Once more, Yuval Noah Harari raises questions about Mankind. But, this time, instead of looking back, he focuses on the future. Analyzing what's happening right now, he looks for answers. What does the state of our lives say about the future? What is it to come?
Technology - will it make us Gods?
Throughout history, human beings have always had three main goals: end famine, epidemics, and war. So now that we have (virtually) the solution for all of them, what are we going to do?
Even the most recent (and scary) COVID pandemic showed us that we have the technology to overcome it in a way that we never did. So, where do we go from here?
God? I'm god
In our modern world, diseases kill more than war, but, despite that, they aren't a great concern anymore. This is because they aren't the result of God's wrath but instead of human incompetency.
Death itself is no longer looked at the same way. We don't die because God demanded, but because someone made a mistake. So you no longer yearn for the life after death, but to prevent death - as far as we can.
This new vision brought a whole new perspective to humanity. We are powerful, and our technology allows us to live virtually eternally. So, the next logical step is to use that technology not to cure but to improve.
Why wait for natural selection to do its work when we can do it better and faster with our technology? For the author, our next step is to create super-humans. God no longer exists; humanity is its own God. We are special, important, and sacred. We worship ourselves. But are we truly special? Science says we aren't.
Happiness
While humanity was busy finding eternal life, perhaps they forgot about something: happiness. Why would you want to live forever if you're unhappy?
Yet, happiness seems harder and harder to find. Our life is better than ever. It is comfortable and relatively stable - in developed countries. So, what are we missing?
If we have all we can, it is time for science to look inside and change our biochemistry to make us feel better. Yet, does happiness boil down to that?
How did we get here?
We are not genetically special, but we achieved something no other species could. Why?
What makes us different isn't the intelligence or memory capacity. Not even our extraordinary ability to create tools. What makes us different is the ability to cooperate on a large scale. We can cooperate with virtually an unlimited number of people we never met. Also, we have a flexible thought that allows us to adapt to any new information.
In the end, what makes us unique is our ability to conceive something that doesn't exist - it's our imagination!
What is it to come?
The sense of life doesn't come from a God or superior entity anymore. It comes from the inside, from each one of us. We are changing, and each generation builds a new world, with a new sense.
Science was never so important in our lives, but we never valued feelings and desires as much either. So science and humanism try to balance each other to rule the modern world.
Humanity always wanted to be closer to God. Now we are closer than ever, and that's terrifying. Will we stop being humans?
Are Sapiens running towards extinction?
This book is not as easy to read as the first one, but it is, indeed, a perfect reflection of what it is to come. What will be our future? How will it look like? Should we be scared?
Questioning made us evolve and turned us into what we are. This book raises a vital one: what will we become?
Homo Deus is worth reading and helps you think about fundamental questions. Perhaps, raise even more.
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