Faquir Foysol
Disclaimer: While writing this piece of sheet World Ultra Wealth Report-2018 shows the number of ultra-high net-worth (UHNW) individuals in Bangladesh rose by 17.3 per cent while our scholars scored 17th (top of the last position in Asia) in the Global Innovation Index-2018, according to local newspapers.
I’m a black sheep from a family of three breadwinners [that includes me]- living hand-to-mouth with the traditional urge to earn more and grabbing the Holy Grail, a BCS or government job, at any cost- wasting much leisure time for listening, composing and editing detune music and uploading them on youtube, reading worthless books (that recently includes Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century), watching movies without aesthetics, sitting in front of a GUI-less monitor reading or writing arcane scripts pretending to hack the Pentagon.
After consuming almost all Harari articles and videos available on youtube- it was envying that a man living about 5,483km away have written almost the same things storming our brains (Me and my Guru Gaohar Badshah).
My feelings- to be precise a Middle Class Inferiority Complex - can be best interpreted like Noah Harari is talking with me in the words of great Sefat Ullah aka Shefuda-- “Ki, hingsha hoy? Amar moto hote chao? ” (Do you envy me poor boy? Want to be a great man like me ?)
In that sense this piece is neither a book review, criticism nor a personal attack out of envy rather a soliloquy or what the contemporary intellectuals would agree unanimously (not anonymously) an effort to draw attention or leg-pulling.
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| Badshah Namdar Gaohar |
1.
A writer’s utmost success might be that readers either feel unity with her/him or see reflection of what exactly they think but can’t express in a coherent way.In that sense Yuval Noah Harari is one of the successful writers who is being respected as a Noah at the helm of the ark of wandering wonderers of the bewildered 21st century.
His unique and groundbreaking hypothesis about the final destination of Homo sapience has already secured a place in contemporary popular culture- perhaps Dan Brown’s 2017 novel Origin depicted a Yuval Noah Harari under the guise of Edmond Kirsch.
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| Yuval Noah Harari |
2.
It was a great pleasure and much soothing experience to devour two of his bestsellers Sapiens and 21L21C in parallel, obviously $1.43 pirated copies, in the utopia where reading anything other than BCS and job guides is forbidden among most of the highly educated individuals or scholars. So building up or curating a family library is not only an unnecessary luxury but sheer insanity.On the other hand wasting time on understanding own life and responding to what’s going on in surroundings often turns the mental, sometimes physical, stability into dystopia.
3.
I was initiated to Harari back in 2015 from a review of Sapiens by my friend Illias Kamal Risat on facebook. Later in 2018 one Doha Rafi gave me some printouts of his articles that made me to buy Sapiens and influence one of my friends to buy Homo Deus and gift me a copy of 21C21L, obviously $1.4 pirated copies again.Off topic: Year 2015 was the second of the imbibed and absorbed four years of my effort to becoming LU$er or Mr Robot that resulted in a 78kg couch potato, a sudden break-up with my girl, being detached from friends…... finally ended up in an eye opening love for Unix/*nix.
Cordial thanks to Sir Ritchie, Kernighan, Eric Raymond and Julia Evans- the guardian angels helped overcome the ‘tech-alcoholism’ faster.
However, my comment on the review was ‘...as long the crazy human beings are more focused on knowing their selves and hacking low-level things they would obviously find an way to survive in the AI apocalypse,’ which is now being repeatedly drummed up by the author himself.
4.
Long before the publication of groundbreaking Sapience in 2011 (Hebrew) and 2014 (English), a simpleton Gaohar Badshah- Lecturer of a suburb university that hardly exists and recognised by intellectuals from every direction- up, down,left,right etc.- distributed almost same golden nuggets among his Homo erectus students while teaching history of Bangladesh, world and international affairs. Well without any dysfunction and misdirection, cannons of canons erected against him and was tagged as a ‘Mental’ read ‘Man.Tell’- the colloquial term used for a mentally challenged man/woman.To be clear, he discussed about Rafic Hariri many times but I’m yet to find a single Noah Harari book in his physical and digital disarray sorry….. library.
