Nuclear war, ecological collapse and technological disruption

Nuclear war, ecological collapse and technological disruption pose an existential threat to human civilization. In the first of this year's Betazone series, Yuval Noah Harari explores the challenges of the 21st century and calls for us to address them before it is too late.

Technology could disrupt human society in numerous ways, ranging from the creation of a global useless class to the rise of data,colonialism and of digital Dictatorships. Millions upon millions of jobs could be lost to robots and artificial intelligence. The AI revolution might create unprecedented inequality between classes and countries. Unless we take action to distribute the benefits and power of AI between all humans, other countries will either go bankrupt or will become exploited data colonies. The other major danger we face is the rise of digital Dictatorships that will monitor everyone all the time.