Building the future in the 21st century: In conversation with Yuval Noah Harari

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Building the future in the 21st century: In conversation with Yuval Noah Harari
 
Creator van Niekerk, Anton A.
 
Subject — Algorithms; Harari; Historicism; History of the future; Homo sapiens; Longevity; Morality; Regulation; Responsibility; Story-telling
Description Yuval Noah Harari has proved himself to be one of the most prominent and accessible historians of the 21st century. He has not only popularised a so-called dialectic with the past but also encouraged speculation about the history of the future. This article critically engages with Harari’s revolutionary projections in an attempt to evaluate the lessons and concerns that one ought to take away from his work. More specifically, the ever-increasing achievements in the world of science and technology need to be balanced by humility. Homo sapiens are in the unprecedented position to shape their own evolution – thanks to what is often termed ‘the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ – and speedily move towards the emergence of a new kind of being. The very nature of being in such an unparalleled situation is that there now exists an unprecedented discontinuity between the past and present. With this in mind, is it even possible to make valid predictions about what the future holds in the manner that Harari does? Is it our responsibility to take on this task at all? These are some of the questions that this article grapples with as an impetus for suggesting provisional guidelines for humanity to follow when we inevitably take the future into our own hands.Contribution: This article forms part of a collection that not only reflects on the origin and development of creation, but also on what the possible future might look like. It is based on historical thought and source interpretation that fits well with the intersectional and multi-disciplinary approach of this journal and collection.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2020-11-20
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v76i1.6058
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 76, No 1 (2020); 10 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6058/16608 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6058/16607 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6058/16609 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6058/16606
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Anton A. van Niekerk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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