Yuval N. Harari

stručné dějiny zítřka

Homo deus

Yuval Noah Harari

**THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER** Sapiens showed us where we came from. In uncertain times, Homo Deus shows us where we’re going. Yuval Noah Harari envisions a near future in which we face a new set of challenges. Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century and beyond – from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: how can we protect this fragile world from our own destructive power? And what does our future hold? 'Homo Deus will shock you. It will entertain you. It will make you think in ways you had not thought before’ Daniel Kahneman, bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow

A Brief History of Tomorrow

Homo Deus

Frank Huang

"The new technologies of the twenty-first century may thus reverse the humanist revolution, stripping humans of their authority, and empowering non-human algorithms instead. If you are horrified by this direction, don’t blame the computer geeks. The responsibility actually lies with the biologists. It is crucial to realise that this entire trend is fuelled more by biological insights than by computer science. It is the life sciences that concluded that organisms are algorithms. If this is not the case – if organisms function in an inherently different way to algorithms – then computers may work wonders in other fields, but they will not be able to understand us and direct our life, and they will certainly be incapable of merging with us. Yet once biologists concluded that organisms are algorithms, they dismantled the wall between the organic and inorganic, turned the computer revolution from a purely mechanical affair into a biological cataclysm, and shifted authority from individual humans to networked algorithms."

Mars F

What's the point of making predic- tions if they cannot change anything? 

Aleksandra House

Pratik

Eine Geschichte von Morgen

Ang Xuan Yi

Piet Terheyden

Jam packed with thought provoking materials. Bring on the man gods. 

Adam Scharf

**From the author of the global phenomenon Sapiens** **A Guardian Book of the Year** **An Evening Standard Book of the Year** **A TLS Book of the Year** 'Homo Deus will shock you. It will entertain you. Above all, it will make you think in ways you had not thought before.' Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking Fast, and Slow Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestselling Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, envisions a not-too-distant world in which we face a new set of challenges. In Homo Deus, he examines our future with his trademark blend of science, history, philosophy and every discipline in between. 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. War is obsolete You are more likely to commit suicide than be killed in conflict Famine is disappearing You are at more risk of obesity than starvation Death is just a technical problem Equality is out - but immortality is in What does our future hold?

Gelaine Trinidad

I guess Westworld isn't solely based on fiction after all. 
Another amazing read that challenges what it means to be human in the 21st century. It is scary to see the possible consequences of freedom of information. Harari uses history and various analogies to make sense of ancient ideals. He also relates it to how we reached the modern concept of liberalism and individualism. It definitely challenged my thoughts and beliefs. Are humans simply algorithms? Do we believe in humanism only because it benefits us and makes us superior from other organic beings? Did capitalism succeed because it was convenient at the time? Given the pandemic, protests, and rising inequality - how can we create a better world? Will we have to rely on dataism and biotechnology to tell us what to do? So many thoughts to ponder after reading this book. 
Hi, algorithms, how are you?

Louisa

Hey Yuval please met me for a coffee a dinner or a symposium I need to talk to you

Timeo Williams

Wow!! Yuval goes into so much depth into what a possible future will look like, and the evidence he uses to support that possibility, allow the picture he paints to look very, very real. 

I'm a big fan of Yuval and his writing style. A mix of wit, humor, and futurism are traits that define his writing. This book is the sequel to Sapiens: A brief history of Mankind.

Pierre

** spoiler alert **
           This book changed the way I looked at the future and, for this, it is rather unique. Also extremely easy to read and comprehend, sometimes offering nuggets of wonder in the narration of crucial experiments. 

(view spoiler)[
I love that he mentioned Sam Harris and the TCS sniper journalist. (hide spoiler)]

What if mankind could create robots so advanced, so hypersmart, that not only will they come up with their own wild definitions of intelligence and consciousness, but they actually make us humans end up feeling like we’re worthless, meagre animals lacking ownership of all these updated faculties? Just, perhaps, as we view other animals now? 

