Book Review:Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow.
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As a student, I had just finished another, “How-To” book to help optimize my studies. The book I had just read was “ A Mind For Numbers”, By Barbara Oakley and it dealt with the topic of studying(Particularly STEM subjects). It offered Research backed methods people could use to optimize their studies. Many of these techniques have dramatically changed my outlook on the perception of studying and more so on the value of persistence.
Enough about that though, that’s a review for a different
time!
After reading this insightful book however, I felt in need of something…different; Something more…thought provoking?
You read enough and see a lot about the world around you, that you eventually gain a sense of fatigue.
One feels as if they have seen all that is before; A recurring Deja Vu.
I usually look for new books to read by going through a list of Accomplished People’s book recommendations and seeing for myself their opinions. I found an 2016 book recommendation list by Bill Gates in which he recommends a book to, “anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species”
That book would be something I would read slightly later on.
The Author of that book fascinated me in his outlook, and I looked a bit deeper into all he had offered. Finally, I had found it. The book I had been looking for.
Homo Deus gave me more than I could have ever asked for.
What’s The Book About?
Author, Yuval Noah Harari starts this masterpiece by describing a world many of us may feel distant to us(The Anthropocene Era). He then goes on to explain how Humanity irrespective of its failings, managed to become so powerful in the world today.
However, Yuval goes a step further and describes a world that may not be so far off. He lists possibilities and reasons for such possibilities while explaining how and why we may be facing those outcomes in the first place.
What makes this book any special? Can’t I just read ANY
History Text Book?
Well… You definitely can, however, you certainly won’t get as much relevance as you will with Yuval’s book. See, Yuval doesn’t concern himself too often with tiny insignificant dates you most probably won’t remember. Or perhaps events that in as much as do have an impact on our world today, do not provide as much relevance in regards to the greatest issues of our time.
As a ‘Macro-Historian’ Yuval provides his audience a Grand View of History.
What makes this book however even more special, is that one can feel that the possibilities listed, have merit. And although he claims these all to be possibilities in his writings, one can feel as if all these possibilities may truly happen.
These Possibilities aren’t mere contemplation, they hold true Merit!
Give me a bit more detail?
Alright, you have asked, and as such you shall receive!
In Yuval’s previous book Sapiens, he describes the world before, and how humanity came to be as it is. He describes and explains how humanity managed to come together in order to rule this world. In this book, he continues from the last. He extrapolates what the advent of Humanity’s rise means.
He reasons deeply about the effects of our rise and takes us on this journey with him.
Yuval alternates between several Academic Disciplines, like Mythology, Political Science, Natural Science and his own area of expertise(History) so well, one may even take him for an expert in all those other fields. Of course such is not the case, but his thought process is definitely the stuff of legendary analytical thinkers.
He talks about the difference between consciousness and intelligence at depth and why we may be faced with a great dilemma. Why? Because, for most of our human existence, we have never observed the decoupling of consciousness from observable intelligence. Yet, emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence will make this a reality.
Conclusion.
After reading this book I felt myself feeling a bit more wary of the events of our current time. One sees more clearly the webs woven around us. One sees more obviously the battleground on which we find ourselves.
Although this book has been in circulation for about 4 years as of the time of writing, it holds more relevance today than ever.
We have Rogue Chinese Scientists creating Crispr enhanced babies. Supposedly, irrespective of the intended consequences of this gene editing procedure, the twins may have been inadvertently made smarter.
Scientists had yet to recover from the that event, and yet, may have to deal with more issues to come.
Most of the world seems quite oblivious to the impact Genetic Engineering or Artificial Intelligence will have on us all. Justifiably so, as the world as it currently is, is quite stressful.
Many of us can speak out at length about the systemic inequalities that dwell within our societies today. Many of us, however, are incapable of seeing these emerging technologies as an existential threat to whatever we deem to be our humanity.
Considering we beat the devastating effects of Climate Change in our given time frame and solve the issue, what happens next?
I feel we could be blind as to how Big Data would have taken over almost every other aspect of our lives.
I fear many of us feel these topics too outworldly or Dystopian in nature that we are incapable of understanding how they may affect us.
Even worse, I fear many of us would rather not know about them.
Hopefully, by reading this book, you are will be capable of truly understanding the magnitude of this threat.Hopefully, you will also start fearing that impending threat as well- And I mean this only half-jokingly.
Homo-Deus is a MUST-READ for anyone trying to understand the world we currently live in. More importantly, it is even more essential for anyone trying to make sense of where we are headed.
If I have sparked enough curiosity within you and find yourself wanting to read about this amazing book you can find it here.
Hope you enjoy reading it!