Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

“In the early twenty-first century, the average human is far more likely to die from bingeing at McDonald’s than from drought, Ebola or an al-Qaeda attack.”

This quote contrasts contemporary challenges with traditional ones, illustrating a significant shift in the nature of human struggles. The specific reference to McDonald’s symbolizes the modern lifestyle and its associated health risks. This statement employs stark, impactful language to juxtapose the past and present, succinctly capturing the essence of humanity’s evolving problems. It implies a transition from external threats to self-inflicted ones, reflecting on the changes in human societies and priorities.

“Struggling against old age and death will merely carry on the time-honoured fight against famine and disease, and manifest the supreme value of contemporary culture: the worth of human life.”

This quote reflects a shift in humanity’s existential struggles from basic survival (famine and disease) to the more abstract concept of defying age and death. It suggests a societal evolution where the intrinsic value of human life is paramount, reflecting a deep-rooted cultural and moral belief in the sanctity of life. The choice of words emphasizes a continuity of human effort, linking past battles with present and future endeavors, thereby framing the pursuit of longevity and health as a natural extension of earlier survival struggles.

“Modern science and modern culture have an entirely different take on life and death. They don’t think of death as a metaphysical mystery, and they certainly don’t view death as the source of life’s meaning. Rather, for modern people death is a technical problem that we can and should solve.”

This quote contrasts contemporary attitudes toward death with historical perspectives. It underscores a paradigm shift from accepting death as a mystical inevitability to approaching it as a solvable issue. It highlights the role of science and technology in reshaping an understanding and attitude toward life’s finiteness.

“The Agricultural Revolution gave humans the power to ensure the survival and reproduction of domesticated animals while ignoring their subjective needs.”

This quote emphasizes a critical aspect of the human-animal relationship, where technological and agricultural advancements have enabled humans to control animal populations for their benefit, often neglecting the animals’ psychological and emotional well-being. The phrase “ignoring their subjective needs” points to a moral and ethical disconnect in human behavior toward animals, raising questions about the implications of such power dynamics. This quote reflects the complex interplay between human progress and animal welfare, highlighting a significant ethical challenge in humans’ domination over other species.

“Does might make right? Is human life more precious than porcine life simply because the human collective is more powerful than the pig collective?”

This quote challenges the conventional belief in human exceptionalism and moral superiority. It prompts a reflection on the ethics of power and dominance, questioning whether might inherently confers moral righteousness. The comparison between humans and pigs serves as a metaphor for broader ethical dilemmas about the treatment of other beings and the environment. It underscores the arbitrary nature of moral judgments based on power dynamics, inviting readers to reconsider the basis of their ethical frameworks.

“The belief that humans have eternal souls whereas animals are just evanescent bodies is a central pillar of our legal, political and economic system.”

This quote examines the impact of belief systems on societal structures. It highlights how the perceived dichotomy between humans and animals, rooted in the notion of an eternal soul, has shaped legal, political, and economic systems. This belief underpins many human actions and justifications for the exploitation of natural resources and animals. It calls into question the validity and ethics of these systems, suggesting they are built on a flawed understanding of the human-animal relationship and the nature of existence.

“Sapiens, in contrast, live in triple-layered reality. In addition to trees, rivers, fears and desires, the Sapiens world also contains stories about money, gods, nations and corporations.”

This quote highlights the unique cognitive ability of Homo sapiens to create and live within complex social constructs that extend beyond physical reality. Unlike other animals, humans can conceptualize and give meaning to abstract entities like nations, corporations, and religious beliefs. This capacity for abstract thinking underpins much of human history and society. It allows for the formation of large-scale networks but also introduces complexities and challenges.

“The Agricultural Revolution, which began about 12,000 years ago, provided the necessary material base for enlarging and strengthening the intersubjective networks. Farming made it possible to feed thousands of people in crowded cities and thousands of soldiers in disciplined armies.”

