4.Valery N. Soyfer, ‘New Light on the Lysenko Era’, Nature 339:6224 (1989), 415–20; Nils Roll-Hansen, ‘Wishful Science: The Persistence of T. D. Lysenko’s Agrobiology in the Politics of Science’, Osiris 23:1 (2008), 166–88.
5.William H. McNeill and J. R. McNeill, The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003).
6.Aaron Swartz, ‘Guerilla Open Access Manifesto’, July 2008, accessed 22 December 2014, https://ia700808.us.archive.org/17/items/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamjuly2008.pdf; Sam Gustin, ‘Aaron Swartz, Tech Prodigy and Internet Activist, Is Dead at 26’, Time, 13 January 2013, accessed 22 December 2014, http://business.time.com/2013/01/13/tech-prodigy-and-internet-activistaaron-swartz-commits-suicide; Todd Leopold, ‘How Aaron Swartz Helped Build the Internet’, CNN, 15 January 2013, 22 December 2014, http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/15/tech/web/aaron-swartzinternet/; Declan McCullagh, ‘Swartz Didn’t Face Prison until Feds Took Over Case, Report Says’, CNET, 25 January 2013, accessed 22 December 2014, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57565927-38/swartzdidnt-face-prison-until-feds-took-over-case-report-says/.
7.John Sousanis, ‘World Vehicle Population Tops 1 Billion Units’, Wardsauto, 15 August 2011, accessed 3 December 2015, http://wardsauto.com/news-analysis/world-vehicle-population-tops-1-billion-units.
8.‘No More Woof’, https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/no-more-woof.
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to the following humans, animals and institutions:
To my teacher, Satya Narayan Goenka (1924–2013), who taught me the technique of Vipassana meditation, which has helped me to observe reality as it is, and to know the mind and the world better. I could not have written this book without the focus, peace and insight gained from practising Vipassana for the last fifteen years.
To the Israel Science Foundation, which helped fund this research project (grant number 26/09).
To the Hebrew University, and in particular to its department of history, my academic home; and to all my students over the years, who taught me so much through their questions, their answers and their silences.
To my research assistant, Idan Sherer, who devotedly handled whatever I threw his way, be it chimpanzees, Neanderthals or cyborgs. And to my other assistants, Ram Liran, Eyal Miller and Omri Shefer Raviv, who pitched in from time to time.
To Michal Shavit, my publisher at Penguin Random House in the UK, for taking a gamble, and for her unfailing commitment and support over many years; and to Ellie Steel, Suzanne Dean, Bethan Jones, Maria Garbutt-Lucero and their colleagues at Penguin Random House, for all their help.
To David Milner, who did a superb job editing the manuscript, saved me from many an embarrassing mistake, and reminded me that ‘delete’ is probably the most important key on the keyboard.
To Preena Gadher and Lija Kresowaty of Riot Communications, for helping to spread the word so efficiently.
To Jonathan Jao, my publisher at HarperCollins in New York, and to Claire Wachtel, my former publisher there, for their faith, encouragement and insight.
To Shmuel Rosner and Eran Zmora, for seeing the potential, and for their valuable feedback and advice.
To Deborah Harris, for helping with the vital breakthrough.
To Amos Avisar, Shilo de Ber, Tirza Eisenberg, Luke Matthews, Rami Rotholz and Oren Shriki, who read the manuscript carefully, and devoted much time and effort to correcting my mistakes and enabling me to see things from other perspectives.
To Yigal Borochovsky, who convinced me to go easy on God.
To Yoram Yovell, for his insights and for our walks together in the Eshta’ol forest.
To Ori Katz and Jay Pomeranz, who helped me get a better understanding of the capitalist system.
To Carmel Weismann, Joaquín Keller and Antoine Mazieres, for their thoughts about brains and minds.
To Benjamin Z. Keder, for planting and watering the seeds.
To Diego Olstein, for many years of warm friendship and calm guidance.
To Ehud Amir, Shuki Bruck, Miri Worzel, Guy Zaslavaki, Michal Cohen, Yossi Maurey, Amir Sumakai-Fink, Sarai Aharoni and Adi Ezra, who read selected parts of the manuscript and shared their ideas.
To Eilona Ariel, for being a gushing fountain of enthusiasm and a firm rock of refuge.
To my mother-in-law and accountant, Hannah Yahav, for keeping all the money balls in the air.
