I am all in favour of monitoring my body temperature and blood pressure, but that data should not be used to create an all-powerful government. Will we travel down the route of disunity, or will we adopt the path of global solidarity? One would have expected to see already weeks ago an emergency meeting of global leaders to come up with a common plan of action. A Special Discussion with Yuval Noah Harari. Countries need to co-operate in order to allow at least a trickle of essential travellers to continue crossing borders: scientists, doctors, journalists, politicians, businesspeople. Sounds wonderful, right? The G7 leaders managed to organise a videoconference only this week, and it did not result in any such plan. Historiker Yuval Noah Harari im Gespräch über das deutsche Wesen, Killerroboter und Katzenvideos. In recent years both governments and corporations have been using ever more sophisticated technologies to track, monitor and manipulate people. Listen to our culture podcast, Culture Call, where editors Gris and Lilah dig into the trends shaping life in the 2020s, interview the people breaking new ground and bring you behind the scenes of FT Life & Arts journalism. Imagine North Korea in 2030, when every citizen has to wear a biometric bracelet 24 hours a day. The downside is, of course, that this would give legitimacy to a terrifying new surveillance system. Now the government wants to know the temperature of your finger and the blood-pressure under its skin. We can choose to protect our health and stop the coronavirus epidemic not by instituting totalitarian surveillance regimes, but rather by empowering citizens. While we take it for granted, it was only in the 19th century that scientists discovered the importance of washing hands with soap. They fast-forward historical processes. There seem to be no adults in the room. Subscribers can use myFT to follow the latest ‘coronavirus’ coverage, So, Prof Harari, who am I supposed to trust? There are two main ways of achieving this. If we fail to make the right choice, we might find ourselves signing away our most precious freedoms, thinking that this is the only way to safeguard our health. We might consider a similar global effort to pool medical personnel. When people are told the scientific facts, and when people trust public authorities to tell them these facts, citizens can do the right thing even without a Big Brother watching over their shoulders. Given the global nature of the economy and of supply chains, if each government does its own thing in complete disregard of the others, the result will be chaos and a deepening crisis. Fifty years ago, the KGB couldn’t follow 240m Soviet citizens 24 hours a day, nor could the KGB hope to effectively process all the information gathered. A big battle has been raging in recent years over our privacy. But with coronavirus, the focus of interest shifts. In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. Yuval Noah Harari: die Welt nach dem Coronavirus | Frei zu lesen Die Menschheit steht nun vor einer globalen Krise. Countries should be willing to share information openly and humbly seek advice, and should be able to trust the data and the insights they receive. Centralised monitoring and harsh punishments aren’t the only way to make people comply with beneficial guidelines. This simple action saves millions of lives every year. A self-motivated and well-informed population is usually far more powerful and effective than a policed, ignorant population. As a thought experiment, consider a hypothetical government that demands that every citizen wears a biometric bracelet that monitors body temperature and heart-rate 24 hours a day. How are we to survive in a post-pandemic world? Entire countries serve as guinea-pigs in large-scale social experiments. Yes, the storm will pass, humankind will survive, most of us will still be alive — but we will inhabit a different world. M any people blame the coronavirus … Because this is a false choice. But temporary measures have a nasty habit of outlasting emergencies, especially as there is always a new emergency lurking on the horizon. In the days ahead, each one of us should choose to trust scientific data and healthcare experts over unfounded conspiracy theories and self-serving politicians. What an Italian doctor discovers in Milan in the early morning might well save lives in Tehran by evening. Humankind is now facing a global crisis. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. Yet if we are not careful, the epidemic might nevertheless mark an important watershed in the history of surveillance. A range of mobile apps warn citizens about their proximity to infected patients. If later on the focus of the epidemic shifts, help could start flowing in the opposite direction. Yuval Noah Harari interview: the Sapiens author on coronavirus, America and censorship The multimillion-selling Israeli author says tech surveillance and despots will thrive after Covid. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. 15 February 2021. We can choose to protect our health and stop the coronavirus epidemic not by instituting totalitarian surveillance regimes, but rather by empowering citizens. In order to stop the epidemic, entire populations need to comply with certain guidelines. Yuval Noah Harari is author of ‘Sapiens’, ‘Homo Deus’ and ‘21 Lessons for the 21st Century’. We must hope that the current epidemic will help humankind realise the acute danger posed by global disunity. The War of Independence has long been won, but Israel never declared the emergency over, and has failed to abolish many of the “temporary” measures of 1948 (the emergency pudding decree was mercifully abolished in 2011). The algorithms will know that you are sick even before you know it, and they will also know where you have been, and who you have met. Normally, trust that has been eroded for years cannot be rebuilt overnight. Coronavirus Yuval Noah Harari: "Ens esperen coses moltíssim pitjors que la Covid" Lluís Bou Foto: E.N. Yuval Noah Harari: I think the biggest danger is not the virus itself. When it banned all travel from the EU, it didn’t bother to give the EU so much as an advance notice — let alone consult with the EU about that drastic measure. But to achieve such a level of compliance and co-operation, you need trust. One method is for the government to monitor people, and punish those who break the rules. Even when infections from coronavirus are down to zero, some data-hungry governments could argue they needed to keep the biometric surveillance systems in place because they fear a second wave of coronavirus, or because there is a new Ebola strain evolving in central Africa, or because . Monterrey, Mexico. You can have bitter arguments with your siblings for years, but when some emergency occurs, you suddenly discover a hidden reservoir of trust and amity, and you rush to help one another. But the current US administration has abdicated the job of leader. The War of Independence has long been won, but Israel never declared the emergency over, and has failed to abolish many of the “temporary” measures of 1948 (the emergency pudding decree was mercifully abolished in 2011). The second important choice we confront is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity. In their battle against the coronavirus epidemic several governments have already deployed the new surveillance tools. 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