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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
‘Homo Deus’ is the sequel to the famous ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’ by Yuval Noah Harari. I read ‘Sapiens’ in Melbourne lockdown last year (what a time) which became the book bug that bit me back into the habit of reading! So of course, I was going to give its sequel a good hot go.
In ‘Homo Deus,’ Harari sets out the thesis of the book very early on, describing how he predicts that Sapiens will strive for immortality, bliss and superhuman powers in the next century. He leaves this hypothesis extremely broad and admits that the future and the priorities of Sapiens could change direction at any time (which is a fair disclaimer to make). Just don’t expect definitive conclusions about the future by the end of this book.
On its journey to a somewhat anticlimactic final chapter, the book meanders through a broad range of topics and questions that have their own mini-conclusions. Some chapters may seem slightly irrelevant at first but Harari tactfully establishes these arguments which form a bedrock of evidence to stabilise debates in following chapters. They say that “the journey is more important than the destination” and this rang true for me when reading ‘Homo Deus’. A lot of the chapters that fell outside the main thesis resonated with me more than the actual core arguments of the book.
One of these particular chapters detailed the relationship between Sapiens and animals. Harari asks, ‘What distinguishes Sapiens from other animals?’ What is our relationship with animals and how did it become that we think of ourselves as superior to them?’ He denounces the modern mistreatment of livestock and industrial farming practices. This struck a chord with me – making me simultaneously proud and shameful of my flexitarian dietary status; an ongoing battle in my mind between my love for animals and the pleasure of a Sunday roast dinner.
But do we even have a mind? Harari then asks. What about a soul? Tell me where the mind and the soul exists, he challenges, introducing us to the age-old philosophy of mind problems that caused me headaches in my undergraduate philosophy classes.
He covers religion too and not just traditional denominations but Communism, Capitalism, human rights theory, Nationalism and most importantly, Humanism – the current major religion of humans in the 21st Century.
Just like ‘Sapiens’, ‘Homo Deus’ is written in an accessible and conversational style which helps break down dense topics into palatable pieces. This is a definite strength of Harari’s writing. If you want to build up your general knowledge on an eclectic range of topics then read this book. I wouldn’t categorise ‘Homo Deus’ as a necessity to read in your life (as I do for ‘Sapiens’) but it does help to add a few wrinkles to the ol’ brain.
I did really enjoy ‘Homo Deus’… don’t get me wrong, but Harari’s airtight logic about the scientific nature of Sapiens and the lack of evidence for anything more divine in the world left me feeling a little short of breath. Harari is not there to reassure you of your purpose and existence. His job is to widen your perspective and expose you to new concepts and theories and he does succeed in his quest. It was fortunate that I finished the book on a sunny long weekend spending time with family and enjoying life’s simple pleasures…otherwise I may have spent those few days in a nihilistic spiral.
I should add that I wasn’t fond of the final chapter on the ‘Data Religion.’ It made logical sense, yes, but I felt as if Harari was trying too hard to persuade me to try and follow this new techno-religion. He lazily threw in a few lines of counter argument to appear unbiased but I wasn’t sold. Forgive me if I don’t want to worship global data as my new God. I am a logical person but I still feel that I have a soul! (Just don’t ask me to explain where in my body it is).
4 stars for this.
In ‘Homo Deus,’ Harari sets out the thesis of the book very early on, describing how he predicts that Sapiens will strive for immortality, bliss and superhuman powers in the next century. He leaves this hypothesis extremely broad and admits that the future and the priorities of Sapiens could change direction at any time (which is a fair disclaimer to make). Just don’t expect definitive conclusions about the future by the end of this book.
On its journey to a somewhat anticlimactic final chapter, the book meanders through a broad range of topics and questions that have their own mini-conclusions. Some chapters may seem slightly irrelevant at first but Harari tactfully establishes these arguments which form a bedrock of evidence to stabilise debates in following chapters. They say that “the journey is more important than the destination” and this rang true for me when reading ‘Homo Deus’. A lot of the chapters that fell outside the main thesis resonated with me more than the actual core arguments of the book.
