more from linear c: twitter as slot machine

even more from linear c: yuval noah harari, dataism & homo sapiens as an obsolete algorithm

today’s post is going to explore the idea of ‘dataism’ as laid out by yuval noah harari in his work ‘homo deus: a history of tomorrow’.

“dataism declares that the universe consists of data flows, and the value of any phenomenon or entity is determined by its contribution to data processing.” -yuval noah harari

from this worldview, homo sapiens as a species is seen as a system for processing data. the history of homo sapiens is a process of expanding the system and improving its efficiency.

in dataism, sapiens are currently valued above all else because they contribute the most to data processing. homo sapiens is valued more than all other known organisms. this state of superiority, isn’t one that is immutable or unchanging, however. unlike humanism, the superiority of sapiens is not a belief intrinsic to dataism, if a better processor of data were to emerge then it would topple the homo sapiens as the most valued phenomenon or entity. this is a very real possibility with advent of artificial intelligence.

“homo sapiens is an obsolete algorithm.” – yuval noah harari

within the dataist worldview, there are concrete steps to be taken to assist the expansion of data flow, such as increasing the connections within the system and connecting ever more things to the system. the end goal is the connecting of all things. the internet-of-all-things. though still in its infancy, this is become ever more a reality by the day, with an obvious development being automated cars.

the history of homo sapiens is seen as that of an increasing and expansion of data. for most of the 100,000 to 200,000 of human history, the flow of data was restricted to a few isolated networks dispersed across the earth, with little to no flow of data, a few bits, between these networks.

with the increase in population and spread of homo sapiens across the earth, the flow of data increased from a few bits to countless terabytes. with inprovements in homo sapiens’ ability to travel the earth, the connections between individual processors also improved rapidly. whereas information was once spread at a rate of around 5km/ hour, today information can travel around the earth in fractions of a second.

if dataism sees life as the flow of information, then restricting or halting this flow in anyway would be seen as the greatest sin. an economic cost attached to information is therefore viewed negatively, and even more negatively, the death of living organisms (the death of homo sapiens having more weight than that of a horse or a rabbit).

source: homo deus: a brief history of tomorrow, yuval noah harari

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