In this future the hierarchy of species has been shifted. Animals have been moved up to reap the benefits of humanism, whilst the humans have obtained god status. But in front of us, having skipped the evolutionary queue, loom these algorithmic entities that have now left us in dust as the Universe’s new meaning-makers and trailblazers. They call the new aestheticians, the powerbrokers who define just about everything. Our historical, mythological rise to immortality has resulted in a boring, obsolete godhood. 

As another reviewer has pointed out, Homo Deus is not a prophecy but an exploration. It is a cartographic meandering through the various scientific fronts that capture currently our futuristic interest, with some heady-yet-sobering potential apocalypses as their (largely) decorative outcome. It wouldn’t really be fair to treat Homo Deus as a rigorous prediction of what our near or distant future will look like, and Harari even says as much. Rather, we’re given a list of routes and destinations that our modern sciences can take us to, and the philosophical lemmas that march alongside them. The predictions in this book aren’t always sensible, nor do they share a coherent time frame, nor do they really consider their own congruence. But, again, Harari is musing about the future, not prophetically foaming at the mouth, and that makes this book far more useful to us as the humans poised to receive our apotheosis. A rabid techno-Moses preaching the Grey Goo Gospel would have only earned him ridicule (though I guess radical students would love him).

Brian

Amazing. Gave me new ways of thinking about how modern society came about and how technology might change it in the future.

hileahrious

Horribly repetitive of what he already covered in Sapiens, the ‘prequel.’ Couldn’t even finish it, I might try again, apparently the end is worth it but I am struggling even with that.

His ability to snuck in his own biases and assumptions into otherwise ok arguments is unmatched. Very entertaining discussions for a book club.

And I praise his ability to simplify tens of thousands of things into small sentences. These oversimplifications work better in sapiens, in homo deus they feel reductionist.

The most western centric wet dream I've read in a long time, not sure if that's a good thing

Igor

His ability to snuck in his own biases and assumptions into otherwise ok arguments is unmatched. Very entertaining discussions for a book club.

And I praise his ability to simplify tens of thousands of things into small sentences. These oversimplifications work better in sapiens, in homo deus they feel reductionist.

The most western centric wet dream I've read in a long time, not sure if that's a good thing

Eitan Hershkovitz

Once again Yuval was able to answer some very big questions in a precise scientific manner. His extrapolations of what the future holds for the rest of us makes for an awe inspiring read.

Harari infuses this book with countless interesting concepts describing the human and the society we created. questionable how well-supported these theories are though. 

Xin Ma

THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLERSapiensshows us where we came from. Homo Deusshows us where we?re going.Yuval Noah Hararienvisions a near future in which we face a new set of challenges. Homo Deusexplores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century and beyond - from overcoming death to creating artificial life.It asks the fundamental questions- how can we protect this fragile world from our own destructive power? And what does our future hold?'Homo Deuswill shock you. It will entertain you. It will make you think in ways you had not thought before? Daniel Kahneman

Wynter

Scarier than a Black Mirror episode...

Before reading this book I had a simple view on my own mortality: I do not regret living today except that I regret not knowing what is to come after me. The wondrous achievements in science and technology of future generations will forever be a mystery to me, and that was my greatest sorrow. However, Homo Deus convinced me of the complete opposite - I do not want to witness future. I'm just fine the way I am, thank you very much. Whether it's life that is written for me by algorithms, or the reality where the rich and famous live forever, I'd rather be content with having no idea what Snapchat is.

Haran amorim 

A deeply reflection about how we are leading the humanity based on our mistakes and selfishness.

