On a conversation of Yuval Noah Harari about artificial intelligence Oded Balaban — University of Haifa — balaban@research.haifa.ac.il On Yuval Noah Harari, “The next 50 years: humanity, AI, power”, in conversation with Tom Parker, journalist at the Financial Times, at the fiftieth anniversary dinner of the EDP group, Portugal, July 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V_ed5fuexA In July 2026,…

When politics can hear only calculation, moral objection becomes an accounting error —and the reply, a threat. Oded Balaban — University of Haifa — balaban@research.haifa.ac.il There is a word that, all at once, is everywhere. When the British government banned trade with the settlements —speaking, without euphemism, of “ethnic cleansing”—⁠, President Isaac Herzog did not…

A Confrontation from The Fear and the Mirror Oded Balaban — University of Haifa — balaban@research.haifa.ac.il By Way of Exordium I begin at the end—Miguel de Unamuno’s end. What he saved for the last page of The Tragic Sense of Life, I hoist onto the first, like a flag: it is the first thing I want you…

The presuppositions of an interview on artificial intelligence Oded Balaban — University of Haifa — balaban@research.haifa.ac.il On Yuval Noah Harari’s interview in The Economist, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNZhxTtOL-I, 20 August 2026. I do not discuss his political conclusions here, several of which I share, nor do I attribute intentions to him. I am after something else: what he maintains…

Ten objections to “Fear and the Mirror,” and their answers Oded Balaban — University of Haifa — balaban@research.haifa.ac.il These pages set out the ideas of a book I am writing, “Fear and the Mirror,” by putting them against an interlocutor who seriously believes in the danger of artificial intelligence. The friend is imaginary; his arguments are…