Extremely short review | Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

Well, it’s a book. And it has a lot of assumptions. And it’s interesting.

But is it true? Is it useful? I don’t know. I think Harari makes a lot of assumptions to get to his conclusions, and I’m not sure how many of them I could actually pick up on as I was reading, which always gives me pause. Anytime someone is holding forth statements as a given–especially when they are conjecture, they are un-cited, or when they are opinion–it makes the conclusions that follow are suspect. To boot, I found myself disagreeing with many of the assumptions I could identify, making the conclusions more suspect. Harari also speaks in broad and unspecific terms… and maybe his predictions and conclusions are right, but the path he takes is suspicious.

Compelling, but none the less suspicious. Harari’s views and perspectives are thought-provoking and worth considering, though I recommend caution in swallowing it all hook, line, and sinker.

Have you read it? Do you get it? Are we going the direction Harari predicts?

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Book Cover

Title: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: February 21, 2017
Pages: 464

Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style—thorough, yet riveting—famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda.

What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus.