A Brief History of the Future and A Brief History of Today respectively expound the thoughts about the future and thoughts about today in A Brief History of Mankind, and the basic arguments come from A Brief History of Mankind. The following are the thought-provoking views in these three books (or a brief history trilogy).
1, Homo sapiens (a title for modern humans in the book) can win among many species on earth because Homo sapiens can cooperate on a large scale, and cooperation is established through fictional stories. We may not realize that money, country, religion, enterprises and so on. It's all "fiction" Based on this, strangers thousands of miles apart have trust and cooperation, so they have great power.
2. Now human beings are in a highly developed society, but they are still the brains of ancient hunters and gatherers and the stomachs of ancient farmers. This is very interesting. At first glance, this seems incredible and absurd. Humans have evolved for thousands of years. Is the power of genes still so powerful? But think about it carefully, do we always miss the freedom and freedom of nature in a reinforced concrete city? Are emotions and subconscious thoughts still the same as those of our ancestors? There are so many delicious foods in modern society, but most of people's favorite foods are high-calorie foods, and the love for these foods is exactly what ancestors need to choose in order to survive.
3. Why did Europe rise rapidly after the industrial revolution in the18th century, but Asia failed to keep up? When I read the modern history of China, I always think of it. The author puts forward a viewpoint in the book, that is, in the industrial revolution, Europe recognized and admitted its ignorance in the scientific field, and was willing to explore and discover new knowledge. At that time, in Asian countries, the monarch's thought was still centered on himself and our country, thinking that his territory was everything, and he lost the motivation to move forward. After Europe entered the capitalist society, in the process of colonization, science and knowledge served the military, economy and politics, and were supported by them to promote each other's development.
4. Interaction between knowledge and history: knowledge is useless if it can't change behavior. But once knowledge changes its behavior, it immediately loses its meaning. The purpose of studying history is to broaden our horizons and discover many possibilities.
The book also talks about the authenticity of history. History is a narrative story, and different people have different perspectives. In ancient times, history was written by powerful elites, so we only read the stories of heroes, but we couldn't find the life stories of ordinary people.
5. The subtle changes from racism to culturalism and the estrangement and integration between different cultures are thought-provoking. On the cultural level, people often refuse to admit change and always think that they are in the same strain as their ancestors. In fact, for human groups, it is better to see what happens than to define continuity.
6. With regard to wars, the author believes that previous wars (ancient wars and two world wars) were often fruitful, and they could attack cities and plunder land and seize resources. Now the resource is knowledge, which makes the output of war less and the cost more, so the will to wage war is reduced.
7. For the future, the author thinks that biotechnology and computer algorithms will have an important and subversive impact on human society. On the one hand, when artificial intelligence replaces human beings, there will be "useless classes": these people exist, but they have no jobs and are insignificant to society. On the other hand, the development of biotechnology will strengthen the function of healthy human beings, perhaps at a high cost, so that elites or bourgeoisie can get in touch with Superman (more beautiful, smarter and younger) on this express train, thus expanding class differentiation on the physiological level.
There is another danger: digital dictatorship. Algorithms control everything about us. Algorithms know us, and we rely on algorithms. Why is this? Why does the algorithm master our data? Think carefully, when we want to get free services or small gifts, do we give our private data in exchange? In the eyes of merchants, we are actually not users, but commodities. The security of citizens' personal data can not be ignored, and data ownership needs to be standardized urgently. This point has also been discussed in the book about big data I have read before, but it seems that there is no good solution yet.
Sadly, the author says, human beings may be in danger of losing their minds by upgrading their bodies and brains, from upgraded chimpanzees to enlarged ants. ...
8. From the perspective of facing the challenges in the future, the author puts forward that human beings should know more about themselves and their thoughts.
In fact, human beings seldom really think independently, but always think in groups. Nowadays, many people often understand themselves from the perspective of others, live in the eyes of others, and live in the circle of friends and Weibo. The author suggests: From now on, before big data and algorithm manipulation affect us, feel your own experience and know yourself.
After reading this, I can't tell whether this is a history book or a philosophy book. The author takes us to look down on the whole mankind from the universe, look back on the long river of history and look forward to the infinity of the future. In this process, there are still many philosophical questions: Who am I? My connection and relationship with the outside world? Which group do I belong to? What is the meaning of my life? Wait, when I jumped out of the thinking angle of general history, as the author expected, my vision became wider and I suddenly found my own smallness and the smallness of human beings in the universe. We should have a humble heart to treat nature and environment. In this mood, I suddenly remembered Chen Ziang's words on the Youzhou rostrum: "In front of me, where is the past era? Behind me, where are the future generations? I think of heaven and earth, there is no limit, there is no end, I am alone, and my tears fall. "