1. Are organisms really just algorithims and is life really just about data processing?
  2. What’s more valuable – intelligence or consciousness.
  3. What will happen to society politics and daily life when non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithims know us better then we know ourselves?

Studying history aims to loosen the grip of the past.

This is the best reason to learn history: not in order to predic the future but to free yourself of the past and imagine alternative destinies.

Humanism has become the dominant religion of the day. It values the individual, freedom to choose and giving each person a voice and opportunity. Are individuals really free to choose or are they just responding to chemical inputs in their brain. What about when we control those inputs with drugs or future technologies? What about when the computer or algorithim knows best how to maximize our happiness so administers the chemicals and endorphins we need?

As our world changes what will become the next dominant religion? Dataism? Something else entirely?

What a great trip this was through human history and how our views of the world, reality and what is right and wrong have changed and morphed. Especially with the scientific revolution.