Homo Deus - A Brief History of Tomorrow
- Yuval Noah Harari
The author concluded his Homo Sapiens (A Brief History of Mankind) with some grand questions like, whether humans have found their path to happiness, after millions of years of evolution, aided by agricultural, cognitive and scientific revolutions that shaped the world for several centuries. He continued his exploration of mankind in his next work - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.
- Yuval Noah Harari
Majority of the world has achieved food security, is equipped to contain/handle disease outbreak, has built political structures to reduce the probability of deaths due to wars. Historically, these 3 - famine, plague and war, had been the major troubling factors. Now, that man has handle over them, what would he go behind?
If we follow the general guiding principles for the kings/leaders, divine revelations ruled the world for some time, followed by several isms like Capitalism, Communism, Liberalism etc., In the times, when divine revelations were considered to be supreme, man and his personal choices were not at the centre. In the recent times, humanism has kept man, an individual, routinely at the centre. There is also an underlying assumption that, this individual has free-will, and is capable of choosing the right things. But, advancements in neurological studies question such assumptions. They also demonstrate that a man is not, after all, an individual. One has multiple selves inside. The experiencing self is often different from the narrating self. And, they can be manipulated through some orchestration.
Scientists also claim that everything that happens in humans is more or less a biochemical /electrical reaction. Though Human Consciousness is still out of reach of science & technology, Human Intelligence is not. Artificial Intelligence is faring better than humans in several fields, sans consciousness. Several techniques and instruments have been invented to manipulate experiencing and narrating selves of humans.
Such advancements open up a lot of new opportunities. Are there ways to use this new found knowledge for the betterment of humanity? If there are ways, how to validate which of them are really for the betterment? When individual is an illusion, who would be at the centre? Some of these technologies may make humans more productive, and some may make them redundant. While pondering about these questions, author introduces the latest ism - Dataism. Dataism uses tons of data and complex algorithms to make decisions, much faster a human, and at times, something that's impossible to a human. Powered by such Information Technology, will Homo Sapiens tune themselves and get more productive - upgrade themselves to Homo Deus, with the aid of Biotechnology? Or, will they lose control to some of their creation? Only time can answer!
There was some interesting news a few months back, that adds credibility to the perspective presented by the author. Facebook engineers brought down their AI experiments, due to some suspicious conversations among bots, in a language that's invented by bots themselves.
Though it's a long 500 page book, author's inimitable style, a great perspective, and loads of interesting information make it a great read.
Scientists also claim that everything that happens in humans is more or less a biochemical /electrical reaction. Though Human Consciousness is still out of reach of science & technology, Human Intelligence is not. Artificial Intelligence is faring better than humans in several fields, sans consciousness. Several techniques and instruments have been invented to manipulate experiencing and narrating selves of humans.
Such advancements open up a lot of new opportunities. Are there ways to use this new found knowledge for the betterment of humanity? If there are ways, how to validate which of them are really for the betterment? When individual is an illusion, who would be at the centre? Some of these technologies may make humans more productive, and some may make them redundant. While pondering about these questions, author introduces the latest ism - Dataism. Dataism uses tons of data and complex algorithms to make decisions, much faster a human, and at times, something that's impossible to a human. Powered by such Information Technology, will Homo Sapiens tune themselves and get more productive - upgrade themselves to Homo Deus, with the aid of Biotechnology? Or, will they lose control to some of their creation? Only time can answer!
There was some interesting news a few months back, that adds credibility to the perspective presented by the author. Facebook engineers brought down their AI experiments, due to some suspicious conversations among bots, in a language that's invented by bots themselves.
Though it's a long 500 page book, author's inimitable style, a great perspective, and loads of interesting information make it a great read.