To my grandmother Fanny, my mother, Pnina, my sisters Liat and Einat, and to all my other family members and friends for their support and companionship.
To Chamba, Pengo and Chili, who offered a canine perspective on some of the main ideas and theories of this book.
And to my spouse and manager, Itzik, who already today functions as my Internet-of-All-Things.
Index
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.
Entries in italics indicate photographs and illustrations.
Abdallah, Muhammad Ahmad bin (Mahdi) 272, 273
Abe, Shinzō 208
abortion 190, 191, 238
Adee, Sally 369
ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) 40
aesthetics: humanist 236, 240; Middle Ages 230, 230–1
Afghanistan 19, 40, 101, 171, 356
Africa: AIDS crisis in 14; borders in 261, 355; Ebola outbreak in 11, 13, 204; Sapiens evolution in savannah of 342–3, 393–4
Agricultural Revolution: animal welfare and 77, 83, 368; Bible and 77, 156, 157; slavery and 96–7
AIDS 14, 19
algorithms: concept defined 372, 373, 118, 119, 122, 125, 126, 141, 372, 373, 178
Allen, Woody 29
AlphaGo 325
Alzheimer’s disease 24, 341
Amazon Corporation 348–9
Amenemhat III 161, 162, 175
Andersson, Professor Leif 233
animals: Agricultural Revolution and 77, 83, 368; as algorithms 72; humanism and 99, 233; inequality, reaction to 143; intersubjective web of meaning and 151; mass extinction of 233, 288
animist cultures 91, 92, 96, 97, 173
Annie (musical composition program) 329–30
Anthropocene 71–100
antibiotics 10, 12, 13, 23, 27, 99, 180, 268, 277, 353
antidepressants 40, 49, 123–5
Apple Corporation 16, 155, 377
art: medieval and humanist attitudes towards 230–2, 235; technology and 328–30
artificial intelligence 49; animal welfare and 120; humanism, threat to 50, 51; renders humans economically and militarily useless 50 see also algorithms; Dataism and under individual area of AI
artificial pancreas 335
Ashurbanipal of Assyria, King 68, 68
Associated Press 316
Auschwitz 259, 381
autonomous cars 115, 115, 163, 326, 390
Aztec Empire 8–9
Babylon 173, 311–2, 395–6
Bach, Johann Sebastian 363
Bariyapur, Nepal 92–3
bats: experience of the world 361–2, 363–4; lending and vampire 205–6
Beane, Billy 325–6
Bedpost 336
Beethoven, Ludwig van 255, 329; Fifth Symphony and value of experience 363, 393
Belavezha Accords, 1991 146, 146
Bentham, Jeremy 30, 32, 35
Berlin Conference, 1884 168
Berlin Wall, fall of 1989 134
Berry, Chuck 393; ‘Johnny B. Goode’ 363
Bible 46; animal kingdom and 386; evolution and 103; homosexuality and 196, 174; Old Testament 48, 76; power of shaping story 173, 174; source of authority 174; unique nature of humanity, promotes 76–8
biological poverty line 3–6
biotechnology 14, 44, 98, 178, 271, 275, 380, 401 see also individual biotech area
Bismarck, Otto von 31, 273
Black Death 6, 11, 12
Borges, Jorge Luis: ‘A
Problem’ 301–2
Bostrom, Nick 331–2
Bowden, Mark: Black Hawk Down 257
bowhead whale song, spectrogram of 363, 363
brain: Agricultural Revolution and 160; artificial intelligence and 280, 280; biological engineering and 44; brain–computer interfaces 49, 55, 357, 364; consciousness and 117, 126; cyborg engineering and 45; Dataism and 373, 398, 400; free will and 37, 38, 41; self and 132, 133; transcranial stimulators and manipulation of 289–92; two hemispheres 293–6
brands 162
Brexit 380
Brezhnev, Leonid 275
Brin, Sergey 28, 341
Buddhism 182, 186, 188, 223, 361
Calico 24, 28
Cambodia 266
Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, 2012 123
capitalism 28, 184, 207, 261, 313, 402 see also economics/economy
Caporreto, Battle of 1917 303
