Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Hebrew: ההיסטוריה של המחר, English: The History of the Tomorrow) is a book written by Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari, professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The book was first published in Hebrew in 2015 by Dvir publishing; the English-language version was published in September 2016 in the United Kingdom and in February 2017 in the United States.
As with its predecessor, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Harari recounts the course of history while describing events and the individual human experience, along with ethical issues in relation to his historical survey. However, Homo Deus (from Latin "Homo" meaning man or human and "Deus" meaning God) deals more with the abilities acquired by humans (Homo sapiens) throughout their existence, and their evolution as the dominant species in the world. The book describes mankind's current abilities and achievements and attempts to paint an …
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Hebrew: ההיסטוריה של המחר, English: The History of the Tomorrow) is a book written by Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari, professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The book was first published in Hebrew in 2015 by Dvir publishing; the English-language version was published in September 2016 in the United Kingdom and in February 2017 in the United States.
As with its predecessor, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Harari recounts the course of history while describing events and the individual human experience, along with ethical issues in relation to his historical survey. However, Homo Deus (from Latin "Homo" meaning man or human and "Deus" meaning God) deals more with the abilities acquired by humans (Homo sapiens) throughout their existence, and their evolution as the dominant species in the world. The book describes mankind's current abilities and achievements and attempts to paint an image of the future. Many philosophical issues are discussed, such as humanism, individualism, transhumanism, and mortality.
Where "Sapiens" explores trends and tendensies of humanity throughout history. This book tries to go a step further and asks the question where the course of said human history will lead us in the coming decades and centuries. It's an easy read while still trying to be a scientificly based work. Of course the topics in this book are not as in depth as they can or should be as this would probably make it less readable.
In all it's a great read for people who like to think about philisophocall themes but generally don't enjoy meaty nonfiction works.
This book was marketed badly. On the surface you would expect it to talk about humanities future, and only about it. (If you are only interested in that, just read this book's prologue). If you are intrested in what this book is actually about, it is split into three parts:
The first part is just a summary of Sapiens, The second part discusses the power of sapiens to coordinate using religeon (and ideologies), and the final part is just the author ranting about how AI and data will replace humanity.
Harari says the problems of famine, war and pestilence have been largely solved. How can he not be bothered by climate change and the threat of nuclear war? He deftly taxonomises reality into three forms - objective, subjective and inter-subjective, then fails to apply his specious system to his own dogma. He declares the ideas of techno-fascist Peter Thiel to be worthwhile simply because Thiel is rich. He equates emotions to algorithms, as if a parent's love for their child could be reproduced as a slider in a character creation page in The Sims video game.
These are the ideas of delusional trans-humanists who think they will be able to use their money to turn science fiction ideas into reality and buy immortality.
I give him one star for two reasons: his ideas on inter-subjective reality are actually quite powerful if applied judiciously. Also, there's a killer sentence: the line …
Harari says the problems of famine, war and pestilence have been largely solved. How can he not be bothered by climate change and the threat of nuclear war? He deftly taxonomises reality into three forms - objective, subjective and inter-subjective, then fails to apply his specious system to his own dogma. He declares the ideas of techno-fascist Peter Thiel to be worthwhile simply because Thiel is rich. He equates emotions to algorithms, as if a parent's love for their child could be reproduced as a slider in a character creation page in The Sims video game.
These are the ideas of delusional trans-humanists who think they will be able to use their money to turn science fiction ideas into reality and buy immortality.
I give him one star for two reasons: his ideas on inter-subjective reality are actually quite powerful if applied judiciously. Also, there's a killer sentence: the line about god being dead but believers are having trouble trying to hide the body is an atheistic sick burn. But he then goes on to praise his own religion, Vipassana meditation, which looks suspiciously like an abusive new age cult where I'm from. I might have given him two stars if it weren't for that supreme silliness.
Harari should be wearing the same hair shirt as Francis Fukuyama.
Schwere Kost, die nicht an den Vorgänger herankommt. Aufgrund der dystopischen Vorhersagen aber doch lesenswert. Besonders für die Amazon, Facebook und Google Gläubigen unter uns...
Review of 'Homo Deus - A Brief History of Tomorrow' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
My brain was churning in place, but this book made me feel like the churn might go somewhere. Frameworks, definitions, speculations, and ideas are presented in a way that they can be used and considered without demanding to be the final word. A launch pad that invites you to aim for your own landing.
Review of 'Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
With so many assertations, this would be an interesting book to fact check page by page. As an analysis of human culture, it's enjoyable and digestible. As I read, I found that all around me related back to something or another covered in the book. Am I ready to say that this is an airtight treatise that we should all use to reshape our lives? No way. It is, however, though-provoking and bold and interesting. Often I found passages that seemed to stretch credulity that, nonetheless, rang true upon reflection.
Review of 'Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Absolutely fascinating. Follows the first book (Sapiens) really well. Covers some of the same ideas, but in different ways. Looking forward to reading the new book.
