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Chapter 15

The document summarizes key points from Yuval Noah Harari's book "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" about the concept of ignorance. It makes three main points: 1) Individual humans actually know very little and rely on group thinking and the expertise of others, creating an "illusion of knowledge." 2) People are often ignorant of complex issues yet rarely acknowledge their ignorance due to echo chambers that reinforce preexisting beliefs. 3) Great power distorts the truth as it warps the space around it, trapping leaders in ignorance. As the world grows more complex, individual ignorance will increase.

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Minahil Fatima
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94 views14 pages

Chapter 15

The document summarizes key points from Yuval Noah Harari's book "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" about the concept of ignorance. It makes three main points: 1) Individual humans actually know very little and rely on group thinking and the expertise of others, creating an "illusion of knowledge." 2) People are often ignorant of complex issues yet rarely acknowledge their ignorance due to echo chambers that reinforce preexisting beliefs. 3) Great power distorts the truth as it warps the space around it, trapping leaders in ignorance. As the world grows more complex, individual ignorance will increase.

Uploaded by

Minahil Fatima
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Yuval Noah Harari

21 LESSONS FOR THE 21 S T


CENTURY
GROUP # 15
PRESSENTED BY
AYESHA NADEEM (14007)
MINAHIL FATIMA (13313)
PART IV: TRUTH

CHAPTER :15
IGNORANCE
“You know less
then you think”
KEY POINTS:

The Black
Group Knowledge
Hole of
Thinking illusion
power
IGNORANCE:
• Last few centuries depicted individual humans as independent rational agents, and has made
these mythical creatures the basis of modern society.
•Postcolonial and feminist thinkers have pointed out that this ‘rational individual’ may well be a
chauvinistic Western fantasy, glorifying the autonomy and power of upper-class white men.
•Behavioural economists and evolutionary psychologists have demonstrated that most human
decisions are based on emotional reactions rather than on rational analysis, and that while our
emotions and heuristics were perhaps suitable for dealing with life in the Stone Age, they are
woefully inadequate in the Silicon Age.
IGNORANCE

•Humans rarely think for themselves. Rather, we think in groups. Just as it takes
a tribe to raise a child, it also takes a tribe to invent a tool, solve a conflict, or
cure a disease. No individual knows everything it takes to build a cathedral, an
atom bomb, or an aircraft. What gave Homo sapiens an edge over all other
rationality, but our unparalleled ability to think together in large groups
•We think we know far more today, but as individuals, we actually know far less.
We rely on the expertise of others for almost all our needs.
•This is what Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach have termed ‘the knowledge
illusion’. We think we know a lot, even though individually we know very little,
because we treat knowledge in the minds of others as if it were our own.
IGNORANCE

•Our reliance on groupthink has made us masters of the world, and the
knowledge illusion enables us to go through life without being caught in an
impossible effort to understand everything ourselves.
•The world is becoming ever more complex, and people fail to realize just
how ignorant they are of what’s going on.
•People rarely appreciate their ignorance, because they lock themselves
inside an echo chamber of like-minded friends and self-confirming
newsfeeds, where their beliefs are constantly reinforced and seldom
challenged.
IGNORANCE

•Issues of Obamacare and Global Warming.


•Bombarding people with facts and exposing their individual ignorance is
likely to backfire. Most people don’t like too many facts, and they certainly
don’t like to feel stupid.
•Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a huge crowd of starry-eyed followers
mistakes Brian for the Messiah.
•Monty Python were parodying the counterculture orthodoxy of the 1960s.
THE BLACK HOLE OF POWER:

•It is extremely hard to discover the truth when you are ruling the world.
•If you cannot afford to waste time – you will never find the truth.
Great power inevitably distorts the truth.
• When you have great power in your hand, everything looks like an
invitation to meddle. Even if you somehow overcome this urge, the people
surrounding you will never forget the giant hammer you are holding.
THE BLACK HOLE OF POWER:

Great power thus acts like a black hole that warps the very space around it.
•Each person you see tries to flatter you, appease you, or get something
from you.
•Being invited to the dinner with Israeli Prime Minister.
•It was the fault of the gravitational pull of power.
•Leaders are thus trapped in a double bind.
THE BLACK HOLE OF POWER:

•In the coming decades, the world will become even more complex.
•Individual humans – whether pawns or kings – will consequently know even
less about the technological gadgets, the economic currents, and the political
dynamics that shape the world. As Socrates observed more than 2,000 years
ago, the best we can do under such conditions is to acknowledge our own
individual ignorance.
REFERENCES;

Link :
https://amauroboliveira.files.wor
dpress.com/2020/10/21-lessons-
for-the-21st-century-1.pdf

https://www.getstoryshots.com/books/21-lessons-for-the-21st-century-summary/

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