Catholic Church 148, 184; Donation of Constantine 194; economic and technological innovations and 276; marriage and 26; papal infallibility principle 148, 191, 199; Thirty Years War and 244, 245, 248; turns from creative into reactive force 276–7 see also Bible and Christianity
Ceauçescu, Nicolae 138
Charlie Hebdo 228
Château de Chambord, Loire Valley, France 62, 62
Chekhov Law 55
child mortality 10, 34, 175
childbirth, narration of 299, 299–300
China 1, 271; biotech and 341; Civil War 265; economic growth and 207, 208, 211; famine in 5, 5, 381; Great Wall of 49, 179; liberalism, challenge to 96; Taiping Rebellion, 1850–64 273; Three Gorges Dam, building of 163, 189, 197
Chinese river dolphin 189, 197, 401
Christianity: abortion and 190; animal welfare and 206; homosexuality and 22 see also Bible and Catholic Church
Chukwu 48
CIA 58, 160, 295–6
Clever Hans (horse) 129–31, 130
climate change 20, 152, 214, 382, 402
Clinton, Bill 58
Clovis, King of France 229, 229
Cognitive Revolution 156, 357, 384 Cold War 18, 34, 150, 207, 268, 377
cold water experiment (Kahneman) 343
colonoscopy study (Kahneman and Redelmeier) 297–9
Columbus, Christopher 198, 364, 385
Communism 5, 56, 58, 150, 182; cooperation and 139; Dataism and 374, 399, 401; economic growth and 207, 208, 209, 218, 220; liberalism, challenge to 182, 183, 184; Second World War and 265
computers: algorithms and see algorithms; brain–computer interfaces 49, 55, 289, 357, 364; consciousness and 107, 115, 120, 121; Dataism and 373, 380, 394–5
Confucius 46, 269, 397; Analects 271, 272
Congo 9, 10, 19, 168, 207, 393
consciousness: animal 120, 121, 357, 402; manufacturing new states of 399; positive psychology and 365; Problem of Other Minds 365; subjective experience and 357, 358–64
cooperation, intersubjective meaning and 144–52, 155–78; power of human 132–52, 155–78; revolution and 133–8; size of group and 138–44
Cope, David 328–30
creativity 29, 277, 320, 330, 331, 351
credit 203–6
Crusades 150, 191, 230, 242, 307
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly 365
customer-services departments 321–2
cyber warfare 17, 59, 311–2
Cyborg 2 (movie) 339
cyborg engineering 67, 312, 339
Cyrus, King of Persia 173
Daoism 182, 223
Darom, Naomi 233
Darwin, Charles: evolutionary theory of 254, 272, 377, 397; On the Origin of Species 272, 307, 372
data processing: Agricultural Revolution and 276; centralised and distributed (communism and capitalism) 114, 118; democracy, challenge to 394; life as 114, 118, 373, 402; stock exchange and 368; value of human experience and 393–5; writing and 157–60 see also algorithms and Dataism
Dataism 371, 373; birth of 373; criticism of 393; interpretation of history and 379, 390; religion of 386–90; value of experience and 393–5
Dawkins, Richard 307
de Grey, Aubrey 24, 25, 27
Deadline Corporation 335–6
death 21–9 see also immortality
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, The 310–1
Deep Blue 324, 324
Deep Knowledge Ventures 327
DeepMind 324–5
Dehaene, Stanislas 117
democracy: Dataism and 382, 385, 396, 397, 401; evolutionary humanism and 270; technological challenge to 308, 343–6
Dennett, Daniel 117
depression 36, 39, 40, 49, 54, 67, 289, 362, 369
Descartes, René 108
diabetes 15, 27–8
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) 365
Dix, Otto 255; The War (Der Krieg) (1929–32) 246, 247, 248
DNA: in vitro fertilisation and 144, 341, 342, 352, 398; soul and 106
doctors, replacement by artificial intelligence of 317–21
Donation of Constantine 194
drones 290, 295, 311, 312, 312, 313
drugs: computer-assisted methods for research into 327; Ebola and 204; pharmacy automation and 320; psychiatric 49, 125
Dua-Khety 175–6
dualism 188
Duchamp, Marcel: Fountain 235, 235
Ebola 2, 11, 13, 204