Bouke van der Bijl

Fantastic book. Very balanced in that it’s not just like ‘we’re all going to die!’ Or ‘we will be in nanospacemachineAIelectricfuture soon!’ But rather explores what the consequences would be of a future without jobs, what it would do to the worth of a human. Also a lot of discussion about the consequences of capitalism:

> Take, for example, a software engineer making $ 250 per hour working for some hi-tech start-up. One day her elderly father has a stroke. He now needs help with shopping, cooking and even showering. She could move her father to her own house, leave home later in the morning, come back earlier in the evening and take care of her father personally. Both her income and the start-up’s productivity would suffer, but her father would enjoy the care of a respectful and loving daughter. Alternatively, the engineer could hire a Mexican carer who, for $ 25 per hour, would live with the father and provide for all his needs. That would mean business as usual for the engineer and her start-up, and even the carer and the Mexican economy would benefit. What should the engineer do?
> Free-market capitalism has a firm answer. If economic growth demands that we loosen family bonds, encourage people to live away from their parents, and import carers from the other side of the world –so be it. This answer, however, involves an ethical judgement rather than a factual statement. No doubt, when some people specialise in software engineering while others spend their time taking care of the elderly, we can produce more software and give old people more professional care. Yet is economic growth more important than family bonds? By daring to make such ethical judgements, free-market capitalism has crossed the border from the land of science to that of religion.

Very relevant indeed. The book explores what humanism is and what comes next. Humanism is our current doctrine in which we believe that our human feelings and emotions should be our guiding principle. Humanism replaces religion in a lot of ways, replacing the word of god with doing what ‘feels right’. The writer foresees that we are replacing humanism with ‘dataism’, which is a utilitarian approach that puts trust in the mysterious decree of an algorithm, telling us to follow it because it is empirically right, and knows more about us and everything else than we could ever.

Op onnavolgbare wijze beschrijft Yuval Noah Harari in zijn bestseller Sapiens 70.000 jaar menselijke evolutie, maar met Homo Deus richt hij zich op de toekomst. Met zijn kenmerkende vermenging van wetenschap, geschiedenis en filosofie onderzoekt Harari de dromen en nachtmerries van de eenentwintigste eeuw - van onsterfelijkheid tot kunstmatig leven. Hij stelt fundamentele vragen: Waar gaan we naartoe? Hoe beschermen we onze kwetsbare wereld tegen onze eigen verwoestende krachten? En als we in staat zijn door technologische vooruitgang ons lichaam en onze geest te verbeteren, wat gebeurt er dan met de mensen die zich niet laten upgraden? Wat voor sociale gevolgen zal deze tweedeling hebben? Volgens Harari is het essentieel om meer te begrijpen van de technologische revoluties om ons heen, anders hebben we geen invloed op de koers van onze toekomst. Dit is de volgende stap in onze evolutie. Dit is Homo Deus.

een kleine geschiedenis van de toekomst

Jamieson

Mykyta Barabanov

Oh, eh... At time narrow-minded the book is a great shortcut to homo sapiens history and acute analysis for the future ahead. 

Never have I felt more troubled by the information that arguably offers a good insight into the future. If taken for granted the information opens a lot of new doors, but the void waiting in front - can't wait to scare the living conscious of your tiny algorithm-driven existence. In other words, good luck, figuring out for yourself, whether you want to be a part of Noah's forecasted, foreseeable future.

Nelson Zagalo

Estamos no início do terceiro milénio, uma ferramenta online criada numa universidade americana permite aos rapazes e raparigas da elite da sociedade partilhar ideias, textos, fotografias, vídeos, estreitar laços e fortalecer relações. Em poucos anos essa ferramenta chega a mais universidades, ultrapassa as fronteiras dos campus e começa a ser usada livremente pela sociedade. Em 2017 são já dois mil milhões de pessoas que estão ligadas nessa rede. Todos os dias partilham ali sentires, preocupações, angústias, dores, alegrias, desejos e sonhos. Em 2025 começa-se a usar todo o conhecimento acumulado sobre cada um dos utilizadores, sobre os seus passado e futuro, sobre os seus gostos e profissões, as suas famílias e geografias, para aconselhar as pessoas nos processos de decisão: será boa altura para mudar de casa? de carro? e que tal começar a procurar novo emprego? e o casamento, ainda posso acreditar na minha mulher? As bases de dados sabem melhor do que cada um de nós o que é melhor para cada um individualmente, porque a todos conhece melhor do que cada um a si mesmo. Isto poderia servir de introdução à narrativa que Harari tem para nos contar neste seu segundo livro, "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow".