This quote emphasizes the pivotal role of the agricultural revolution in human history. By transitioning from hunter-gatherer societies to settled farming communities, humans were able to support larger populations and create more complex societal structures. This shift laid the groundwork for the development of complex networks. The concept of “intersubjective networks” is critical, as it refers to the shared beliefs and narratives that bind societies together. The agricultural revolution, therefore, was also a social and cognitive revolution.

“Stories serve as the foundations and pillars of human societies. As history unfolded, stories about gods, nations and corporations grew so powerful that they began to dominate objective reality.”

This quote captures the central role of narrative in shaping societies. It suggests that stories, whether they concern gods, nations, or corporations, are not merely tales but potent tools that shape and even dominate the perception of reality. The power of narrative lies in its ability to unify people under common beliefs and values. However, this dominance of narrative over objective reality can also lead to a skewed perception of the world.

“Modern science certainly changed the rules of the game, but it did not simply replace myths with facts. Myths continue to dominate humankind. Science only makes these myths stronger.”

This quote challenges the common perception of a dichotomy between science and myth. It posits that rather than dispelling myths, science can actually reinforce them. This occurs when scientific advancements are interpreted through the lens of existing myths, thus entrenching these narratives more deeply in the social fabric. This interplay suggests that human understanding and societal development are not linear progressions from myth to fact but rather a continuous negotiation between these different modes of comprehension.

“Modernity is a deal. All of us sign up to this deal on the day we are born, and it regulates our lives until the day we die.”

This quote presents modernity as an implicit agreement that governs human life, likening it to a universal, binding contract. Harari implies that modern life is structured around a set of unspoken rules and norms that everyone adheres to, often unknowingly. The use of the word “deal” personifies modernity, giving it agency as if it were an entity individuals must negotiate with.

“The entire contract [of modernity] can be summarised in a single phrase: humans agree to give up meaning in exchange for power.”

This quote captures a central thesis of Harari’s examination of modernity, suggesting a trade-off at the heart of contemporary societies. In pursuit of technological and scientific power, modern culture, according to Harari, has abandoned the search for a cosmic meaning. This reflects a shift from a value-centric existence, where life’s purpose was defined by cultural narratives, to a power-centric worldview, dominated by scientific progress.

“Life has no script, no playwright, no director, no producer—and no meaning. To the best of our scientific understanding, the universe is a blind and purposeless process, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.”

Harari uses theatrical metaphors to depict the existential vacuum that characterizes modernity. The absence of a cosmic plan implies a universe devoid of purpose, underscoring a departure from traditional narratives that offered a sense of meaning and direction. This perspective not only reflects a shift in the understanding of humans’ place in the universe but also highlights the existential challenges posed by the modern outlook.

“The antidote to a meaningless and lawless existence was provided by humanism, a revolutionary new creed that conquered the world during the last few centuries. The humanist religion worships humanity, and expects humanity to play the part that God played in Christianity and Islam, and that the laws of nature played in Buddhism and Daoism.”

This quote highlights the paradigm shift in the source of meaning and authority from divine or natural laws to human experience, central to the ideology of humanism. Humanism, emerging as a dominant worldview, reframes the concept of worship, traditionally directed toward a deity or natural order, toward humanity itself. The implication places human experience, emotion, and intellect at the forefront of creating meaning, thus empowering individual perspectives and experiences over universal commandments.

“According to humanism, humans must draw from within their inner experiences not only the meaning of their own lives, but also the meaning of the entire universe. This is the primary commandment humanism has given us: create meaning for a meaningless world.”

This quote captures the essence of humanist philosophy, asserting that the onus of finding meaning in life rests upon human experiences. It suggests an introspective approach to understanding the universe. Humanism argues that the collective sum of personal experiences and perceptions shapes an understanding of reality.

“Socialist humanism has taken a very different course. Socialists blame liberals for focusing our attention on our own feelings instead of on what other people experience.”

