Homo Deus: Are We God?

Good morning Nerdies, and welcome to Rubbish Talk.

Today I am going to breathlessly talk about Homo Deus, a wildly captivating and exceedingly speculative theory postulated by the atrociously intelligent Yuval Noah Harari. 

WOA!! WAY . TOO . MANY . adverbs-slash-jective !

I know!

I just wanted to show you how high I deemed this book.

Because, DAMN! What a mind-blowing book!  

Let’s get on with it!

What’s this fuzz I made about?

Harari was originally known for his another mind-blowing book that he egged in 2011 but first published in English in 2014, Sapiens. Rumor (Read: Wikipedia) has it, he was virtually nobody before Sapiens, and then BOOM, he became well-known worldwide after the book had been out.

Sapiens covers a comprehensive humankind evolution history. Or in plain English, it’s about our history since those days when we were apes until today when we are assholes.

Meanwhile, Homo Deus is a forecast of what would happen to our world or to us if this new digital era are to culminate without any major hindrance.

The book is a prophecy of humankind’s future, or as Harari puts it, A Brief History of Tomorrow.

So, if you’re wondering which one should you read first, entirely basing on the historical timeline I suggest that you read Sapiens first. I suppose reading Sapiens first will give you a better understanding of Harari’s perspective that he’s basing his prediction on.  

What does the future hold for us?

According to Harari’s conjecture, there’s a sensible probability that Homo Sapiens (Read: we) are going to extinct in the future.

Future here is not the future we used to know. Since circa the last century, technological advancement has been going on in such an unprecedented speed that now we basically live in dog years. Thereby, in this epoch, future means 30 years from now.  

This brand new digital age is so shiny and intoxicating that it’s blinding us. Twenty-first century quickly becomes a time when new is always best and old means backward.

Step by step, we trumped major threats to humankind’s survival; first wars, and then flu, and eventually we also put famine to end almost completely. We’ve changed the harsh world into our cozy home.

Now that we conveniently live in peace and have Mc. Donalds in immediate access nearly everywhere we live, we put our precious time to fix finer, more individual problems. Your heart vein is clogged up? Have a ring attached to it, and live longer. Don’t want the hassle asking people around for direction? Have a map app smarter than you that can track wherever you are, and never get lost again! Even cancer is no longer a huge scare like it used to be!

Apparently it’s in our DNA to never be complacent with ourselves. First we made our lives free from threats, then we produced as many of our kind as we could, and then, good became the new bad. So we started to upgrade our lives. This upgrading process has been getting more and more sophisticated, that now we are in the middle of doing or being something so progressive that no one knows what will be of us or of this earth in the future.

In Homo Deus, Harari dares us that if we keep going on this track, whatever species that will thrive through the twenty-first century might not be us. Looking at the way how things go, it could be some mishmash Homo Cyborg or just plain Cyborg.

It’s an argument. And therefore it’s in its nature to be challenged.

Today we are the latest God, we possess the power to do and take whatever we want to and from the earth and its other inhabitants. We decide which direction this world would go. Though also comes with the power we have such a superior ego that won’t let us believe that we, the designer, the administrator of this world, are going to extinct. So naturally, many people take Harari’s hypothesis as ludicrous. And these people are called optimists. They argue that on the contrary of what Harari surmises, we are about to face our best days.

If you’re interested in knowing the other side of this contention, Steven Pinker is the most eminent optimist on this subject (that I know), and his most profound work is Enlightenment Now.

As a matter of confession, I haven’t read that book. #LOL

Given time slots and reading pace that I had and was born with, I read a shorter piece of Pinker’s mind instead. I read a debate record titled Do Humankind’s Best Days Lie Ahead between the optimists which were represented by Steven Pinker and Matt Ridley, and the pessimists’ side delivered by Alain de Botton and Malcolm Gladwell.

I hate to say this but I suggest you not read that book. For two reasons. First one is thickness-wise the book looks more like a booklet than a real book. Which means the book(let) entails not enough analysis on such a complex dispute. And second reason, in my opinion, the debate is closer to a belligerent discussion than a substantial dialogue. I was expecting much more meat and less aggression in the talk to be honest.

Fortunately, beside Pinker’s real book, you can also listen to Pinker’s speech on Ted Talk.

What’s important though.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter which side you stand on this topic, the subject is intriguing and compelling by itself, thereby it won’t hurt anybody really to get to taste a morsel of it. Even opposing my opinion by perusing that booklet will actually give you some idea on the matter. But better read the real book, Of Course!

Writing-wise

When it comes to writing skill, I think it is the one thing that matters the most in fiction. But in non-fictional literature, it is that one thing that gives the WOW effect when we realize that the author is just not impossibly knowledgeable but also has an insane writing skill.

And Harari is exactly THAT kind of author. If you think history is boring, maybe it’s not the history that’s boring, maybe the one who’s blabbering about it who’s boring. Because I found out through Harari’s books, that one can actually recount and explain history as if it’s a gossip! Yes, I swear his books are that juicy, provocative and engaging!

One thing that I thought was Harari’s best writing trait was his way to turn every complex matter into the easiest thing to understand. I was glad that one didn’t have to be smart to read his books, otherwise I wouldn’t have been here talking about them!

Last thing, before I say goodbye.

This last piece is for you who are a true believer in the merit of sales number.

Based on Come and see Yuval Noah Harari at Brand Minds 2019 !, Harari’s books are sold 12 million copies worldwide and translated into 50 languages (by 2019). These are history books, and it’s freaking 12 million! I can write 10 pages long advertising these books, but a single me can lie. Unlike those 12 million people (discounting those who borrowing and not buying) who surely can’t!

Finally, you’re at the end of this endless post, and if you read every word I’d written, here’s 12 million thank yous for you!