Nada disto é novo, já vimos esta história ser contada de inúmeras maneiras — sendo os mais próximos, “Matrix”, “Terminator” ou "AI: Artificial Intelligence" — cada uma mais distópica que a outra, mas Harari não está aqui para apresentar tragédias, não permitindo que o seu discurso seja de algum modo contaminado por melancolias e pessimismos bem conhecidos destas visões apocalípticas. Harari fala mais como um arqueólogo do futuro que olha para a origem, apogeu e declínio do homo sapiens, dando conta do modo como os eventos se foram sucedendo pautando tudo por um tom de perfeita normalidade e sustentado rigor. Se existe algo em que todos estão de acordo sobre Harari, é esta sua capacidade de distanciamento, síntese, e ressignificação do mundo em que vivemos e poderemos vir a viver.

No primeiro livro conhecemos as três grandes revoluções históricas que dão sentido à evolução da espécie 'Homo Sapiens': a cognitiva, a agricultura e a científica. A primeira que nos permitiu começar a aprender e a comunicar. A segunda que nos permitiu dar resposta às necessidades fisiológicas. A terceira que nos permitiu começar a interrogar e a compreender a nós mesmos. Neste segundo livro, Harari propõe-se ir além da revolução científica, ou seja além do presente. A discussão centra-se sobre a razão da própria razão. Separando a inteligência da consciência, é possível pensar a progressão dessa competência de que todos os animais são dotados, com maiores e menores qualidades. A grande questão acaba por se colocar sobre a motivação dessa progressão e consequentemente da essência da consciência, daquilo que a define ou daquilo que nos define. Para isso Harari trabalha, como não podia deixar de ser, uma análise histórica do modo como ao longo dos últimos milénios foi progredindo a significação daquilo que somos, da forma como nos vemos e aceitamos.

As primeiras civilizações acreditaram no poder das estrelas, na sua geometria para ditar os nossos destinos. Depois o vieram as várias religiões, cada uma com o seu Deus, e deixámos de olhar para as estrelas em busca de respostas, passámos a aceitar as palavras inscritas nas suas bíblias, tudo podia ser determinado por aquelas palavras, aqueles mandamentos. Mas com a revolução da ciência veio todo um novo modo de ver, deixámos de procurar fora de nós, começámos a procurar as repostas a partir de dentro, procurando atribuir valor ao que nos faz felizes e infelizes. Harari considera que este é o estádio atual, e atribui-lhe o rótulo simples de Humanismo.

Isto permitiu o avanço da razão, porque a emoção a justificava. Compreender-se o ser-se humano, permitia a libertação da dor e o abraçar da paixão e do amor. O progresso era não só apelativo, como tinha um propósito. As emoções assentes em milhares de anos de evolução natural eram aquilo que melhor nos servia na condução do nosso dia-a-dia. Tínhamos assim passado, de conhecimento escrito por meia-dúzia de pessoas em livros, para conhecimento acumulado por milhões de seres-humanos ao longo de milhares de anos, registado no nosso DNA.

A questão que se começa então a colocar é, e a seguir? O que nos trará o pós-humanismo? Serão os sentimentos o nosso último reduto? Quantas vezes nos arrependemos por nos deixar levar pelos sentimentos e emoções. Quantas vezes questionámos que deveríamos ter dado ouvidos à razão. Então e se tivéssemos alguém ou algo, que pudesse não só aceder a todo esse conhecimento acumulado nos nossos genes, e ao conhecimento acumulado nos genes de todas as outras pessoas, não estaríamos num outro patamar de capacidade de tomada de decisões?


