HomoDeus — Humans of the future
What is religion? What is “your” religion?
Do you believe in God?
What you would rather believe in — a human being or an algorithm?
I CHALLENGE YOU.
I challenge that your answer to every one of this question will change after reading this book.
Yuval Noah Harari’s HomoDeus will fundamentally alter your perception of our world, our evolution, our systems, our structures, our life but most importantly — OUR FUTURE. Want a sneak peak? Watch this TED video.
Does human consciousness really make a difference to intelligence?
What makes human life more important than anything else?
HomoDeus talks about our world, our current state of affairs from an evolutionary psychology perspective. It ask deep questions about everything we take for granted today. Not just philosophical questions, but questions that have relevance to challenges we face today. This is in itself a very good reason to read the book. But what the author does is something no one would have expected.
He uses the same concepts of psychology to paint a picture of the world of future, a world that you would see only in crazy science fiction movies. But the genius of the author is in making you believe in this leap so much, you might even crap in your pants.
I was in awe. I was immersed in this book. I wrote so much after reading it. Came up with a lot of ideas. It made me think more than any other non-fiction book in recent times. And I have used the book’s concepts in more arguments in the last 3 months than any other book in the last 5 years.
Still not sure?
Okay consider this. Ten to fifteen years down the line.
Your teenage kids are not listening to you (like any generation). You have no idea what they are into, they seem to be too much in technology (again something you and I can relate with).
But what bothers you is that they don’t listen to their friends either.
They, in fact, listen to Algorithms. In fact, each kid has her own favourite algo. These “algos”, as they will be called, decide everything for a kid —which party to attend, whom to be friends with, which college to go to! Basically your kids’ success is dependent on the algorithm she choses to “follow”. The better algorithm your kid is subscribed to, the better is her future.
Deja vu?!
P.S — Am I blowing it up?
Another P.S — The above scenario is not a spoiler, it is not featured in the book, it is just a result of the mess the book created in my head!
You might hate this book — possible.
You might say that the author paints a grim and hypercritical picture. Maybe.
But you can’t deny it has changed the way you see the world once you read it.
Once you read it, you can’t unread it. So BEWARE.
READ IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Emotion is Intelligence is a series that raises questions on our central assumptions about intelligence, emotion, creativity and mental well-being
Harish is an entrepreneur building products that help affect our emotion, feeling and psychology