One of these particular chapters detailed the relationship between Sapiens and animals. Harari asks, ‘What distinguishes Sapiens from other animals?’ What is our relationship with animals and how did it become that we think of ourselves as superior to them?’ He denounces the modern mistreatment of livestock and industrial farming practices. This struck a chord with me – making me simultaneously proud and shameful of my flexitarian dietary status; an ongoing battle in my mind between my love for animals and the pleasure of a Sunday roast dinner.
But do we even have a mind? Harari then asks. What about a soul? Tell me where the mind and the soul exists, he challenges, introducing us to the age-old philosophy of mind problems that caused me headaches in my undergraduate philosophy classes.
He covers religion too and not just traditional denominations but Communism, Capitalism, human rights theory, Nationalism and most importantly, Humanism – the current major religion of humans in the 21st Century.
Just like ‘Sapiens’, ‘Homo Deus’ is written in an accessible and conversational style which helps break down dense topics into palatable pieces. This is a definite strength of Harari’s writing. If you want to build up your general knowledge on an eclectic range of topics then read this book. I wouldn’t categorise ‘Homo Deus’ as a necessity to read in your life (as I do for ‘Sapiens’) but it does help to add a few wrinkles to the ol’ brain.
I did really enjoy ‘Homo Deus’… don’t get me wrong, but Harari’s airtight logic about the scientific nature of Sapiens and the lack of evidence for anything more divine in the world left me feeling a little short of breath. Harari is not there to reassure you of your purpose and existence. His job is to widen your perspective and expose you to new concepts and theories and he does succeed in his quest. It was fortunate that I finished the book on a sunny long weekend spending time with family and enjoying life’s simple pleasures…otherwise I may have spent those few days in a nihilistic spiral.
I should add that I wasn’t fond of the final chapter on the ‘Data Religion.’ It made logical sense, yes, but I felt as if Harari was trying too hard to persuade me to try and follow this new techno-religion. He lazily threw in a few lines of counter argument to appear unbiased but I wasn’t sold. Forgive me if I don’t want to worship global data as my new God. I am a logical person but I still feel that I have a soul! (Just don’t ask me to explain where in my body it is).
4 stars for this.
challenging
dark
informative
fast-paced
Terrifyingly eye-opening. Everyone should read this. Genius.
Reading any book written by Yuval Noah Harari is such a feast for the brain, and I am here for it.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Absolute waste of time! His work was not researched appropriately, arguments are sophomoric and his potential future outlook is tired and boring. We all must be becoming less imaginative and naive if this book made it to print.
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
The implications of the current pace of technology is presented in an interesting way. I kept thinking what would my reaction to such a sort of life would be. There are instances where you begin to question reality, free will and the mere essence of what means to be a human. If we are the dominant species, was it by our choice or it was coded within is, what if we go extinct, are we wholly responsible or does that just mean that our time is up. This book opens up your mind to a lot of questions and for the better.
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Yuval is a genius. His books Sapiens and Homo deus has changed my whole perspective towards everything imaginable (with out algorithmic human mind as he says). Now Homo Deus starts with how and why we are the way we are, why do we behave like this and not the other way around. How our thinking that there's a reason behind everything we do and our life is meaningful, our actions give meaning to this universe is totally flawed and without any base. In fact these ideas are the very product of the processes going inside our mind. And our mind is nothing more than a algorithm (as far we know it) that have evolved over millions of year, coping with adversities and survival. And this mind, different type of feelings are just chemical reactions. And there's not some soul or any single entity controlling it. It actually is being controlled by other very vast and random factors like our environment, our genomes, DNA, other people and life around us. And thus our basic fundamental of liberalism that human life is meaningful and we ought to listen to our heart, listen to our inner voice is utter bullshit because there's no one entity that's monitoring every activity. It's all just a random chaos, changing every nano second so fast that we can't fathom any of it. And we need (using actually) other super computational algorithms with the ability to make meaning of all of it. And that is already being done. Be it medical, education, environment, astronomy, biology, biochemistry.. Social science and so forth.
I don't know what to write more.. It's so humongous and elaborate.. I don't even remember much of it. Think I'll have to re-read it. There's so much information in it so I think it's expected or maybe I've low-memory. Whatever. Justvdo read this book. You won't regret it.
I don't know what to write more.. It's so humongous and elaborate.. I don't even remember much of it. Think I'll have to re-read it. There's so much information in it so I think it's expected or maybe I've low-memory. Whatever. Justvdo read this book. You won't regret it.