"After centuries of economic growth and scientific progress, life should have become calm and peaceful, at least in the most advanced countries. If our ancestors knew what tools and resources stand ready at our command, they would have surmised we must be enjoying celestial tranquillity, free of all cares and worries. The truth is very different. Despite all our achievements, we feel a constant pressure to do and produce even more.” 
“On the collective level, governments, firms and organisations are encouraged to measure their success in terms of growth, and to fear equilibrium as if it were the Devil. On the individual level, we are inspired to constantly increase our income and our standard of living. Even if you are quite satisfied with your current conditions, you should strive for more. Yesterday’s luxuries become today’s necessities. If once you could live well in a three-bedroom apartment with one car and a single desktop, today you need a five-bedroom house with two cars and a host of iPods, tablets and smartphones." 
"It wasn’t very hard to convince individuals to want more. Greed comes easily to humans. The big problem was to convince collective institutions such as states and churches to go along with the new ideal. For millennia, societies strove to curb individual desires and bring them into some kind of balance. It was well known that people wanted more and more for themselves, but when the pie was of a fixed size, social harmony depended on restraint. Avarice was bad. Modernity turned the world upside down. It convinced human collectives that equilibrium is far more frightening than chaos, and because avarice fuels growth, it is a force for good. Modernity accordingly inspired people to want more, and dismantled the age-old disciplines that curbed greed.”


Se em vez de reagir a uma atitude do nosso chefe, namorado ou filho a partir da nossa análise de prós e contras, tivéssemos um assistente virtual, que nos conhece melhor do que nós mesmos, porque pode a todo momento ver tudo aquilo que somos, enquanto nós estamos limitados ao que as nossas emoções, em cada momento, triam para o nosso consciente a ser aplicado em cada situação. Se por sua vez este assistente conhecesse também a outra pessoa envolvida no conflito. E ainda, ser este assistente dotado de um sistema de razão altamente evoluído, capaz de prever milhões e milhões de resultados das diferentes respostas num conflito, como se de jogadas de xadrez se tratasse. Com certeza faríamos melhor em confiar no seu conselho, e esquecer as nossas emoções. Harari chama a isto as novas religiões do futuro — o Dataísmo, fé baseada em informação e dados. Deixámos as estrelas, depois os deuses, e agora preparamo-nos para deixar as emoções!


“Yet in the twenty-first century, feelings are no longer the best algorithms in the world. We are developing superior algorithms which utilise unprecedented computing power and giant databases. The Google and Facebook algorithms not only know exactly how you feel, they also know a million other things about you that you hardly suspect. Consequently you should now stop listening to your feelings, and start listening to these external algorithms instead. What’s the use of having democratic elections when the algorithms know how each person is going to vote, and when they also know the exact neurological reasons why one person votes Democrat while another votes Republican? Whereas humanism commanded: ‘Listen to your feelings!’ Dataism now commands: ‘Listen to the algorithms! They know how you feel."


Chegados aqui, poderíamos começar por perguntar a razão de uma democracia ou de um voto, quando os algoritmos conseguem saber com grande exatidão, em que partido cada um de nós vai votar. Quando os algoritmos sabem melhor do que qualquer um de nós, o que é melhor para nós em cada momento. E porque as emoções não são mais do que meros algoritmos bioquímicos limitados na razão e alcance. Porque um pequeno comprimido pode fazer a diferença entre estar bem disposto e conseguir realizar um exame e tirar boa nota, ou reprovar e ficar um ano empatado. E quando os dados e algoritmos conseguem responder a tudo, e nós não percebemos sequer como o fazem, os dados deixam de ser meros dados, e passam a ser novos deuses.