During a discussion session at his ‘Hawa Ghar’ (Dome in the Air- a rented tumbledown tin-shaded cottage- not that of Kublai Kha) back in 2014 winter he said, “The ambition of becoming a hacker is socially engineered by the authorities while it’s in reality hacking you- the script kiddie. If you want to be a great hacker start from your family, boss and surroundings. But if you are after the red pill then extend it to study the Creator, self, politics and history of humanity. Don’t get blind of using or developing digital hacking tools.”
5.
Harari’s scourge of criticism has peeled a little off the myths and revealed many facts centring his country and religion that is enough to evoke legal action and ‘intellectual criticism’ in many countries.The dedication page of 21L21C and passages on God at section 13 (don’t know whether it was intentional) are bold, straightforward and thought provoking.
The author is enjoying the highest facilities and security in a ‘terrorist-free’ territory where he had not to embrace tragic endings like Avijit Roy and Xulhaz Mannan [the one and only serious passage of this paper.]
It’s also a matter of mysogynistic envy that Mr Itzik has got such a creative wife whom he helps to create thought provoking pieces. His wife isn’t a 24/7 allegation booth against mother-in-law and more focused on human crisis not in the trifling household chaos and insoluble family crisis depicted in Indian TV serials [yet Ghoul and Sacred Games are created to shrug the allegation off or output of a rookie algorithm that calculates what contemporary movie buffs want…. I think.]
Harari must admit and praise God that he wasn’t born as Harun Molla or Nuru Mia in a remote village of Bangladesh where has he been treated Abal Nuru (Dumb Nuru) or Pagla Haru (Crazy Loser) for preaching his ‘insane ideas’.
6.
$man harari-booksHarari’s books are manual pages to the thinking of great philosophers that a clever hacker can script dirty solutions to present and upcoming problems.
Those also can be used as 101 courses for a deeper study to the source code of history of human civilization and philosophy that avid thinkers can use to develop and/or tinker their own applications.
Things so far we discuss here similar to Harari:
What I’ve found Noah’s books are sort of extended commentary on his articles available on www (before savouring someone’s magnum opus I usually go through their shorter works available).
I often enjoy discussing ‘worthless’ topics- with my family members, Gaohar Badshah and some close associates- that are more or less similar to the author.
0. Humans are merely a talking animal live on licking gossip. Well I didn’t know before reading Sapience that gossip theory is one of the much appreciated assumption about origin of language.
1. Law is for protecting white collars not the common people [Shatabdi Bhaba wrote a nice two line rhyme in this regard] from the ancient time.
2. Economic growth increases poverty and dependency on more luxury….. Economy is the civilization’s most influential myth. However, we can’t be a free person without sufficient money cause extreme need for money is always a backdoor.
3. Pamela has no visible/direct influence on humanity or politics but they shape the pioneers. One must not study her for living, but a community that doesn’t know the past and what’s going on around is nothing but a poor man’s wife… a mouth watering low-hanging fruit in our culture. Well she’s not our childhood fantasy Pamela Anderson Lee but Philosophy, Arts, Music, Education, Literature and Aesthetics (PAMELA).
4. Know the basics- how the systems and protocols work from low level because programming languages and frameworks change faster than your learning curve. Well, this theory is applicable to both the virtual and real life cause humans unconsciously (or out of limitations) implement sophisticated technologies into a replica of themselves- be it a kernel, colonel, Internet Protocol, International Relation or AI.
5. As technology is no more a luxury but an inevitable part of life, we must have some deeper knowledge on own psyche and necessary technologies.
6. Education system dopes us to study garbage that would blunt our potentials soon as we won’t be able to question the authority and secure a job according to grade points and expertises. Being a jack of all trades helps us pursue own passion surviving in an array of dynamic ports.
7. If you’re from a middle-class family, don’t be much obedient to your parents (and relatives/guardians) and hide your passion from them. They would dope you injecting “There’s enough time to pursue after passion after completing pry school/high school(GPA5)/college(GPA5)/university(Hons/Ms)/a govt job (with broader opportunity to extra income)…..” and the list would end at your grave when the ‘late you’ have nothing to do at all in this world. If from a rich family- utilize money after passion (if you have one) rather than buying drugs, lavishing luxury on girlfriends or showing yourself off.
