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Do you know Steven Pinker and his 2011 book, „The better Angels of our Nature"?
Oh god, this is far too much text!
I mean, I will take ages to get this all filmed. Damn!
I think I have an idea...
Uhhhh. What was that?
Ah! Alright. This is better. Lets beginn.
Do you know Steven Pinker and his 2011 book, titled „The better Angles of our Nature"?
At the very least you should have heard about it by now, as famous intellectuals
like Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss and now even Bill Gates have endorsed
his work and the core idea behind it: That despite how we feel about it,
statistical evidence proves that violence is in decline both on a large scale
of thousands of years, as well as on a small scale, when you look at the last
centuries or even the last decades.
Not that it matters much, but I also highly recommend the book.
Or, if you're in a hurry, watch Steven's TED talk on the subject matter.
You can find the link in the description below.
Seriously, watch it right now.
I will wait here.
Its just 20 minutes of your time and might change
the way you look at the world and humanity forever.
Or it won't.
Because sometimes what we feel inside is so strong that we will not
let cold and hard facts take it away from us.
I learned of Steven's book and his thesis a long time ago and spoke to many
people about it since.
And their reaction ranged from raising serious doubts to open denial.
Or just plain old ignorance and changing of the subject.
After all, everybody knows that the world is a shithole, right?
There's violence in the schools, violence in the streets,
each day thousands of people die in terrorist attacks...
and the internet!
The internet is this horrible place, where every asshole can freely
speak its mind, exposing just how degenerated humanity is.
In short:
We all like to think back to the "good old times" of our childhood,
when the world was a better place.
Less chaotic.
Less violent.
Well, maybe not less violent.
But in a more controlled way as today.
It is almost as if we need this feeling of insecurity about the present
to make it through the day.
So we need this feeling that the world is getting worse.
And, speaking about which – how about Steven Pinker and the people
like Dawkins, who support him?
Aren't they a part of the "elitist" technocrats, who treat the rest of humanity as children
and want to take the world out of our hands?
Maybe Steven's book is no more than one such attempt to lure us into a false
sense of security.
I haven't actually heard that argument yet, but I can easily see it
become the reactionary motto of anti-intellectuals like those supporting
Trump and other Trump-like entities in many other countries.
But lets, for the moment, assume that Steven is right.
According to his research, the world is becoming a better place every day.
Humanity is improving.
But how does that work?
What drives this progress?
Its hard to say.
Steven mentions a couple of possible reasons, but to this day
he doesn't know the proper answer himself.
Maybe its a little bit of all of them?
The one major reason that my money is on, is precisely our feeling that the world
is going to shit.
Thanks to the internet today we know more about the world
around us than ever before, and this knowledge frightens us
and makes us fear for the worst.
There is so much evil in the world, so much corruption, and so much injustice.
Some of us might break apart in the face of this terrible truth,
but the rest of us as a society are forced to engage these problems.
Because the first step in overcoming a problem is to accept that it exists.
No lie can survive for long in the headwind of an approaching hurricane.
So let's go all aboard the Pinker Ship and set sail for the open sea.
I am sailing, I am sailing.
Home again 'cross the sea.
I am sailing, stormy waters.
To be near you, to be free.
Under the youtube music video of that famous Rod Steward song there is this
comment by a woman telling us the sad story of her father,
who always listened to that song
and that she regrets not giving him that last hug before he passed away.
It is very touchy and received over 500 likes as well as
many comments of the type you would write.
Warm and comforting.
Gives you back some hope in humanity.
But is it really true?
Is the poster really a woman?
Did her father really listen to that song all the time?
And what does it mean, that he didn't receive that last hug?
We all can picture that, but I'm sure we all picture it differently.
Like the song itself, the comment has the power to stir up emotions
and bring tears to your eyes.
Now, I am not saying that the comment is fake.
It is probably real.
But there is no way to prove it one way or the other.
It could be a so-called "Catfish".
The term "Catfish" was coined in the 2010 documentary film by the
same name, and subsequent ongoing TV series.
There, a catfish is basically a person who creates a fake identity on the internet
to trick another person into falling in love with them.
But I want to look at this term in a broader sense, based on how it was coined.
they used to take cod from Alaska all the way to China.
