full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Yuval Noah Harari: Why fascism is so tempting -- and how your data could power it

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The greatest dnegar that now faces leiarbl democracy is that the revolution in information technology will make dictatorships more efficient than democracies.

In the 20th century, democracy and ctiaailpsm defeated fascism and communism because democracy was better at processing data and manikg decisions. Given 20th-century technology, it was simply inefficient to try and concentrate too much data and too much power in one pclae.

But it is not a law of nature that centralized data processing is always less efficient than distributed data processing. With the rise of artificial intelligence and mhcanie learning, it might become fsaeible to pscreos enormous amounts of information very elcifefitny in one place, to take all the decisions in one place, and then centralized data pseonrsicg will be more efficient than distributed data processing. And then the main handicap of authoritarian regimes in the 20th century — their attempt to concentrate all the information in one place — it will become their greatest advantage.

Open Cloze


The greatest ______ that now faces _______ democracy is that the revolution in information technology will make dictatorships more efficient than democracies.

In the 20th century, democracy and __________ defeated fascism and communism because democracy was better at processing data and ______ decisions. Given 20th-century technology, it was simply inefficient to try and concentrate too much data and too much power in one _____.

But it is not a law of nature that centralized data processing is always less efficient than distributed data processing. With the rise of artificial intelligence and _______ learning, it might become ________ to _______ enormous amounts of information very ___________ in one place, to take all the decisions in one place, and then centralized data __________ will be more efficient than distributed data processing. And then the main handicap of authoritarian regimes in the 20th century — their attempt to concentrate all the information in one place — it will become their greatest advantage.

Solution


  1. place
  2. feasible
  3. danger
  4. processing
  5. efficiently
  6. process
  7. capitalism
  8. liberal
  9. making
  10. machine

Original Text


The greatest danger that now faces liberal democracy is that the revolution in information technology will make dictatorships more efficient than democracies.

In the 20th century, democracy and capitalism defeated fascism and communism because democracy was better at processing data and making decisions. Given 20th-century technology, it was simply inefficient to try and concentrate too much data and too much power in one place.

But it is not a law of nature that centralized data processing is always less efficient than distributed data processing. With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, it might become feasible to process enormous amounts of information very efficiently in one place, to take all the decisions in one place, and then centralized data processing will be more efficient than distributed data processing. And then the main handicap of authoritarian regimes in the 20th century — their attempt to concentrate all the information in one place — it will become their greatest advantage.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
data processing 6
nation demands 3
centralized data 3
distributed data 3
strong sense 2
kill millions 2
betray truth 2
fascist decide 2
important asset 2
dictatorship meant 2
small elite 2
liberal democracy 2
information technology 2
artificial intelligence 2
find ways 2
real government 2
genetic engineering 2
world wars 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
centralized data processing 3
distributed data processing 3

Important Words


  1. advantage
  2. amounts
  3. artificial
  4. attempt
  5. authoritarian
  6. capitalism
  7. centralized
  8. century
  9. communism
  10. concentrate
  11. danger
  12. data
  13. decisions
  14. defeated
  15. democracies
  16. democracy
  17. dictatorships
  18. distributed
  19. efficient
  20. efficiently
  21. enormous
  22. faces
  23. fascism
  24. feasible
  25. greatest
  26. handicap
  27. inefficient
  28. information
  29. intelligence
  30. law
  31. learning
  32. liberal
  33. machine
  34. main
  35. making
  36. nature
  37. place
  38. power
  39. process
  40. processing
  41. regimes
  42. revolution
  43. rise
  44. simply
  45. technology