Yuval Noah Harari predicts a future society in which algorithms will replace most jobs and a small group of “superhumans” will control them. He warns that this could threaten human dignity and liberalism, and advocates a cautious approach to the development of algorithms and artificial intelligence. However, he argues that the failure of eugenics and non-economic reasons make the rise of superhumans unlikely.
Yuval Noah Harari predicts superhumans
Yuval Noah Harari is a historian with his own distinctive set of values, and he works across disciplines to explain humanity. His classic books, Sapiens: From Ape to Cyborg and Homo Deus: A History of the Future, showcase his wealth of human, social, and scientific knowledge. In Homo Deus, he argues that in a future with artificial intelligence and algorithms, most jobs will be replaced by algorithms, and algorithms will control humanity. Here, he predicts the rise of “superhumans”.
Superhumans are a small, privileged group of people who are not controlled by algorithms. Because only superhumans can control algorithms, they will be in charge of maintaining the system and making globally important decisions. This is how algorithms control the rest of humanity. Superhumans have unprecedented physical, mental, and intellectual capabilities and unprecedented creativity. Until now, the aristocracy and the rich of the past have claimed their biological superiority for social and political advantage, but it’s been a fiction. Superhumans are different. These few people are basically guaranteed biological superiority. So can it be justified that superhumans control algorithms, and algorithms control the rest of humanity? For a country to develop most efficiently, it might be better to move forward quickly with only superhumans. The dignity of the rest of humanity could be greatly undermined by the rise of superhumans, he says, and liberalism could also be lost, since it is based on equality. He also predicts that the fundamental direction of medicine will change, and that it will develop to upgrade superhumans instead of treating the general population. This is because in the 20th century, nations needed a mass of soldiers and workers, but if algorithms do all the work and wars disappear, nations will no longer need to take care of the masses. Yuval Noah Harari warns of the dangers of these superhumans and emphasizes that we need to be more cautious about scientific advances, including algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Are superhumans really going to threaten our jobs and basic healthcare? I don’t think so, for two reasons. I’ll argue for two reasons. One is the failure of eugenics, and the other is a non-economic perspective.
The failure of eugenics
Eugenics is the study of human genetic conditions and factors with the aim of improving the species, reducing the number of people with poor genetic predispositions as much as possible. Modern eugenics finds its meaning in Darwin’s theory of natural selection and evolution. At the time of the birth of eugenics, evolutionary theory was beginning to move from the realm of biology to the realm of sociology. Eugenics was especially welcomed by the middle class, as it allowed them to condemn both the idleness of the aristocracy and the extreme poverty that was a burden on society. The middle class saw aristocratic idleness as the ultimate recessive factor of the species, and the very poor as a violation of the law of survival of the fittest. Eugenics argued that humans could never be free of evolutionary responsibility and that human beings should intervene directly for the good of humanity as a whole.
However, eugenics began to slowly decline in the 1930s. Eugenics, which was born out of biological discoveries, was refuted by new biological facts as research progressed. Eugenics, which was not scientifically sound, was eventually criticized. Crucially, the use of eugenics in the ideology of Nazism led to the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust. The Nazis viewed Jews as bad from a eugenic perspective, and as a result, 90% of the Jews in Poland, Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia were exterminated. Eugenics was then banished from society.
Just as eugenics failed, so will superhumans. The idea that some humans are superior to others is a claim that cannot be made independent of human capabilities. We don’t give a human being the right to two votes in a vote because they are great. Human dignity is more noble than anything else, and if we all recognize that, there will be no superhumans. Yuval Noah Harari predicted that the rise of superhumans would bring about the downfall of liberalism, but liberalism would prevent the rise of superhumans.
The non-economic view
The basic premise of Yuval Noah Harari is economics. In Homo Deus, most of his theories are discussed from an economic perspective. He says that when it becomes cheaper for companies to use algorithms than labor, many people will lose their jobs and algorithms will dominate companies and markets. However, there are many factors in the real world that cannot be explained by economics alone. Just as macro physics cannot explain microphysics, society is too complex and has too many different factors at play at the micro level to be explained by economics alone.
His theory can only work if humanity is in the grip of a golden age. But in reality, this is not the case. Human beings do not act solely for economic gain. Many people warm society through donations. Many people pay membership fees to join environmental and social organizations. Many people pay membership fees to join environmental and social organizations, knowing that their money is going into the upkeep of the church and the back pocket of the pastor. Personal beliefs often take precedence over money. It would be a mistake to assume that all companies are algorithmic.
Even if you don’t go to the point of conviction, entrepreneurs can recognize the dangers of algorithms. Is an entrepreneur a superhuman if his or her company is grown by an algorithm? Of course not. Superhumanity isn’t just measured by wealth, which means that your position could be replaced by an algorithm, and you could be controlled by one. As soon as entrepreneurs realize this risk, they won’t lay down everything they have for temporary wealth. Algorithms can control the economy, but they can’t control society. Superhumans don’t need to emerge, and they won’t.
