Democracy Is a Conversation Yuval Noah Harari (2023)

Democray is a conversation … Modern democracy as we know it, it’s built on top of specific information technology. Once the information technology changes, it’s an open question whether democracy can survive.

And the biggest danger now is the opposite of what we faced in the Middle Ages.In the Middle Ages, it was impossible to have a conversation between millions of people because they just couldn’t communicate.

But in the 21st century, something else might make the conversation impossible.

If trust between people collapses, again if AI… if you go online, which is now the main way we converse on the level of a country, and the online space is flooded by non-human entities that maybe masquerade as human beings, you talk with someone, you have no idea if it’s even human.

You see something, you see a video, you hear audio, you have no idea if this is real, if this is fake, if it’s a human or not. In this situation, unless we have some guardrails, again, conversation collapses.

Credit: Yuval Harari

Comment: When Yuval Noah Harari describes democracy as a "conversation," he emphasizes the idea that democracy is not just a set of formal institutions or procedures, such as voting and the rule of law, but a continuous, open dialogue among citizens. According to Harari, democracy thrives when people actively engage with each other in discussions about shared values, challenges, and aspirations. This process allows diverse perspectives to surface, contributing to collective decision-making and fostering a sense of shared purpose.

In this view, democracy requires more than simply casting a vote every few years; it involves an ongoing exchange of ideas, where people listen to and understand one another, even when they disagree. Through this democratic conversation, societies can adapt and respond to changing circumstances, integrating the needs and concerns of all citizens, rather than being rigidly tied to a specific ideology or agenda. For Harari, this dialogue is crucial to democracy because it helps build social cohesion and resilience, and it encourages active participation, which is essential for a vibrant and healthy society.

Source: What does the AI revolution mean for our future? | Mustafa Suleyman & Yuval Noah Harari (This quote was transcribed by YouTube from the video. The passage where Yuval Noah Harari discusses the challenges of maintaining conversation and trust in the AI age starts around 18:13 and goes to about 20:08 in the video.)

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