They're keeping the vats in the ship, and by time the codfish
reached China, the flesh was was mush and tasteless, so this guy came up with
the idea that if you put these cods into these big vats, put some catfish in with them
and the catfish will keep the card agile,
and there are those people who are catfish in life and they keep you on your toes.
They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh, and I thank
God for the catfish, because we would be droll, boring and dull, if we didn't have
somebody nipping at our fins
And now, after telling you about
a) the catfish phenomenon as well as b) the statistically proven fact that violence
is in decline, let me try to connect the dots.
Through the internet, through fake news, both real fake news and news that is accused
to be fake news but is really real, through a lying president that is accusing
other people of lying all the time, we have been forced to grow up as a society.
20 years ago the news told us what is going on in the world.
In their newsrooms the journalists decided what we, the public,
should know and should not know, and only few and brave cases of investigative
journalism would break through that barrier sometimes.
This order has been turned on its head completely.
Today, everybody and their cat can produce news,
with no accountability whatsoever.
And if you are too stupid to question just about everything, you will be lured
into a set of opinions and behaviors as they want you to, to further their political goals.
In other words: The number of catfish in the tank has increased to such a degree,
that not a single one of us cod has the luxury of staying in one place
for too long.
They force you to stay on your toes, think very carefully
for yourselves before you trust anyone.
Your own president of the United States is a catfish!
But when you turn away from him and stop listening to his lies,
as you should, be aware of those standing against him.
Ask yourselves: What are their hidden agendas?
But first, everyone, lets thank president Donald Trump for being a catfish!
Because we need to be critical and distrustful, always checking the facts.
And double-check them.
And check them again.
Because already a considerabubble number of all twitter accounts, facebook accounts
and youtube accounts are fake.
They are part of large bot networks, controlled by god-knows who
to create the false image of large crowds of people with certain ideas and ideologies,
who don't really exist!
And those bots are getting smarter by the minute,
until we have no way left of determining whether they are real or not.
And then there's the next step.
Already we have long-dead actors appearing in modern movies,
perfectly recreated in their appearance and speech.
How long until this technology spills over into the propaganda camp,
for some hyper-realistic orwellian horror?
No more than a couple of years.
And if by that time you still trust what you see with your own eyes,
then you are stupid!
Then you haven't been bitten by enough catfish to keep you
alive and cautious.
So, with all that said, how can I still believe that humanity is improving?
Shouldn't I believe the opposite?
No!
Because this catfish phenomenon is one of the things that help us improve!
Do you remember the age of enlightenment?
Good.
Because its still going on.
First it was about the intellectuals, coming of age,
then it was the nations coming of age.
And what a painful process that was!
And now its about the rest of us!
We cannot stay children any longer, we all need to reach adulthood as well.
Dare to think for yourselves!
Dare to think for yourselves!
Its no longer optional, its now mandatory.
You can either dare to think for yourselves or become a pile of
mushy flesh, like your predecessors.
The thing I want you to take away from this rant is to be critical,
don't trust anything you see or hear, double-check, and think for yourselves!
Don't just pretend like you do.
I know you're all very good at pretending.
No, I want you to actually think for yourselves.
Because here comes the rub: we don't have much time.
I already mentioned the bot networks.
You think they are Russian hackers?
You're wrong.
They are artificial intelligences.
Like the one that became the best Go player of all time.
Or the one that became the best Jeopardy player of all time.
Or the one that is about to become the best Dota player of all time.
You get where this is heading.
The best race driver of all time.
The best surgeon of all time.
The best president of the united states of all time.
If we don't find it in ourselves to think for ourselves and make
our own decisions, those "expert programs" will be more than willing and capable
to do all the thinking for us.
Now, you can doubt me.
After everything I said I sure hope you doubt me!
That's the whole idea of this whole thing!
So double-check it!
Tripple-check it!
You will see that the evidence is not conclusive.
But I believe its very likely that humans will become a phase-out model
before the end of the century.
Maybe its already too late, but at least we can try to continue on our trajectory
of becoming better as a society.
Stay relevant in the world.
Because as Steven Pinker said: The world is becoming a better place.
And whether that better place is filled with humans or not, is entirely up to us.
And what if Steven Pinker is also a catfish?
If that thought popped up in your mind: great!
That's great news for you.
There's still hope.
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