds them

• The shift from a homo-centric to a data-centric world view won’t be merely a philosophical revolution. It will be a practical revolution. Yuval Noah Harari
• Dataism now gives humanists a taste of their own medicine, and tells them: ‘Yes, God is a product of the human imagination, but human imagination in turn is just the product of biochemical algorithms.’ In the eighteenth century, humanism sidelined God by shifting from a deo-centric to a homo-centric world view. In the twenty-first century, Dataism may sideline humans by shifting from a homo-centric to a data-centric view. Yuval Noah Harari
• A bolder techno-religion seeks to sever the humanist umbilical cord altogether. It foresees a world that does not revolve around the desires and experiences of any humanlike beings. What might replace desires and experiences as the source of all meaning and authority? Yuval Noah Harari
• Data religion argues that humans have completed their cosmic task and should now pass the torch on to entirely new kinds of entities. Yuval Noah Harari
• Humans will still be valuable collectively, but will lose their individual authority, and instead be managed by external algorithms. Yuval Noah Harari
• The shifting of authority from humans to algorithms is happening all around us. Yuval Noah Harari
• The new technologies of the twenty-first century may thus reverse the humanist revolution, stripping humans of their authority, and empowering non-human algorithms instead. Yuval Noah Harari
• Once we have a system that really does know me better, it will be foolhardy to leave authority in the hands of the narrating self. Yuval Noah Harari
• Liberal habits such as democratic elections will become obsolete, because Google will be able to represent even my own political opinions better than I can. Yuval Noah Harari
• Humans are relinquishing authority to the free market, to crowd wisdom and to external algorithms partly because we cannot deal with the deluge of data. Yuval Noah Harari
• The number one humanist commandment – listen to yourself! – is no longer self-evident. Yuval Noah Harari

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Algorithms will be valued more than human experiences…

• The experience you are praising is just an outdated biochemical algorithm. Yuval Noah Harari
• The experiences they create in humans or wolves don’t really matter. True, for the last 70,000 years or so, human experiences have been the most efficient data-processing algorithms in the universe, hence there was good reason to sanctify them. However, we may soon reach a point when these algorithms will be superseded, and even become a burden. Yuval Noah Harari
• Dataism isn’t anti-humanist. It has nothing against human experiences. It just doesn’t think they are intrinsically valuable. Yuval Noah Harari

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…and human experiences will only be regarded as valuable if part of the data flow

• Humanism thought that experiences occur inside us, and that we ought to find within ourselves the meaning of all that happens, thereby infusing the universe with meaning. Dataists believe experiences are valueless if they are not shared, and that we need not – indeed cannot – find meaning within ourselves. We need only record and connect our experience to the great data flow, and the algorithms will discover its meaning and tell us what to do. Yuval Noah Harari
• Writing a private diary – a common humanist practice for previous generations – sounds to many present-day youngsters as utterly pointless. Why write anything if nobody else can read it? The new motto says: “If you experience something – record it. If you record something – upload it. If you upload something – share it. Yuval Noah Harari
• What’s the point of doing or experiencing anything if nobody knows about it, and if it doesn’t contribute something to the global exchange of information? Yuval Noah Harari

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Algorithms will be valued more than messy human emotions

• For all their vaunted emotional intelligence, human beings are often overwhelmed by their own emotions and react in counterproductive ways. Yuval Noah Harari

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Increasingly, the intelligence of algorithms will be valued over consciousness

• This raises a novel question: which of the two is really important, intelligence or consciousness? As long as they went hand in hand, debating their relative value was just an amusing pastime for philosophers. But in the twenty-first century this is becoming an urgent political and economic issue. And it is sobering to realise that, at least for armies and corporations, the answer is straightforward: intelligence is mandatory but consciousness is optional. Yuval Noah Harari
• Intelligence is decoupling from consciousness. Yuval Noah Harari
• Suppose non-conscious algorithms could eventually outperform conscious intelligence in all known data-processing tasks — what, if anything, would be lost by replacing conscious intelligence with superior non-conscious algorithms? Yuval Noah Harari

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In many ways, dataism holds the promise of giant leaps in progress in many areas…

