HARARI
Yuval Noah Harari: Macrohistory, Shared Myths, and the Algorithmic Future
Biography and Academic Background
Original Name: יובל נח הררי (Yuval Noah Harari)
Type of Literature: Philosophical non-fiction, historical essays, macrohistory, and popular science.
Philosophical/Historical Current: Secular Humanism, Macrohistory, Transhumanism (as a critical analyst), and Dataism.
Born in Haifa, Israel, in 1976, Yuval Noah Harari is a contemporary historian, philosopher, and professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He specialized in medieval history and military history during his initial studies, earning his PhD from Jesus College, Oxford, in 2002. Over the last two decades, Harari shifted his academic focus from specific historical conflicts to macrohistorical questions, examining the broad sweep of human evolution, the mechanisms of societal organization, and the existential threats posed by 21st-century technology.
Core Theories and Philosophical Framework
1. The Power of Imagined Realities (The Cognitive Revolution)
One of Harari’s primary contributions to modern historical philosophy is his analysis of the Cognitive Revolution, which occurred roughly 70,000 years ago. He posits that Homo sapiens managed to dominate the planet not because of individual physical superiority or larger brains, but because of a unique ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers.
According to Harari, this mass cooperation relies entirely on the human capacity to create and believe in inter-subjective realities—shared myths that exist solely within the collective imagination. Unlike objective realities (such as rivers or trees) or subjective realities (such as personal fears), inter-subjective realities retain power as long as a critical mass of individuals believe in them. Harari classifies money, nations, human rights, judicial systems, religious structures, and corporations not as objective truths, but as highly effective constructs designed to unify strangers and facilitate complex societal networks.
2. The Agricultural Revolution as History's Biggest Fraud
In contrast to traditional historical narratives that view the transition from foraging to agriculture as a monumental leap forward for human well-being, Harari presents a critical re-evaluation. He argues that the Agricultural Revolution, which began around 10,000 BCE, was actually a profound trap.
While agriculture allowed the total population of Homo sapiens to grow exponentially, it resulted in a harsher, less varied lifestyle for the average individual. Foragers possessed diverse diets, worked fewer hours, and suffered from fewer nutritional deficiencies and infectious diseases than early farmers. Harari suggests that humans did not domesticate wheat; rather, wheat domesticated humans, forcing them to settle in permanent locations, permanently alter their bodies through repetitive labor, and submit to rigid social hierarchies and political exploitation.
3. The Shift from Humanism to Dataism
Looking toward the future, Harari analyzes the decline of liberal humanism, which has dominated global politics and ethics for the past few centuries. Humanism places human experience, free will, and feelings at the center of the moral universe, dictating that the voter knows best, the customer is always right, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Harari argues that biotechnology and information technology are converging to create a new paradigm: Dataism. Dataism declares that the universe consists of data flows, and the value of any entity or action is determined by its contribution to data processing. Under this view, human beings are merely biochemical algorithms. As external, digital algorithms (artificial intelligence) become better at analyzing biochemical data than humans are themselves, the authority shifts from human intuition to technological systems. The authority once held by gods, and later transferred to humanity, is now being yielded to data networks.
4. Homo Deus and the Rise of the Useless Class
Harari warns of an unprecedented social divide driven by the mastery of genetic engineering, neural interfaces, and life-extension technologies. In earlier centuries, elites relied on the working masses for military power and economic production. However, the rise of automation and artificial intelligence threatens to make human labor economically redundant.
This dynamic could lead to the creation of what Harari terms the useless class—individuals who are not merely unemployed, but unemployable due to rapid shifts in the skill sets required by the tech-driven economy. Concurrently, the wealthy may gain access to biological upgrades, transforming themselves into a distinct biological caste (Homo deus), creating an unprecedented gap in inequality that is not just economic, but biological.
Concluding Thoughts
Harari’s work functions as a diagnostic critique of modern civilizational trajectories. By synthesizing evolutionary biology with political philosophy, he challenges humanity to recognize that the systems currently governing global society are mutable, fragile, and rapidly being outpaced by technological acceleration.