The World After Coronavirus

Summary

Writing in the Financial Times at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harari warns that temporary emergency measures — especially surveillance technologies — tend to become permanent fixtures. He frames the central choice as being between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment, arguing that the pandemic could mark a watershed in normalizing mass surveillance.

Key Points

• “Temporary measures have a nasty habit of outlasting emergencies, especially as there is always a new emergency lurking on the horizon”
• Israel declared a state of emergency during its 1948 War of Independence and never fully revoked it — some “temporary” measures lasted over 60 years
• The pandemic represents a shift from “over the skin” to “under the skin” surveillance via biometric monitoring
• Netanyahu authorized anti-terror surveillance technology to track coronavirus patients via emergency decree after parliament refused
• Harari argues technologies should empower citizens to make informed choices, not enable all-powerful government