• When you let data run freely, it’s bound to be mixed and matched in new ways that inevitably spark progress. And as we enter the exponential future where every person is constantly connected and sharing their data, the potential for such collaborative epiphanies becomes even greater. Steven Parton
• An abundance of free data allows for science to progress unhindered, each person able to operate without being slowed by lack of data. And any progress they make is immediately liberated, becoming free data shared with anyone else that may find a use for it. Steven Parton
• The single greatest business opportunity that is now emerging in the global marketplace is the ability to analyze digital log data to trace digital actions and from those traces to develop algorithms that can predict future outcomes with greater accuracy. Geoffrey Moore
• My particular focus at the moment is on the development of genetic algorithms and neural networks that work together to create computer architectural systems. Frederick Lenz
• Dataists point out that people really want mobility rather than a private car, and a good data-processing system can provide this mobility far more cheaply and efficiently. Yuval Noah Harari
• We have already seen that Google can detect new epidemics faster than traditional health organisations, but only if we allow it free access to the information we are producing. A free data flow can similarly reduce pollution and waste, for example by rationalising the transportation system. Yuval Noah Harari

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…for example in the medical field…

• Currently, universities and companies seeking to benefit humankind with medical solutions have to pay extensively to organize clinical trials and to find people who match their needs. But if all our biodata was freely aggregated, perhaps they could simply say “monitor all people living with cancer” to an AI, and thanks to the constant stream of data coming in from the world’s population, a machine learning program may easily be able to detect a pattern and create a cure. Steven Parton
• By 2025, 80 percent of the functions doctors do will be done much better and much more cheaply by machines and machine learned algorithms. Vinod Khosla

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…and in artificial intelligence

• Artificial intelligence uses a complex set of rules – algorithms – to get to a conclusion. A computer has to calculate its way through all those rules, and that takes a lot of processing. Kevin Maney

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As discussed above, algorithms will increasingly make the human mind obsolete…

• Homo sapiens is an obsolete algorithm. Yuval Noah Harari
• For the last 70,000 years or so, human experiences have been the most efficient data-processing algorithms in the universe, hence there was good reason to sanctify them. But we may soon reach a point when these algorithms will be superseded, and even become a burden. Yuval Noah Harari
• Sapiens evolved in the savannah thousands of years ago, and their algorithms are not built to handle 21st-century data flows. We might try to upgrade the human data-processing system, but this may not be enough. The Internet-of-All-Things may create such huge and rapid data flows that even upgraded human algorithms won’t handle it. When cars replaced the horse-drawn carriage, we didn’t upgrade horses – we retired them. Perhaps it is time to do the same with Homo sapiens. Yuval Noah Harari
• If non-conscious algorithms can do what conscious creatures do but better, what function will we serve? Will we have a purpose? Is intelligence more important than consciousness? Sam Brinson
• Looking back, humanity will turn out to have been just a ripple within the cosmic dataflow. Yuval Noah Harari
• Once we humans lose our functional importance to the network, we will discover that we are not the apex of creation after all. Yuval Noah Harari
• Dataism thereby threatens to do to Homo sapiens what Homo sapiens has done to all other animals. Yuval Noah Harari
• Power vacuums seldom last long. If in the twenty-first century traditional political structures can no longer process the data fast enough to produce meaningful visions, then new and more efficient structures will evolve to take their place. The only question is who will build and control these structures. If humankind is no longer up to the task, perhaps it might give somebody else a try. Yuval Noah Harari
• In the twenty-first century, feelings are no longer the best algorithms in the world. We are developing superior algorithms that utilise unprecedented computing power and giant databases. The Google and Facebook algorithms not only know exactly how you feel, they also know myriad other things about you that you hardly suspect. Consequently you should stop listening to your feelings and start listening to these external algorithms instead.  Yuval Noah Harari

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…with very challenging social, economic and political implications

