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A review by sonialusiveira
Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
3.0
I really like the first book Sapiens so seeing that this has been recommended a lot of times, I had to read it too. However, I didn't enjoy Homo Deus as much as I enjoyed Sapiens. I think the author takes too much time talking about the human history and how it led the humanity to today's 21st century but not spent enough time discussing about the arguments regarding the possibilities of the future.
Some interesting takeaways :
Humans are able to dominate species because of their ability to collaborate at a large scale and this ability is enabled by the shared narratives (eg. religion, faith, a country).
All our future narratives involve algorithms, but if we’re not careful, they could replace us altogether.
Two trends Harari sees appearing at the horizon are techno-humanism, often called transhumanism, and dataism. Transhumanism argues that humans should merge with technology to enhance their capabilities and keep up with the power of algorithms (biological engineering/genetic, cyborg engineering (bionic) and computer engineering (AI). Dataism, on the other hand, suggests we “get out of the way” and let algorithms become as powerful as they can become on their own. Harari argues that it is the future religion for humanity.
Some interesting takeaways :
Humans are able to dominate species because of their ability to collaborate at a large scale and this ability is enabled by the shared narratives (eg. religion, faith, a country).
All our future narratives involve algorithms, but if we’re not careful, they could replace us altogether.
Two trends Harari sees appearing at the horizon are techno-humanism, often called transhumanism, and dataism. Transhumanism argues that humans should merge with technology to enhance their capabilities and keep up with the power of algorithms (biological engineering/genetic, cyborg engineering (bionic) and computer engineering (AI). Dataism, on the other hand, suggests we “get out of the way” and let algorithms become as powerful as they can become on their own. Harari argues that it is the future religion for humanity.