economics/economy: benefits of growth in 383, 391, 394, 399, 401, 402; happiness and 30, 32, 33, 39; humanism and 236, 254, 271, 275, 313; immortality and 28; paradox of historical knowledge and 311, 313, 316, 331, 352, 354
education 233, 235, 236, 240, 249, 317, 354
Eguía, Francisco de 8
Egypt 1, 3, 68, 99, 142, 143, 171, 207; Lake Fayum engineering project 175, 179; life of peasant in ancient 175, 176; Revolution, 2011 138, 252; slavery in 96; Sudan and 272
Egyptian Journalists Syndicate 228
Einstein, Albert 103, 255
electromagnetic spectrum 358, 359
Eliot, Charles W. 311
EMI (Experiments in Musical Intelligence) 328–9
Engels, Friedrich 273
Enki 93, 157, 328
Epicenter, Stockholm 45
Epicurus 30, 33, 35, 41
epilepsy 293–4
Erdoğan, Recep Tayyip 208
eugenics 53, 55
European Union 82, 151, 160, 252, 380
evolution 43, 76, 78, 89, 111, 132, 141, 151, 204, 262, 284, 285, 299, 307, 314, 363, 365, 393, 397
evolutionary humanism 357
Facebook 46, 138, 346, 366, 392, 393, 397, 398
famine 19, 27, 33, 41, 56, 59, 166, 167, 180, 206, 210, 220, 355
famine, plague and war, end of 1–21
First World War, 1914–18 14, 16, 52, 246, 247, 248, 256, 311, 312
‘Flash Crash,’ 2010 316
fMRI scans 109, 119, 144, 160, 284, 317, 336, 339, 360
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) 366
Foucault, Michel: The History of Sexuality 277–8
France: famine in, 1692–4 5; First World War and 9, 14, 16; founding myth of 229, 229; French Revolution 155, 310, 30, 31; Second World War and 164, 264–5
France, Anatole 53
Frederick the Great, King 142–3
free will 225, 232, 249, 306, 307, 308, 343
freedom of expression 209, 388
freedom of information 388, 389–90
Freudian psychology 88, 118, 225–6
Furuvik Zoo, Sweden 126–7
Future of Employment, The (Frey/Osborne) 330
Gandhi, Indira 266, 267
Gazzaniga, Professor Michael S. 297
GDH (gross domestic happiness) 32
GDP (gross domestic product) 30, 32, 34, 208, 264
genetic engineering 25, 41, 44, 48, 49, 50, 233, 276, 278, 288, 357, 364, 374
Germany 36; First World War and 14, 16, 246, 247, 248; migration crisis and 252; Second World War and 31
Gilgamesh epic 93
 
; Gillies, Harold 52
global warming 20, 214, 382, 402
God: Agricultural Revolution and 90, 95, 77, 78, 386, 388, 391, 395, 398; death/immortality and 48; death of 68, 98, 222, 236, 263, 270; defining religion and 182, 183, 184, 185; evolutionary theory and 103; hides in small print of factual statements 191, 196; homosexuality and 196, 228, 278; humanism and 222, 223, 225, 226, 227, 228, 231, 243, 246, 250, 263, 270, 272, 273, 274, 276, 278, 307, 395, 396; intersubjective reality and 146, 180, 182, 183, 184, 185, 191, 196; Middle Ages, as source of meaning and authority in 224, 226, 307; Newton myth and 222, 228, 270, 356; Scientific Revolution and 116; war narratives and 243, 246
gods: Agricultural Revolution and theist 98, 181, 182, 30; humanism and 98; humans as (upgrade to Homo Deus) 21, 25, 50, 56, 98; intersubjective reality and 151, 155, 177, 327, 357; modern covenant and 97, 98; spirituality and 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 19
Google 24, 28, 115, 115, 150, 157, 163, 277, 315, 324, 325, 326, 335, 346, 389, 397, 398; Google Baseline Study 340; Google Now 348; Google Ventures 24
Gorbachev, Mikhail 377
Götze, Mario 36, 63
Greece 30, 133, 173, 174, 242, 267, 270, 307
greenhouse gas emissions 216–7
Gregory the Great, Pope 230, 230
guilds 232
hackers 312, 316, 349, 398
Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem 289
Hamlet (Shakespeare) 46, 200–1
HaNasi, Rabbi Yehuda 94
happiness 30–43
Haraway, Donna: ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ 277–8
Harlow, Harry 89, 90
Harris, Sam 197
Hassabis, Dr Demis 324
Hattin, Battle of, 1187 147, 148
Hayek, Friedrich 374