Ignorance is not too dangerous. If you combine it with power, then this is a toxic mix.
Interpretation
Ignorance by itself is manageable, but when paired with power, it can lead to harmful consequences.
This quote by Yuval Noah Harari emphasizes the dangerous implications of ignorance when it is combined with power. While being ignorant may not pose significant risks on its own, the presence of power can amplify its effects, leading to a harmful and toxic situation. The quote serves as a warning about the responsibility that comes with power and the importance of knowledge and awareness in preventing misuse.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of education, one might say, 'As Yuval Noah Harari puts it, ignorance combined with power creates a toxic mix; we must empower ourselves through knowledge.'
We control the world basically because we are the only animals that can cooperate flexibly in very large numbers. And if you examine any large-scale human cooperation, you will always find that it is based on some fiction like the nation, like money, like human rights.
I titled the book 'Homo Deus' because we really are becoming gods in the most literal sense possible. We are acquiring abilities that have always been thought to be divine abilities - in particular, the ability to create life. And we can do with that whatever we want.
The notion of superhumans is using bioengineering and artificial intelligence to upgrade human abilities. If they use the power to change themselves, to change their own minds, their own desires, then we have no idea what they will want to do.
Techno-humanism aims to amplify the power of humans, creating cyborgs and connecting humans to computers, but it still sees human interests and desires as the highest authority in the universe.
The most important question in 21st-century economics may well be, 'What should we do with all the superfluous people, once we have highly intelligent non-conscious algorithms that can do almost everything better than humans?'
Take Google Maps or Waze. On the one hand, they amplify human ability - you are able to reach your destination faster and more easily. But at the same time, you are shifting the authority to the algorithm and losing your ability to find your own way.
Those who fail to learn from the brutal stompings visited on them in the past are doomed to be brutally stomped in the future.
I've learned that every human being, with or without disabilities, needs to strive to do their best, and by striving for happiness you will arrive at happiness. For us, you see, having autism is normal-so we can't know for sure what your 'normal' is even like. But so long as we can learn to love ourselves, I'm not sure how much it matters whether we're normal or autistic.
The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing.
George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.
BELOVED, gaze in thine own heart, The holy tree is growing there.
He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.
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