• In order to achieve immortality, bliss and divine powers of creation, we need to process immense amounts of data, far beyond the capacity of the human brain. So the algorithms will do it for us. Yet once authority shifts from humans to algorithms, the humanist projects may become irrelevant. Once we abandon the homo-centric world view in favour of a data-centric world view, human health and happiness may seem far less important. Why bother so much about obsolete data-processing machines when far superior models are already in existence? We are striving to engineer the Internet-of-All-Things in the hope that it will make us healthy, happy and powerful. Yet once the Internet-of-All-Things is up and running, humans might be reduced from engineers to chips, then to data, and eventually we might dissolve within the torrent of data like a clump of earth within a gushing river. Liberals celebrate the unique experiences of individual humans. Socialist humanism has taken a very different course. Socialists blame liberals for focusing our attention on our own feelings instead of on what other people experience. Yes, the human experience is the source of all meaning, but there are billions of people in the world and all of them are just as valuable as I am. Whereas liberalism turns my gaze inwards, emphasising my uniqueness and the uniqueness of my nation, socialism demands that I stop obsessing about me and my feelings and instead focus on what others are feeling and how my actions influence their experiences.  Yuval Noah Harari
• If Dataism succeeds in conquering the world, what will happen to us humans? Initially Dataism will probably accelerate the humanist pursuit of health, happiness and power. Dataism spreads itself by promising to fulfil these humanist aspirations. In order to achieve immortality, bliss and divine powers of creation, we need to process immense amounts of data, far beyond the capacity of the human brain. So the algorithms will do it for us. Yet once authority shifts from humans to algorithms, the humanist projects may become irrelevant. Once we abandon the homo-centric world view in favour of a data-centric world view, human health and happiness may seem far less important. Why bother so much about obsolete data-processing machines when far superior models are already in existence? Yuval Noah Harari
• Traditionally, life has been divided into two main parts: a period of learning followed by a period of working. Very soon this traditional model will become utterly obsolete, and the only way for humans to stay in the game will be to keep learning throughout their lives, and to reinvent themselves repeatedly. Many if not most humans may be unable to do so. Yuval Noah Harari
• Unnecessary people might spend increasing amounts of time within 3D virtual-reality worlds, that would provide them with far more excitement and emotional engagement than the drab reality outside. Yuval Noah Harari
• Yet such a development would deal a mortal blow to the liberal belief in the sacredness of human life and of human experiences. What’s so sacred about useless bums who pass their days devouring artificial experiences in La La Land? Yuval Noah Harari
• Dataism thereby threatens to do to Homo sapiens what Homo sapiens has done to all other animals. Yuval Noah Harari

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Dataism runs the risk of leading to increasing inequality

• As algorithms push humans out of the job market, wealth and power might become concentrated in the hands of the tiny elite that owns the all-powerful algorithms, creating unprecedented social and political inequality. Yuval Noah Harari
• Once millions of human drivers are replaced by a single algorithm, all that wealth and power will be cornered by the corporation that owns the algorithm, and by the handful of billionaires who own the corporation. Yuval Noah Harari
• If such algorithms consistently outperform human capitalists, we might end up with an algorithmic upper class owning most of our planet. This may sound impossible, but before dismissing the idea, remember that most of our planet is already legally owned by non-human inter-subjective entities, namely nations and corporations. Yuval Noah Harari

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The rise of dataism will erode notions of free will…

• The rise of datism means that “humanism is now facing an existential challenge and the idea of ‘free will’ is under threat.” Yuval Noah Harari
• In a capitalist democracy, do we want businesses and politicians to know us better than we know ourselves? In spite of the remarkable benefits that may result for our species by freely giving away our information, do we run the risk of that data being used to exploit and manipulate the masses towards a future without free will, where our daily lives are puppeteered by those who own our data? Steven Parton
• Charlie Brooker predicts a world in which the scope of action for free will – our error-prone but nevertheless important decision-making capacity – becomes so narrow that we forget how it feels to be human, how to feel pain and to make mistakes. Thanks to smart phones, tablets, Alexa and Google, we have cognitively unloaded anything requiring an effort or possessing a margin for error to artificial intelligence (AI). All these functions will now be taken care of by the god of technology, by the All-Seeing Algorithm. Misha Ketchell
• We are about to face a flood of extremely useful devices, tools and structures that make no allowance for the free will of individual humans. Yuval Noah Harari

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…and humans will no longer be autonomous beings

• People will no longer see themselves as autonomous beings running their lives according to their wishes, but instead will become accustomed to seeing themselves as a collection of biochemical mechanisms that is constantly monitored and guided by a network of electronic algorithms. Yuval Noah Harari

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Algorithms run the risk of bias

• I know how models are built, because I build them myself, so I know that I’m embedding my values into every single algorithm I create and I am projecting my agenda onto those algorithms. Cathy O’Neil
• The most important goal I had in mind was to convince people to stop blindly trusting algorithms and assuming that they are inherently fair and objective. Cathy O’Neil
• I would argue that one of the major problems with our blind trust in algorithms is that we can propagate discriminatory patterns without acknowledging any kind of intent. Cathy O’Neil
• The second cognitive revolution, dreamed up by techno-humanists, might do the same to us, producing human cogs who communicate and process data far more effectively than ever before, but who can hardly pay attention, dream or doubt. Yuval Noah Harari
• Figuring out how to reconcile conflicting values is one of the most important challenges facing AI designers. It is vital that they write code and incorporate information that is unbiased and non-discriminatory. Failure to do that leads to AI algorithms that are unfair and unjust. Darrell M. West