Great book, even if its lengthy. Harari draws a roadmap for a future where everything is algorithms and Dataism is the new religion. He describes how sapiens transformed from the hunter/gatherer to the data scientist of today. The disturbing message is that we evolve at a very fast pace and nobody is able to steer. The 21st century will be disruptive for many people, maybe we get outperformed by the machines.
Review of 'Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Nice thoughts, but at times pretty aggressive toward conservative ideas. He poses points as if they are 100% the truth and bases his whole story upon it.
"Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" by Yuval Noah Harari is a good companion to Harari's "Sapiens" in that takes some of the seeds sown in that book and allows them to grow up into a tangled jungle. In fact, feels like a continuation or variation on a theme from the first book. You do not need to read "Sapiens" but it is interesting to see an author take larger idea and repackage them for different arguments. And this is not a pretty package. "Homo Deus" is the kind of book that can keep you up at night with existential dread. Once you read it, you cannot unlearn it and you begin to see Harari's analysis everywhere.
Like its predecessor, this is a macro-history that weaves together big ideas over thousands of years. But "Homo Deus" is more focused on a singular premise. His basic argument is that the …
"Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" by Yuval Noah Harari is a good companion to Harari's "Sapiens" in that takes some of the seeds sown in that book and allows them to grow up into a tangled jungle. In fact, feels like a continuation or variation on a theme from the first book. You do not need to read "Sapiens" but it is interesting to see an author take larger idea and repackage them for different arguments. And this is not a pretty package. "Homo Deus" is the kind of book that can keep you up at night with existential dread. Once you read it, you cannot unlearn it and you begin to see Harari's analysis everywhere.
Like its predecessor, this is a macro-history that weaves together big ideas over thousands of years. But "Homo Deus" is more focused on a singular premise. His basic argument is that the three big ideas that will define the 21st Century are 1) a world without suffering, 2) a world without death, and 3) a world where human have modified their bodies through technology. He proceeds to unpack these ideas to show how we have gotten to this point. Many of his larger themes are present here - the idea of inter-subjective realities, the importance of history, how things change, etc.... By the end of the book, the author concludes that the liberal world order we've inherited is also fading, just at the time that advances in technology, biology, and psychology are bringing us to a tipping point when differences between humans could become permanent realities.This book does not end happily and for many, the two possible futures that Harari presents (a techno-utopia and the data religion) are equally scary. But the point is not to keep us scared but to help us see that if we understand where something comes from, we might be able to channel our futures towards a better outcome.
My main critique of the book remains the same as my critique of Sapiens. Harari presents a far too simplistic reading of religion as a language to speak to the changes around us. I am not convinced that religion is obsolete and I think that religion can a means to understand and resist the changes that Harari so starkly describes. I would add that some might find the ideas repetitive if they have read "Sapiens" first but truthfully speaking, the ideas and concepts that Harari describes are important and worth repeating.
I liked this book even more than the prior book, Sapiens. However, it was much less focused on the future than I would have expected. Only about the last third of the book talked through the future of humanity; the first two thirds focused on history and present day.
One minor gripe I have is with the way Bostrom's philosophy was presented. I would think that a book that mentions Bostrom in a book on the future of humanity would dedicate at least a subchapter to his ideas. The few sentences that Yuval uses makes Bostrom's ideas seem comical whereas providing proper background would show how important and logical his ideas are. Though I should mention that Bostrom's "Superintelligence" is in my opinion the best and most important book on the future of humanity/technology.
Review of 'Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
In this sequel to [b:Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind|23692271|Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind|Yuval Noah Harari|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1420585954s/23692271.jpg|18962767][b:Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind|23692271|Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind|Yuval Noah Harari|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1420585954s/23692271.jpg|18962767] Yuval Noah Harari explores what could be the future of humanity, as charted from where we come. It is a worthy companion to the first book, in my opinion. As it introduces a very powerful reflection around what are the plausible effects of technology into our culture going forward. One of the most intriguing ideas on Harari's line of questioning is for me the importance of intersubjective reality for human societies. This comes down to the stories we tell ourselves and the institutions, symbols, religions and even corporations that come out of them. From there Harari illustrates how we got to our "humanist" (at least in theory) society and where could we go from here. What does a "post-humanist" world look …
In this sequel to [b:Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind|23692271|Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind|Yuval Noah Harari|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1420585954s/23692271.jpg|18962767][b:Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind|23692271|Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind|Yuval Noah Harari|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1420585954s/23692271.jpg|18962767] Yuval Noah Harari explores what could be the future of humanity, as charted from where we come. It is a worthy companion to the first book, in my opinion. As it introduces a very powerful reflection around what are the plausible effects of technology into our culture going forward. One of the most intriguing ideas on Harari's line of questioning is for me the importance of intersubjective reality for human societies. This comes down to the stories we tell ourselves and the institutions, symbols, religions and even corporations that come out of them. From there Harari illustrates how we got to our "humanist" (at least in theory) society and where could we go from here. What does a "post-humanist" world look like? These are great ideas to ponder and wonder about, and personally I am thankful I have found in these books a very fertile ground from where to start thinking about these enormous questions. I loved this book too. :)
