About the book

Name of the book – “A Brief History of Tomorrow”, might be a bit misleading. The book is approximately 500 pages long. And that might be the only criticism that can be found of the book. This book would be best to read as a e-book. It’s heavy and difficult to manage.

How was the book?

Homo Deus is a book that has multiple levels. From my point of view it is a historical prediction of humankind. It is also a collection of ideas and facts. And mostly it is a possibility for the reader to analyse the future and prepare himself for the issues which might lie ahead. Harari touches several issues that current readers are trying to understand. He interprets issues such as rise of inequality, man vs. technology and of course the rise of the nationalism in forms of Brexit and Trump. The book is as well modern, historical, analytical and as well very topical.  

Harari’s main topic is about how Homo Sapiens will survive from the emerging artificial intelligence and other technological possibilities. He binds this main topic into several waves of history of humankind. Harari sees that we are on the edge of last revolution that Homo Sapiens will experience. That’s why he calls the forthcoming revolution as second Cognitive Revolution. This revolution might lead to the birth of Homo Deus and extinction of Homo Sapiens.

What or who is Homo Deus? It is the result of a quest to upgrade Homo Sapiens into the next level. A superhuman that has reached immortality without a deal with the devil like Dorian Grey did.

Homo Sapiens was able to conquer famine, plague and war. Upgraded Homo Sapiens i.e. Homo Deus has the power of creation. Homo Deus will have happiness and immortality. He will also be seeking the possibility of attaining divinity. Homo Deus has human features, but he has also upgraded physical and mental abilities. Such as possibility continue to live forever, think and make decisions more accurately.

What are the key learnings of the book? 

Homo Deus will be seeking to reach happiness, immortality and attaining divinity. The quest to create Homo Deus is a continuum of Homo Sapiens if humankind will collectively will it to happen.

Unfortunately Harari has no one thing or key learning that he will be sharing. He is drawing a picture of our future. But there are numerous questions that we as individuals and societies must try to figure out before entering into the era of Homo Deus.

Let me divide the main questions into two main themes.

Future of humankind:

–      Is Life time learning our only hope? Should we be trying to develop our narrating self or invest heavily on the development algorithms in large?

–      Should we try to develop new religions such as Dataism or Techo-humanism to replace current humanistic thinking?

–      Should we let the robots do the work and convert current workforce into an unemployable mass?

–      Is our fate of horses when the automobiles replaced those?

–      Which choices should we try to pursue?

Future of artificial intelligence:

–      What should we be thinking about artificial intelligence?

–      What shall we do with artificial Intelligence?

–      Should humankind do a Turing Test every day in order to survive with the potential that AI brings us?

–      Which algorithms should we try to enhance?

–      Should we try to build a warm social logic for AI as humans have?

–      Should we give power to decide and ownership of capitals? Can AI have both? In what way should we give these to AI?

–      Are societies ready for the rise of AI?

What should I personally do? 

I should devote my personal time on exploring the possibilities of artificial intelligence.

Summary

Harari’s Homo Deus is a must read book. He has collected tons of excellent questions. By creating a personal understanding about AI will have value when making decisions. Eventually AI will be affecting our lives. Why not start hacking your future now?

The book in six words: “How to know what to ignore?”