Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
| Author | Yuval Noah Harari |
| Vote | 8/10 |
| Reviewed on | 2019-04-06 |
| Read in | English |
An important read.
It’s a thought-provoking reflection of where humankind is heading based on the recent trends in science and technology. I think its value is its invitation to keep in mind those possibilities when making choices about the way we live, how we use technology and science, and how we think about them.
My conscience resonated with many of the point made. Maybe it happened the most with the question about why do humans consider themselves superior to all other species. Humans have long believed in the existence of a soul and one or more Gods but the author does a good job convincing the reader of the arbitrariness of those claims and shows how many of them originate from humanism, the philosophy that puts Man at the center of creation and values the individuality of its experiences and its choices.
As an aside, I’ve appreciated the narrative device used in the first long chapter to lure in the reader. It’s one of those very general and sometimes boring depictions of possible future scenarios for life on Earth for the Homo Sapiens and almost seems to condemn the book to a negative classification, only to surprise towards the very end by showing the real intent of the work: Describe what is possible in order for us to steer away from it, in a similar way, for instance, as capitalists avoided the revolution of the proletariat by reading Marx and making work conditions more favorable.
The discussion is encyclopedic and I rarely found it boring. Be prepared for one or two of your convictions to be shaken. A recommended book.