Homo Deus

Homo Deus -

A 'now consider this' type of essay as a follow up to the famous history lesson called 'Sapiens'.  Written by Israeli historian Yuval Harari reads in part like a doomsday scenario and part like an agenda for the 21st century.

While he is often viewed and perhaps criticized as an eternal pessimist, I actually find his writing thoughtful and realistic.  That said there are points of view he shares that do seem fantastical in part for the very idea that no one living on this planet can predict the future.

He is careful to read from history to being able to provide a possible future state of the world we call home.  The entire premise postulates that while our species Homo Sapiens Sapiens has evolved over the last million years from the Homo Erectus and other apes before it we are in a state of migrating to the next logical stage of evolution.  He only half jokingly calls it Home Deus (to mean god-like).  Or divine.

Divinity not in the form of being able to do magical things or never die but to be able to procrastinate mortality from the accepted time table where the best we can do is around 110 years on the planet.

He also shares his idea that humans will chase eternal life couple with eternal happiness and the downsides to achieving that is far worse than they imagine.

He often cites the Buddha as a counter point where the idea is to delay gratification rather than constantly chase the next best thing since eventually all cool things cool in human perception over time.

There are some core ideas that come from this book as far as what the evolved organism might look like - from a bionic creature to a complete inorganic kind powered by AI.  Climate change is another critical idea that is explored in detail and the impact on humanity.

Good read - by the bedside or off.