"Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style--thorough, yet riveting--famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda. What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo …
"Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style--thorough, yet riveting--famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda. What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century--from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution" -- provided by publisher.
This book was marketed badly. On the surface you would expect it to talk about humanities future, and only about it. (If you are only interested in that, just read this book's prologue). If you are intrested in what this book is actually about, it is split into three parts:
The first part is just a summary of Sapiens, The second part discusses the power of sapiens to coordinate using religeon (and ideologies), and the final part is just the author ranting about how AI and data will replace humanity.
Review of 'Homo Deus - A Brief History of Tomorrow' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
I loved Sapiens, but trying to read Homo Deus two years into a pandemic was not a good idea. It’s far too optimistic about our future, and after the last two years, I have trouble sharing that optimism. I couldn’t finish reading it.
Насколько была хороша первая книга настолько эта же слаба. Где-то к середине приходится просто продираться сквозь сто раз пережеванную одну и ту же мысль. Типа «бога нет, а животные точно такие же как мы». По началу я даже пытался выписывать логически ляпы и несостыковки но с какого-то момента это стало просто утомительным.
После небольшого, и да, достаточно интересного вступления, следует какая-то исповедь вегана-атеиста-гея (все три течения это действительно про автора). И хотя я не имею ничего против каждого из этих течений по отдельности тут они стали просто какой-то самоцелью. Книга просто превращается в трибуну для именно этих ценностей вместо анализа возможного будущего человечества о чём нам обещает заглавие.
P.S. Это первая книга в этому году которую я бросил просто не дочитав.
Review of 'Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Interesting and illuminating, yet oversimplifying and blatantly self-serving, in the sense that it panders to the Silicon Valley elite who are likely to embrace this book as an excuse to shed any sense of social responsibility still remaining in the tech scene. Humanism (inluding democracy, human rights and the underlying notion of free will) is apparently yesterday's news, as humans are outdated algorithms that are being superseded by 'the internet of all things'.
The author unreservedly advocates surrendering our privacy and autonomy to 'algorithms', as Google and Facebook already supposedly know us better than we know ourselves.
Allowing Google to read our emails is a recurring example, although Google actually recently stopped doing just that. It is one of many signs Harari is oversimplifying history (for instance, idealizing capitalism and neoliberalism, which conveniently allows him to refrain from mentioning criticism of Google and Facebook who only harvest our data for …
Interesting and illuminating, yet oversimplifying and blatantly self-serving, in the sense that it panders to the Silicon Valley elite who are likely to embrace this book as an excuse to shed any sense of social responsibility still remaining in the tech scene. Humanism (inluding democracy, human rights and the underlying notion of free will) is apparently yesterday's news, as humans are outdated algorithms that are being superseded by 'the internet of all things'.
The author unreservedly advocates surrendering our privacy and autonomy to 'algorithms', as Google and Facebook already supposedly know us better than we know ourselves.
Allowing Google to read our emails is a recurring example, although Google actually recently stopped doing just that. It is one of many signs Harari is oversimplifying history (for instance, idealizing capitalism and neoliberalism, which conveniently allows him to refrain from mentioning criticism of Google and Facebook who only harvest our data for the financial gain of themselves and their shareholders, instead of improving mankind; or his statement that all life forms are merely data processing systems and that all of science agrees with that view) and the current state of affairs, in order to present a narrowminded, dystopian view of the future of mankind that is likely to earn him many additional invitations to TED Talks and other well-paid speaking gigs.
The last pages are puzzling: it's where Harari unexpectedly backtracks and states we are perhaps not just algorithms after all; it's where he states he really wanted to broaden our horizon instead of presenting an inescapable view of the future - although that is exactly what he has done. It reads as a hastily added disclaimer that is written as a defense to all the valid criticism I envisage proofreaders may have presented to him - which is more convenient than rewriting the entire book, but it does seem that that is exactly what he should have done. This the type of book that distinguishes shortcut-seeking 'thought leaders' from bona fide public intellectuals, and Harari, regrettably and unexpectedly, seems to want to set up shop in the former camp.