This quote illustrates the divergence between socialist humanism and liberal humanism. Socialist humanism critiques the liberal focus on individual experience and autonomy, advocating for a collective approach that prioritizes the experiences and needs of the community. This perspective shifts the focus from the individual’s internal world to the external impacts of one’s actions.

“Suppose we build a robot whose central processing unit is linked to a radioactive lump of uranium. When choosing between two options—say, press the right button or the left button—the robot counts the number of uranium atoms that decayed during the previous minute. If the number is even—it presses the right button. If the number is odd—the left button. We can never be certain about the actions of such a robot. But nobody would call this contraption ‘free,’ and we wouldn’t dream of allowing it to vote in democratic elections or holding it legally responsible for its actions.”

This quote utilizes a metaphorical robot to illustrate the complexities surrounding the concept of free will. By drawing a parallel between the robot’s programmed decision-making and human choices governed by neurological and genetic factors, it suggests that the notion of free will might be an illusion. The robot, bound by its programming parameters, symbolizes how human actions could actually be the result of predetermined internal processes.

“The decision to press either the right or left switch certainly reflected the person’s choice. Yet it wasn’t a free choice. In fact, our belief in free will results from faulty logic. When a biochemical chain reaction makes me desire to press the right switch, I feel that I really want to press the right switch. And this is true. I really want to press it. Yet people erroneously jump to the conclusion that if I want to press it, I choose to want to. This is of course false. I don’t choose my desires. I only feel them, and act accordingly.”

This quote challenges the conventional notion of free will by suggesting that human decisions, while appearing autonomous, are actually the outcomes of predetermined biochemical processes. The illusion of free will, as posited here, arises from a misunderstanding of the causal relationship between desires and actions. The implication is that choices, though felt authentically, are not self-determined.

“Humans will lose their economic and military usefulness, hence the economic and political system will stop attaching much value to them.”

This quote captures a shift in how value and utility are perceived in the context of technological advancement. The traditional view that every human inherently contributes to the economic and military strength of a society is challenged by the rise of automation and AI. This shift could alter how individuals are valued in society, moving away from the inherent worth of human life to a utilitarian perspective.

“The conscious experiences of a flesh-and-blood taxi driver are infinitely richer than those of a self-driving car, which feels absolutely nothing.”

This quote explores the dichotomy between human experience and AI. It highlights the rich, subjective nature of human consciousness contrasted with the objective, emotionless existence of AI like self-driving cars. While AI may surpass humans in efficiency and reliability, it lacks the depth of human consciousness. This raises philosophical questions about the role of AI in society.

“These new techno-religions can be divided into two main types: techno-humanism and data religion.”

This quote introduces the core of the chapter, delineating the evolution of belief systems in the context of technological advancement. Harari posits that future religions will likely pivot around technology, diverging into techno-humanism and data religion. This marks a significant shift from traditional religious paradigms that typically center around metaphysical beings or concepts.

“Techno-humanism faces an impossible dilemma here. It considers the human will to be the most important thing in the universe, hence it pushes humankind to develop technologies that can control and redesign our will. After all, it’s tempting to gain control over the most important thing in the world. Yet once we have such control, techno-humanism would not know what to do with it, because the sacred human will would become just another designer product.”

This quote examines the paradox at the heart of techno-humanism. On one hand, techno-humanism places supreme value on human will, driving the pursuit of technologies that can modify this will. On the other hand, this pursuit undermines the sanctity and authenticity of human will, reducing it to a malleable entity subject to technological manipulation.

“Dataism says that the universe consists of data flows, and the value of any phenomenon or entity is determined by its contribution to data processing.”

This quote captures the essence of dataism, which posits that data and its processing are the most valuable aspects of existence. By framing the universe in terms of data flows, Harari shifts the focus from traditional human-centric perspectives to an abstract, information-centric view. This shift challenges conventional notions of significance, placing emphasis on the role entities play within information networks rather than on their intrinsic qualities.