“Every day millions of people decide to grant their smartphone a bit more control over their lives or try a new and more effective antidepressant drug. In pursuit of health, happiness and power, humans will gradually change first one of their features and then another, and another, until they will no longer be human.” 


Tudo isto é pura especulação, com uma gigantesca cadeia de “ses” pelo caminho. O mais interessante de tudo é o modo brilhante como Harari constrói toda a argumentação, interligando passado, presente e futuro, biologia e história, religião e computação. Harari vai para além de muito daquilo que a ficção-científica nos tem dado, porque não se limita a contar uma história com meia-dúzia de dados novos, ele constrói um universo inteiro de sustentação para tudo o que afirma. Claro que existem críticas, a especulação não é imune, nem tem interesse em sê-lo, a especulação é pura estimulação do pensamento crítico.

Assim podemos começar pelo facto de tudo isto ser pensado na base de uma sociedade que continuará o seu progresso científico e capitalista sem o menor problema. Algo que como aprendemos do nosso passado é muito difícil, basta pensar nas grandes civilizações que tivemos: Babilónia, Grécia e Roma Antigas, Incas, Maias, etc. Não estamos, e dificilmente algum dia estaremos livres de tudo poder simplesmente colapsar, seja por más decisões nossas (alterações climáticas), seja por epidemias ou mil e uma outras situações.

[A Ilha da Páscoa é um exemplo clássico do colapso de sociedades humanas.]

Em segundo lugar, a questão emocional. Harari usa um exemplo que é paradigmático do mundo das artes, mas que ele usa aqui a partir do angulo das máquinas. Fala-nos então dos experimentos musicais com IA de David Cope, em que um algoritmo escreveu uma composição musical imitando o estilo de Bach, dando-o a ouvir a pessoas que se manifestariam interiormente comovidas até ao momento em que lhes era revelado não ser Bach mas uma máquina o autor da peça. Mas isto não é nada de novo, aconteceu em n experimentos antes, realizados com crianças, com leigos, etc. sendo o efeito sempre o mesmo que acontece aqui. Ora o problema destes experimentos acaba por ser o retirar da equação a consciência daquilo que somos, e daquilo que o objeto representa para nós. Uma obra de arte não existe sem alguém que a experiencie, como dizia Eco, mas também não existe sem alguém que a crie. Ou seja, a obra de arte é mais do que o objeto, é o contexto da criação e fruição desse objeto. Porque a fruição não é mera filtragem dos sentidos humanos, é antes um diálogo entre aquilo que os sentidos filtram e o conhecimento detido sobre o tal contexto da obra.

Um exemplo clássico para se compreender o alcance do impacto desse contexto, é o caso do Picasso na sala de estar. A pessoa que vive numa casa, reconhecendo na sua parede uma tela como autêntica de Picasso, mudará radicalmente o seu sentimento para com essa tela, que não terá mudado um átomo, no momento em que um avaliador lhe disser que é apenas uma imitação de algo que Picasso, não pintou nem sequer nunca imaginou. Ou seja, todo o contexto cai, e com ele caem os alicerces que sustentam mentalmente a experiência daquele objeto. Porque os objetos só valem pelas narrativas que lhes colamos. Porque o mundo em que vivemos é feito de histórias, e são estas que alimentam os nossos desejos e vontade.

Mas também por isto, aceito, que podemos vir a fazer parte de outras narrativas, que vão para além do humano. As gerações anteriores às nossas nunca se conseguiram libertar das religiões em que foram criadas. Para elas o autor da tela era Deus que através de um humano, não importa qual, produzia a obra. Hoje nós acreditamos que a tela é produzida por esse humano. No futuro poderemos simplesmente acreditar que a tela é produzida por algoritmos que sabem melhor do que qualquer artista, aquilo que eu, ser individual, mais aprecio.

