Ray's Reviews > Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow

This book is sure to give one a lot to think about.

Firstly, I’d highly recommend reading Harari’s seminal Sapiens book before delving into Homo Deus. They are meant to complement each other in order to better understand humanity’s past and future. Much of Homo Deus repeats the previous themes, which is a bit of a flaw, and frames human historical patterns into broad categories which can seem rushed if one didn’t read Sapiens already. Still, the concepts are so important and take much energy to truly contemplate so they are generally worth repeating. While constantly mind-blowing, Harari writes in a readable engaging style which may or may not be oversimplifying depending on how good his research is…

I originally thought Homo Deus would be a book about transhumanism, and it is to some degree, but it’s not meant to give the details on how cybernetic movements will work in the technological sense. Rather, Harari seeks to contemplate the underlying philosophies of what he concludes will be the new techno-religions of the future. It’s interesting how he defines religions, which don’t require belief in the supernatural and rather any thought process which ends in ‘-ism’ can pretty much be a religion. Much is written about individualistic humanism for example, and it’s various 20th century branches nationalism-socialism-communism-liberalism etc. as he defines them. Also, everything is apparently all about algorithms.

I would criticize that he is too harsh at times, always saying that the ethics of human rights and whatnot are arbitrary and there is no sense that the social contract is any kind of evolution. Just one of many choices. It is true that borders and laws are intersubjective illusions, and it is true that human beings treat animals appallingly. But personally I still hope, however naively, that there is some kind of progress going on throughout the ages.

In any case it is fascinating to dissect how we got here and where we may go next. Harari is a master of the big picture, which is refreshing in times of turmoil when it becomes hard to see further from the events right in front of us. From superhumans to Dataism, what is being cooked up in Silicon Valley is supremely more important than the regressive reactionary forces which we are usually told are such a big deal.

The challenges to come as the human race changes are going to unlike anything imaginable. Indeed, much of it is by definition impossible to predict because the way our brains currently work is not the way brains will work in the future. The singularity must be mentioned as well. These are important things to think about even if it will be tricky to truly understand.

Ultimately Harari is raising questions and doesn’t pretend to know all the answers. But what questions. Readers are left hoping that if we contemplate these things seriously enough we might actually be able to avoid some of the disasters. Yet that will require a lot of foresight. Good luck, humans.

The final questions are these and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to share so here, please think:

1. Are organisms really just algorithms, and 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?