8. If you’re married, there are much more things to enjoy in life than prolonged sex, earning more money or investigating each others’ past. Build a temporary partition in mind to store each and every word from counterpart, parents and relatives. Regularly clean it up. MOST of their advices, that are pedantry or fault-finding in true sense, (due to rigid life philosophy and they are not interested to update it either) lead to the ultimate path to hell…. doesn’t matter if you’re an atheist.
9. If we long for something or being someone, we must have a clear idea in this regard and this must be updated regularly.
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| Jibanananda Das |
Post Script:
I’d started reading Harari just after finishing a ‘biography’ of Jibanananda Das titled Ekjon Kamalalebu by Shahadujjaman- actually this piece was intended to be a review of it- and all of a sudden I was numb with some thoughts. If artificial intelligence is becoming more sophisticated day by day then what’s the point of this great poet’s sacrifice for the sake of creation ?
If an AI apocalypse truly comes in near future then what’s the destiny of our artistic creations ?
Will they go in vain ?
What would an perfect AI existence will think about its creator and afterlife ?
If the humans become extinct due to AI, or they finally become something like the 7th kingdom, will the extremists cut the binary connections or hack the cpu of an atheist AI for not believing in their creator…. HUMAN ?
To me, humans have something unexplained beyond its biochemical process. They have something exclusive spiritual, that will enable them to survive somehow.
[I can remember how many times Gaohar Badshah told me to watch Person of Interest and gave a pendrive full of books on AI 101 to advanced level to make me interested in this field some 5 or 6 years back. Well Harari should have wrote some thoughts on Christopher Nolan’s West World in 21L21C that has some hidden meaning like Matrix]
The second thought- is I had a long cherished dream of writing a book based on my little experience for the future generation. And of course dreamt of becoming a Puncrates (Punk + Socrates) praised by both the thinkers living in and out of the ‘Matrix’.
As my lifelong cherished pursuit is accomplished by someone else then what’s the point of my pursuit and acquiring new knowledge?
We’re not sure whether Yuval Noah himself is a sophisticated AI existence developed by Israeli scientists or ‘Winston’ helps him to author the thought provoking pieces and books (He’s yet to become a legendary Edmond Kirsch)- one of the most important lessons I’ve learnt from him is ‘….The first step is to tone down the prophecies of doom, and switch from panic mode to bewilderment. Panic is from hubris…… I just don’t understand what’s going on in the world.’
An effort to reinventing self and understanding the world while waiting with the shrews into a long quarrelling queue of fetching drinking water, writing some romantic lines dedicated to beloved after a hectic day for earning daily bread, composing a music when the pocket is empty or writing a toy tool when prepaid electricity meter is beeping for recharge, dreaming of a tour when the monthly income isn’t enough to buy medicines as compensation to the modern life, traditional misunderstandings in family life…….. all these are most important parts of life that kept me on the right track of thinking in depth about the life.
Post Post Script:
There are numerous probability what might happen but only the God Almighty- Allah, Bhagban, Jehovah or Mother Nature- knows the best.
Now I’m passing a happy conjugal life with my girl, parents and younger brother- and more focused on earning daily bread rather than giving effort to understand whatever going on around the globe.
If I have a chance to visit Israel I’d meet Yuval Noah Harari to learn Hebrew from him and meet my lost brother (like 70s Bangla movies) who have accomplished the long cherished pursuit of my life.
Now come brother-
“Lay beside me, under wicked sky
Through black of day, dark of night, we share this paralyze….
What I've felt, what I've known
Sick and tired, I stand alone
Could you be there? 'Cause I'm the one who waits for you
Or are you unforgiven, too?” -James Hetfield
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Acknowledgement and Cordial thanks to:
Gaohar Badshah (A Socrates, one of the best teachers)
Shorporaaj (You have world's best hacking skills)
Illias Kamal Risat (the guy initiated me two Hs- Haruki and Harari)
Doha Rafi (You are always a nice company, a philosophic support)
Illustrations: Faquir Foysol
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