Mas aqui levanta-se um terceiro problema. Os algoritmos que nos controlarão, não poderão criar narrativas para cada um de nós individualmente, já que precisamos da confirmação dos outros como nós, do sentimento gregário, da pressão social para viver, pelo menos enquanto vivermos com este DNA ultrapassado. E daí que um sistema centralizado poderá rapidamente colapsar, assim que tentar fazer felizes milhões de humanos que se continuarão a relacionar, já que a felicidade de uns representará a infelicidade de outros e desse modo farão emergir conflitos insanáveis. Claro que podemos pensar que estes algoritmos serão inteligentes como nós nunca poderemos ser, e que terão soluções para problemas que nunca imaginámos, mas isso não muda aquilo que somos, em termos de matéria e crenças, e de prazeres e desejos. Por outro lado, esta insanabilidade poderá ditar o fim da nossa própria espécie, quando os algoritmos se cansarem de nos propor soluções de vivência em sociedade, sem sucesso, tal como explica o Arquiteto da trilogia de “Matrix”.

Último ponto crítico, e este o próprio Harari o aponta, embora o faça já só mesmo no virar das últimas páginas. Serão os dados, os sistemas de informação tal como os conhecemos hoje, capazes de traduzir completamente a consciência humana? Será possível criar algoritmos que dêem conta de todas as dimensões daquilo que aceitamos como, estar vivo?

Questões para que não temos respostas. Críticas, mas críticas que são provocadas pela leitura de Harari que não se resume ao que aqui discuto, existe muito mais por onde pegar e discutir neste livro. Cada capítulo tem a sua cota parte de abordagens perspicazes do quotidiano, normalmente suportadas com argumentos que nos obrigam a parar e ponderar sobre aquilo que todos os dias fazemos de modo automático sem nos questionarmos porquê.


Publicado no VI 
(https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.pt/...)

Danté

A tour de force of contemporary thinking, along with a humanist view of history. A thought-provoking book that everyone should read, whether or not you agree with Harari's views.

Main takeaways:
- Science is converging on an all-encompassing dogma, that all of human activity and life is data processing (dataism). This can be weighed against other humanist views e.g. transhumanism.
- Intelligence (e.g. optimal decision making) should be viewed as being decoupled from consciousness. 
- Non-conscious, but highly intelligent algorithms may soon know us better than we know ourselves (quantified self, digital assistants acting as agents, example of Waze moving from oracle to sovereign).

The book has left me wondering about the questions Harari poses:
1. Are organisms really just algorithms? Is life really just data processing?
2. What's more valuable - intelligence or consciousness?
3. What will happen to society, politics and daily life when non-conscious, but highly intelligent algorithms know us better than we know ourselves?

Official U.S. edition with full color illustrations throughout. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods. 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. With the same insight and clarity that made Sapiens an international hit and a New York Times bestseller, Harari maps out our future.

Kuba Milcarz

The third book of Yuval I’ve read. This one has been sitting on my shelf for the last 2 years and I finally got around reading it. Was it worth it? Definitely yes. Yuval delivered!

Homo Deus is a philosophical book but that’s for me made it more interesting. The questions he raises as well as hypothetical answers he comes up with are well-argued and, above all, plausible. It was a joy to read it.

Also I don’t know, but maybe it helped understand the book better. But while going through chapters on consciousness I was starting reading Waking Up by Sam Harris, in which book he talks about consciousness as well. I guess reading these two books at once helped a ton.

Mounir Bashour

Although more speculative than Homo Sapiens this too is an excellent book.

João Maia

Caustic vision of mankind in a few years, I really like it states well the path that we are heading.

Marloes

Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods. 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. With the same insight and clarity that made Sapiens an international hit and a New York Times bestseller, Harari maps out our future.

Alexander Lobov

The book is roughly 10% interesting insight, 40% awkwardly placed asides, 50% filler and 100% cash grab to capitalise on Obama endorsing his first book.

Homo deus stručné dějiny zítřka

Reviews

Highlights