Yuval Noah Harari: we have no idea what to teach young people that will still be relevant in 20 years
Mar 9, 2024 · 2:46 AM UTC
1,165
764
3,337
11,674,226
In terms of education, traditional skills will become increasingly obsolete this decade. Skills like programming will be delegated to AI more and more.
The most valuable things to learn (for all ages) will now be:
• Holistic Systematic Thinking
• Creative/Lateral Thinking
• Extrapolative Thinking
• Psychology, Sociology, Marketing
• Logic, Philosophy
* Broad-spectrum Exposure [~polymathery]
13
4
171
88,054
@Valuable Agreed. Adaptability to change is incredibly useful.
5
1
82
53,971
@tsarnick What a colossal load of shit
Study the classics, study writing, study math, study physics, study stats, study art, study rhetoric
Study the classics, study writing, study math, study physics, study stats, study art, study rhetoric
45
39
1,375
46,606
@tsarnick Incredible. Why does anyone listen to this charlatan
17
20
1,050
40,316
@tsarnick Easy. Math, science, literature. Same as always.
16
6
443
29,987
@tsarnick Shipbuilding
Teach your children how to build friendships, relationships, and partnerships.
Life will always be about people.
Teach your children how to build friendships, relationships, and partnerships.
Life will always be about people.
6
17
290
30,112
@tsarnick “Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.”
—G.K. Chesterton
—G.K. Chesterton
2
22
234
20,451
@tsarnick He can't be serious. There are lots of knowledge and skills which are universally useful to know and have regardless of what society looks like at any particular time.
12
7
297
26,031
@tsarnick Except you know, everything that's a priori...
Logic, mathematics, #praxeology (logic & science of human action) i.e. economics, legal theory etc.
So yeah, quite a lot actually.
Logic, mathematics, #praxeology (logic & science of human action) i.e. economics, legal theory etc.
So yeah, quite a lot actually.
5
2
59
10,000
@tsarnick That take is way too dumb for him because people have passing down things that work for centuries. They're not great mysteries. They've been proven to work over and over again. 1000 years from now, when there are billions of humans living on Mars, they'll still be true.
2
1
30
3,660
@tsarnick reading. writing. critical thinking. same as always
0
0
31
4,114
@tsarnick We know exactly what to teach children, today and tomorrow, it has never changed in a million years.
Critical thinking. Self control. Physical, mental, spiritual fitness and fortitude.
HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE VOICE OF STATAN
Critical thinking. Self control. Physical, mental, spiritual fitness and fortitude.
HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE VOICE OF STATAN
2
5
33
1,259
@tsarnick This view is common among those with the impoverished view that education = training in marketable skills.
3
0
30
1,849
@tsarnick Help your kids develop a wicked sense of humor, high EQ, and a solid self care routine. It will help them navigate life without losing their marbles.
0
0
17
4,726
@tsarnick The only futurists worth paying attention to are The Simpsons
1
2
9
1,238
@tsarnick okay so YNH has just dumped himself into the category of "dumb guy's smart guy" here
what a boringly stupid and uninformed thing to say
what a boringly stupid and uninformed thing to say
1
0
11
494
@tsarnick tarring and feathering will be relevant in 20 years.
1
0
7
216
@tsarnick I’m surprised this post doesn’t have a community on it yet. currentaffairs.org/2022/07/the-da…
0
3
5
688
@tsarnick Neither Harari nor Harambe understand the liberating power of first principles thinking. In that sense they are the same, Internet meme material. RIP Harari
0
1
2
881
@tsarnick Well we need to teach our kids is critical thinking and how to learn efficiently.
We need to teach them how to make decisions, and how to control risk.
Most of all, we need to teach them the value of money, it's nature and it's actual utility.
We need to teach them how to make decisions, and how to control risk.
Most of all, we need to teach them the value of money, it's nature and it's actual utility.
1
0
5
697
@tsarnick His first statement was true. Every generation thinks this. They have all been wrong. Mr. Harari is also wrong. AI is just another tool people will use to solve problems.
2
0
6
934
@tsarnick One worthy lesson for young people is that the anus is not a sex organ.
0
0
4
59
@tsarnick You can't go wrong with maths, either it gets you a job, either it gives you a nice way to spend time
0
0
1
1,232
My column: Stephen Colbert is ready for AI to make all the decisions instead of humans
A clip from a recent episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is going viral. The clip comes from an interview with historian Yuval Noah Harari. Here’s my transcription:
Colbert: I’m not It just doesn’t get my blood going to get worried about AI. I think of some positive aspects of it. I mean, I’ve seen how humans have handled history and… not great. And so I’m ready for the big machines that make big decisions programmed by fellas with compassion and vision. You know, I’m ready for the machines to tell us what to do. Are you?
Harari: Uh, Not really. It’s extremely dangerous to give up power to something we don’t understand.
Colbert: Why is it so dangerous though? They’re just extensions of us.
Harari: No they’re not.
Colbert: Yes they are. We made them, they’re us.
First of all, we have to acknowledge that we don’t actually know how much Colbert’s comments match his actual opinion. If you just read the text, it might not read as if he’s trying to be funny, but he definitely was, at least during parts of that exchange. He may also have been merely attempting to spark interesting discussion with his guest. But given Colbert’s wholehearted embrace of Anthony Fauci, lockdowns, and vaccines, it’s not hard to imagine that he really does embrace a technocratic future ruled by AI programmed by “the right people.”
This topic is actually an interesting call back to my very first column at Being Right called, “Stop being afraid of new technology.” In it, I address a phenomenon that often crops up on the right where new technologies are only viewed in terms of their worst potential uses. So in that light, I agree with Colbert that AI has many positive aspects. For example, all of the artwork that accompanies my columns here is created by Microsoft Copilot based on text prompts I give it. That’s really helpful! And while all of these posts are actually written by me, many people use AI to create creative written works that might be outside of their skills as writers.
But in my piece on how to assess new technologies I said the following:
“The wrong response is to fear any new technology. The right response is to recognize both the positive and negative purposes that technology can be put to.”
Colbert, if we’re to take his words seriously, is seeing only the positive uses of AI. It’s hard to get a real sense of Harari’s views on the subject since Colbert mostly talks over him, but he seems at least concerned that AI is, or will become, something outside of our ability to control.
In fact, Colbert’s reason for not worrying about AI is the very thing that concerns me most. I’m not actually all that concerned about AI becoming self-aware like Skynet in the Terminator films. AI is just software, and as such is susceptible to the same “garbage in, garbage out” problem that can plague any software product.
Google’s Gemini AI tool wasn’t generating images of non-white Founding Fathers because that represented its own framework for thinking about race and oppression dynamics. It was doing it because its programmers were woke leftwing humans who themselves are obsessed with racializing all of human society.
Colbert simultaneously says in that clip that he wants AI to take over because humans have messed things up, but he also dismisses concerns of AI being dangerous because “We made them. They’re us.” The reality is “we” (flawed, biased human beings) made AI, so that AI is going to reflect the perspectives and priorities of its programmers.
Like any tool, AI can be used for great good and for great evil. It’s neither inherently bad nor inherently good. It’s what its programmers and its users choose to do with it.
0
0
2
613
@tsarnick Nobody knows what the world will look like in 20 years
0
0
3
345
@tsarnick Chief egghead for the anti human leezard faction
1
0
3
96
