Yuval Noah Harari contends that the influence of artificial intelligence will not be confined to the next few decades but will instead extend across an astonishing span of two centuries. While many business leaders and policymakers tend to frame technological progress in terms of product cycles or election years, Harari urges us to adopt a far longer perspective—one that views AI as a transformative force reshaping civilization itself.
He warns that the most significant danger posed by artificial intelligence is not a sudden apocalyptic event but rather our collective inability to think and plan beyond the immediate horizon. Humanity’s tendency toward short-term gratification—manifested in quarterly profits, electoral gains, and the relentless pursuit of convenience—prevents us from addressing how intelligent machines will reshape social hierarchies, economies, and even concepts such as consciousness and identity over hundreds of years.
Harari’s analysis invites us to imagine a future in which decisions made today will quietly determine the philosophical, political, and ethical structure of generations yet unborn. For instance, who will own the data that powers superintelligent systems? What moral frameworks will govern an economy increasingly automated by algorithms capable of learning, reasoning, and making decisions once reserved for humans? The answers to these questions cannot be achieved through short-term thinking; they demand a vision that stretches across centuries.
By urging us to stop viewing AI merely as another industrial revolution and instead as an epochal transformation comparable to the invention of writing or agriculture, Harari reframes our moral responsibility. The historian emphasizes that every design choice, law, and social adaptation we make today contributes to an unfolding story of human evolution intertwined with artificial cognition. To ignore this extended perspective is to risk constructing a world optimized for immediate efficiency but hollow in long-term humanity.
In essence, Harari’s message calls for an intellectual and ethical maturity equal to the magnitude of the technology itself. Artificial intelligence will shape the destiny of civilization over the next 200 years; whether that destiny leads toward enlightenment or entropy will depend less on the capabilities of machines and far more on our capacity to think beyond the present moment and act with the patience of history.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/sapiens-author-ai-timeline-warning-lack-of-concern-2026-1
