Homo Deus - A Brief History of Tomorrow
I had read Homo Sapiens in 2015 (see below).
Like all great epics, Sapiens demanded a sequel. Homo Deus, in which that likely apocalyptic future is imagined in detail, is that book. It as published in 2016 and I bought my copy in early 2017 and finished reading it in August 2017.
It is a highly seductive scenario planner for the numerous ways in which we might overreach ourselves. Yuval Harari paints various possibilities - new longevity and super-human qualities, the redundancy of labour supplanted by efficient machines, the future takeover of computers, etc. It is as much philosophical as scientific.
Much of the first half of the book is a rehash of ideas from the first book but, like the first book, it is an excellent read. I was in England recently and saw a number of books on exactly the same theme, but why read them when you have Harari's two books.
This second book has a number of fascinating sidelines. One of great interest is our dreadful treatment of animals.
Like all future guessing, this one comes with plenty of small print. From where we stand, he says, in the accelerating present, no long-term future is imaginable, still less predictable – and there is plenty of time for questions.
Enjoyed it immensely. Highly recommended double.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a book by Yuval Harari, first published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011 and in English in 2014.
I had read Homo Sapiens in 2015 (see below).
Like all great epics, Sapiens demanded a sequel. Homo Deus, in which that likely apocalyptic future is imagined in detail, is that book. It as published in 2016 and I bought my copy in early 2017 and finished reading it in August 2017.
It is a highly seductive scenario planner for the numerous ways in which we might overreach ourselves. Yuval Harari paints various possibilities - new longevity and super-human qualities, the redundancy of labour supplanted by efficient machines, the future takeover of computers, etc. It is as much philosophical as scientific.
Much of the first half of the book is a rehash of ideas from the first book but, like the first book, it is an excellent read. I was in England recently and saw a number of books on exactly the same theme, but why read them when you have Harari's two books.
This second book has a number of fascinating sidelines. One of great interest is our dreadful treatment of animals.
Like all future guessing, this one comes with plenty of small print. From where we stand, he says, in the accelerating present, no long-term future is imaginable, still less predictable – and there is plenty of time for questions.
Enjoyed it immensely. Highly recommended double.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a book by Yuval Harari, first published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011 and in English in 2014.
Summary of book at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:_A_Brief_History_of_Humankind. A few cuts and pastes below.
The book surveys the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century. Its main argument is that Homo sapiens dominates the world because it is the only animal that can cooperate flexibly in large numbers. The book further argues that Homo sapiens can cooperate flexibly in large numbers, because it has a unique ability to believe in things existing purely in its own imagination, such as gods, nations, money and human rights. The author claims that all large scale human cooperation systems – including religions, political structures, trade networks and legal institutions – are ultimately based on fiction.
Other salient arguments of the book are that money is a system of mutual trust; that capitalism is a religion rather than only an economic theory; that agricultural revolution started as a promise of luxury but ended as a trap that made people’s life worse; that empire has been the most successful political system of the last 2000 years; that money, empires and religions are the powers that are unifying the world; that the treatment of domesticated animals is among the worst crimes in history; that people today are not significantly happier than in past eras; and that humans are currently in the process of upgrading themselves into gods.
Our development is marked by a series of jumps, coming ever more frequently. For the first half of our existence we potter along unremarkably; then we undergo a series of revolutions. First, the "cognitive" revolution: about 70,000 years ago, we start to behave in far more ingenious ways than before, for reasons that are still obscure, and we spread rapidly across the planet. About 11,000 years ago we enter on the agricultural revolution, converting in increasing numbers from foraging (hunting and gathering) to farming. The "scientific revolution" begins about 500 years ago. It triggers the industrial revolution, about 250 years ago, which triggers in turn the information revolution, about 50 years ago, which triggers the biotechnological revolution, which is still wet behind the ears. Harari suspects that the biotechnological revolution signals the end of sapiens: we will be replaced by bioengineered post-humans, "amortal" cyborgs, capable of living forever.
A superb book that I could not put down once I started. Unlike most books in this ilk, it is easy to read and constantly challenges your world view. Highly recommended.
See a great interview with the author at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpCai-84xYs.
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