Yuval Noah Harari Discusses New Book, “Unstoppable Us” for Kids
In this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Ms-h3s3X0, Yuval Noah Harari, the renowned historian and author of the bestseller Sapiens, dives into his new book for younger readers, “Unstoppable Us”.
The video explores what it means to be human. Harari explains the challenges of writing for children, emphasizing the need to communicate complex ideas clearly. Unlike adults who can hide behind jargon, kids require straightforward and direct language.
Harari reflects on his own childhood curiosity about life’s big questions. He was troubled by how grown-ups often lacked answers and weren’t even concerned about not understanding the world. “Unstoppable Us” was written to address some of these very questions that troubled him as a child.
A central theme in the video is that large-scale cooperation is the foundation of major human achievements. From building pyramids and flying to the moon to creating the atom bomb and establishing healthcare systems, all these feats required thousands of people working together. According to Harari, this ability to cooperate is what sets humans apart from other mammals. He attributes it to our unique capacity to invent and believe in fictional stories.
The video also highlights some of the challenges facing humanity. Harari discusses three major threats: ecological collapse, disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, and nuclear war. He emphasizes that AI is unique because it can make its own decisions and create new ideas. Unlike previous inventions, AI has the potential to act independently.
The book’s message is conveyed in the dedication, which states that our ancestors made the world what it is and now we get to decide what it will become. The core idea of “Unstoppable Us” is that humans are the most powerful force on the planet, and we need to acknowledge this power. Only then can we take responsibility for the way we use it.