Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow- Yuval Noah Harari
Today, I am going to discuss the third publication of Harari. In the previous weeks, I have already shared two phenomenal books, the 21 lessons for the 21st century and Sapiens- A brief history of mankind. This third book, homo Deus was published in 2015, and it was the second publication of Harari after Sapiens. As Harari received global recognition for his work, sapiens, everyone was looking forward to his second publication. I was also pretty excited to read this and learn about the perspective of Harari on the future of humankind on planet earth, and fortunately, Harari did not disappoint me. Today, I will share some snippets from this book, so let’s get into it.
1- Religions will become obsolete- Harari argues that the most prominent religions of our times, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism, originated in medieval times. He called these religions imagined realities created by humans to satisfy their intellectual curiosity and find answers to the burning questions of their times. With time, these religions became very powerful and organized into institutional forms and assigned different social roles. However, in contemporary times, technological advancement will reduce the importance of religions, and they will become outdated with time. To substantiate his claim, he presents the following arguments;
(i) Humans created religion to protect themselves from famine, war, and diseases. They used to sacrifice animals to please gods. But in modern times, humans have already found solutions to these problems. For example, nation-states have to ensure the food security of their inhabitants and prevent famine, wars have also been reduced with the invention of the atomic bomb, and medical sciences have invented a treatment for many diseases, due to which the life span of humans is increasing astronomically.
(ii) The medieval religions have no answers to modern challenges. Therefore, there is a contradiction between modern-day challenges and faiths. He quotes examples of feminism, homosexuality, and test-tube babies in this regard.
(iii) Another important cause of the creation of religion was to improve coordination between humans and maintain social order. With the emergence of world order, international laws, and nation-states, there are other ways to maintain social order and bind people together.
2- Journey of Humans from Homo Sapiens to Homo Deus- Harari argues that technological advancement, especially biotech, will revolutionize human evolution. For the first time in human history, humans will enter into the non-organic realm. Genetic technology and DNA modification will be used to create desirable traits in future humans, and nano-robots will be incorporated into the human body to improve its functioning. These changes will be very expensive, so they will only be available to a small minority. With the help of their wealth and influence, this small elite of humans will change their cognitive and physical capabilities and form a new kind of human race which he called homo Deus- the superhumans. This will mark a new form of stratification in human evolution. One small minority with unconventional powers will hold control of the resources, and the majority will become irrelevant and replaced by machine learning.
3- Religion to be replaced by Ideology- Harari argues that the dominant ideologies of our times will replace religion. He identifies three ideologies, i,e. humanism, liberalism, and capitalism. Humanism will unite humans irrespective of their distinguishing features; capitalism will promote economic growth, and liberalism will promote individual rights and liberties. He also identified issues with these ideologies and argued that capitalism would promote economic growth, but this economic growth will be at the cost of the environment, which would aggravate the issues of climate change and global warming. Similarly, he argues that liberalism promotes free will, but human free will can be influenced by external factors such as social media. Different entities may employ fake news, propaganda, and other means to dictate human free will.
4- Data will be the most important asset of our times- The central argument of Harari is the importance of data in the future. He argues that with time, the accumulation of data is increasing. We are giving free access to our personal information on social media. With the invention of fitness bands and related goods, we are providing details of our sleep patterns, heart rate, and other body functioning. The data collected by these sites will be used to influence human decision- making, which can make the entities very powerful. We can already observe the power of these entities, such as google can predict election results based on its search history. He argues that the data will make humans dependent on machines for most of their decision; machines will decide even future human relationships.
Homo Deus is a good read, but some cracks exist. His predictions about the possible future make quite a lot of sense, but it is short of the social changes and how people will react to future possibilities. I am curious to know his analysis of the reaction of the majority of humans, which he called irrelevant to the superhumans. Similarly, his argument that religions will become obsolete in the foreseeable future has no grounds; the opposite is happening. In today’s world, more and more people are inclined towards religion and trying to find solace in it. Overall it an amazing read and provides great food for thought for our possible future.
Happy Reading!!
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