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We run the risk of losing our privacy and freedom

• If we are not careful the result might be an Orwellian police state that constantly monitors and controls not only all our actions, but even what happens inside our bodies and our brains. Yuval Noah Harari

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Politics runs the risk of being left behind

• Whereas the rhythm of politics has not changed much since the days of steam, technology has switched from first gear to fourth. Yuval Noah Harari
• Precisely because technology is now moving so fast, and parliaments and dictators alike are overwhelmed by data they cannot process quickly enough, present-day politicians are thinking on a far smaller scale than their predecessors a century ago. Consequently, in the early twenty-first century politics is bereft of grand visions. Government has become mere administration. It manages the country, but it no longer leads it. Government ensures that teachers are paid on time and sewage systems don’t overflow, but it has no idea where the country will be in twenty years. Yuval Noah Harari
• Mixing godlike technology with myopic politics has its downside. Lack of vision isn’t always a blessing, and not all visions are necessarily bad. Yuval Noah Harari
• That doesn’t mean we will go back to twentieth-century-style dictatorships. Authoritarian regimes seem to be equally overwhelmed by the pace of technological development and the speed and volume of the dataflow. Yuval Noah Harari
• It is dangerous to trust our future to market forces, because these forces do what’s good for the market rather than what’s good for humankind or for the world. Yuval Noah Harari
• Traditional democratic politics is losing control of events, and is failing to present us with meaningful visions of the future. Yuval Noah Harari
• Artificial intelligence and biotechnology might soon overhaul our societies and economies – and our bodies and minds too – but they are hardly a blip on the current political radar. Yuval Noah Harari
• The NSA may be spying on our every word, but to judge by the repeated failures of American foreign policy, nobody in Washington knows what to do with all the data. Never in history did a government know so much about what’s going on in the world – yet few empires have botched things up as clumsily as the contemporary United States. Yuval Noah Harari
• As data-processing conditions change again in the twenty-first century, democracy might decline and even disappear. As both the volume and speed of data increase, venerable institutions like elections, political parties and parliaments might become obsolete – not because they are unethical, but because they can’t process data efficiently enough. Yuval Noah Harari

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More negative implications

• Just as my home computer is constantly attacked by viruses, worms and Trojan horses, so will be my pacemaker, hearing aid and nanotech immune system. Yuval Noah Harari
• A life of resolute decisions and quick fixes may be poorer and shallower than one of doubts and contradictions. Yuval Noah Harari
• We can use algorithms as an aid to the systems of our society, like pilots use autopilot, but we must never let them run our society completely on their own – the day we do, will be the day we fall. Abhijit Naskar

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• Are organisms really just algorithms, and is life really just data processing? Yuval Noah Harari
• What’s more valuable – intelligence or consciousness? Yuval Noah Harari
• What will happen to society, politics and daily life when non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithms know us better than we know ourselves? Yuval Noah Harari
• What, if anything, would be lost by replacing conscious intelligence with superior non-conscious algorithms? Yuval Noah Harari
• Scholars in the life sciences and social sciences should ask themselves whether we miss anything when we understand life as data processing and decision-making. Is there perhaps something in the universe that cannot be reduced to data? Yuval Noah Harari
• Sensations, emotions and thoughts certainly play an important part in making decisions, but is that their sole meaning? Dataism is gaining a better and better understanding of decision-making processes, but it might be adopting an increasingly skewed view of life. Yuval Noah Harari
• We don’t need any gods to limit our power and give us meaning – the free choices of customers and voters supply us with all the meaning we require. What, then, will happen once we realise that customers and voters never make free choices, and once we have the technology to calculate, design or outsmart their feelings? If the whole universe is pegged to the human experience, what will happen once the human experience becomes just another designable product, no different in essence from any other item in the supermarket? Yuval Noah Harari
• What will conscious humans do once we have highly intelligent non-conscious algorithms that can do almost everything better? Yuval Noah Harari
• Humans have two basic types of abilities: physical and cognitive. As long as machines competed with us humans merely in physical abilities, there were countless cognitive tasks that humans performed better. So as machines took over purely manual jobs, humans focused on jobs requiring at least some cognitive skills. Yet what will happen once algorithms outperform us in remembering, analysing and recognising patterns? Yuval Noah Harari