Human are more in danger from the future technological invasion of their minds, than they are from a foreign military force taking over their country, warned Yuval Harari, the best selling Israeli author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.He took the stage at the World Economic Forum at Davos along with Huawei Technologies Chief Executive Officer Ren Zhengei.“I understand the current arms race as an imperial arms race, which may lead to data colonialism,” Harari said. “On a much broader and deeper perspective, it will shape the future of humanity and life itself.”
Governments will have the ability to hack human being, but the really big thing is to hack human beings, Harari said.
If there is enough data, “you can reach a point where you know me better than I know myself,” he said.Imagine what could happen if the person who was hacked was the president of a country or the head of a supreme court, Harari said. Zhengei did not rule out the possibility of the Harari’s dim forecast of the future. Sill, he said, he didn’t think that a person’s soul could be hacked.
If there is enough data, “you can reach a point where you know me better than I know myself,” he said.Imagine what could happen if the person who was hacked was the president of a country or the head of a supreme court, Harari said. Zhengei did not rule out the possibility of the Harari’s dim forecast of the future. Sill, he said, he didn’t think that a person’s soul could be hacked.
Technology has made people smarter and allow for humanity to progress, Zhenggei said.Harari said that technology can work both ways. A government can use surveillance tools against its citizens, Harari said, but at the same time an individual can also develop surveillance tools, because technology works both ways.
When asked if the world was shifting into two technological eco systems Zhengei said that his company is successful because it had learned from the US. The US should not be overly concerned about Huawei and its position on the world, Zhengei said, adding that his company had withstood the steps the US has taken against it. He recalled how 20 years ago, he did not even have his own home and that all the money had was put into the company. If China felt secure with the US, it would not have come up with its own system.
