Notes

According to Yuval Noah Harari, human development
(1) has consisted of a series of progressive events which have brought about the linking together of a group of organisms that can pass on information.
(2) accelerated rapidly until the rise of money and other concepts and institutions, which shifted the focus from groups to individuals.
(3) is in danger of coming to a standstill if people continue to think of themselves only as small pieces inside a much larger machine.
(4) appears to be slowing down significantly in comparison with the speed at which it occurred in past centuries.

The Rise of Dataism
In the late 1700s, a cultural shift occurred in which Western society began to base its morals and values on human freedom, equality, and fraternity, rather than on religion and patriotism, as had been the case for many centuries. This paradigm, called “humanism,” has had a profound societal effect, ushering in the rise of systems that support human interests, such as democracy and the free market. No other framework of values has emerged since then to replace the humanist mind-set ― until now. Historian Yuval Noah Harari, who teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, sees freedom of information beginning to supplant humanism as the central concept guiding society.
Harari, who calls the emerging ideology “Dataism,” claims that the rapid rise of enormous data sets, data gathering, and algorithms is moving global society toward a new data-driven paradigm of morality. He explains, “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.” From this perspective, humanity is a single data-processing network, with individuals serving as processing “chips.” Harari even contends that the whole of human history has simply been the process of improving the efficiency of this network. It began when humans developed cognitive abilities, which distinguished them from animals and allowed them to form tribes that functioned as single data-processing units. Humans used their cognitive abilities to multiply and spread across the planet, creating separate cultures and worldviews, so the “processors” multiplied exponentially.
The idea of universal interconnection, however, only became prevalent with the advent of money, writing, and religion ― all concepts that created and strengthened networks between disparate groups. It was at this point ― sometime after 1000 BC, according to Harari ― that the data began to flow between human processors. This was still hindered at many points, however, by political and cultural repression and censorship, until the humanist revolution. That opened up the global data-processing system, allowing increasingly free communication between all “processors,” thanks to advancements in science, democracy, economics, and social systems. Now, digital connectivity has turned humanity into a unified, global data-processing unit, and one consequence has been that human experiences are losing their intrinsic significance ― they must be entered into the data-processing system and shared with the network if they are to have meaning. In the Dataist paradigm, your holiday in Tahiti is worthless unless photos and descriptions have been uploaded to become part of the data flow.
Another consequence is that our priorities are increasingly determined by data-based algorithms ― witness our growing reliance on such things as computer-assisted disease diagnosis and digital navigation systems. As self-learning algorithms become more complex and interconnected, Harari says, the data-processing system will spread to every aspect of human existence, and indeed, will cover the planet and beyond. In the long term, human processing may become outdated, causing the data flow to leave us behind. Alternatively, perhaps we can upload our minds into the system and join the cosmic data flow for all time.


語句
fraternity「兄弟愛，友愛」，patriotism「愛国心」，paradigm「パラダイム，理論的枠組」，humanism「人本主義，人間至上主義」，usher in ～「～を導く」，mind-set「考え方，意見」，supplant「～に取って代わる」，emerging「新興の」，cognitive「認識の」，worldview「世界観」，exponentially「（増加の仕方が）急激に」，interconnection「相互接続」，prevalent「広く行き渡っている」，disparate「完全に異なる」，repression「抑圧」，censorship「検閲」，connectivity「接続性」，intrinsic「本来備わっている，固有の」，cosmic「宇宙の」