Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow By Yuval Noah Harari

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Homo Deus
By Yuval Noah Harari
Paperback, 501 pages
Non-fiction, History, Science, and Technology 
 
In his first book which served as a foundation of his treatises laid out in Homo Deus, Sapiens: A Brief History of mankind ended with our collective trust in science and technology. I think one has to read the Sapiens first so that one can appreciate the discussions laid out by the author and to understand the direction where his discussions are heading out. Actually, I have some laughs on the first book and some grimace and smile on the second book.
 
Homo Deus is translated as Human God. Why humans are slowly considering themselves as their own god. In Part 1, the author laid out why Homo Sapiens conquers the world, and in relation to his first book, it is advanced that Homo Sapiens have advanced brain and ability to process data that is why we are putting ourselves and experience over and above other animals.  
 
In Part 2, Homo Sapiens gives meaning to the world. With the story, myth and belief system that we created as human, we can tell a different story in the long run. For example, we collectively believed in God, money, government and corporations now they are fictional stories we humans created. But it is not all fictions that are lies but they are also stories that give birth to our laws and human rights.If one is very closed minded in criticizing God (God of all religions), one cannot advance from here. This one is not also for faint-hearted. I smiled when one of the author's friends was thanked by him in his acknowledgment when this friend reminded him to go easy with God. God-centered system is now being replaced by Human-centered system, or the Humanism as we refer to it.

 
 
 
In Part 3, Homo Sapiens loses Control. Humanism or the I-centered system of belief is unreliable given its changeable moods and feelings. Moreover, science can prove that our Individual self is actually a dividual self, consisting of the narrating self and the perceiving self. Moreover, it is advanced here that humans can also be translated into biological algorithm. Long before we realized it, data will be the answer to all of our human woes. Data can make us decide. This Dataism is becoming a religion. 
 
 
What I like about this book is that while it tries to predict our direction for tomorrow...it also provided us with insights and big questions. This can help our policy makers in making a stand in various issues involving technology like gene-editing, solving traffic flow using data, fighting climate change using data also. 
 
Now, in this time of pandemic, we are flooded with information from all sources in the web that we tend to be overloaded and choose just to watch K-dramas in Netflix or plant tomatoes in the backyard. That is us, humans who have no use of the data. But one thing I hope is that the government should listen to our scientists too as well as allow them to make a scientific (and not rushed) conclusion each time. Science and technology and politics (not just economics and politics) can join hands too to answer our queries relating to this pandemic. 

Now, I can't wait to read 21 Lessons for 21st Century.



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