Homo Deus. A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari.

Damn Good! 

This book more or less starts by stating that we “are bringing famine, plague and war under control,” it then goes on to briefly justify these claims. And yes, the justifications make sense. Harari then sets his eyes in the future asserting that next in the agenda for humanity is to achieve immortality, happiness and divinity. 

The rest of the book explains the above claim. Homo Deus is full of information, historical facts, anecdotes, and analysis of ideas and intellectual traditions. I don't know how to summarise it in less that a few thousand words so I will just mention some of the highlights here. 

 Humans, stories and religions: from animism (the world belongs to everyone, humans and animals we all follow the same rules), religion (humans are unique and special, we are part of a cosmic plan), to some evolutionary psychology (a need shaped generations ago continues to be felt subjectively now, even if it is no longer necessary for survival and reproduction, for example: emotions.) Science: emotions, sensations and thoughts are biochemical algorithms. 

What makes humans so special? 

Seen from a religious perspective, we could say we are part of God's plan, that we (and no other animal) have souls which will live for eternity. However, evolution rejects these ideas. Some intellectual traditions think of the Mind: a flow of subjective experiences, made of interlinked sensations, emotions and thoughts, which exist in a short period of time. This is also called Stream of Consciousness. Some believe Humans are the only species with minds. However, we are not really sure if animals don't have minds, or consciousness. Accoriding to science, consciousness is created by electrochemical reactions in the brain which fulfil essential data-processing function. Some people believe that we need subjective experiences (pain, fear) for survival (evolutionary benefit), others believe subjective experiences help us think about ourselves or to make decisions. However, some scientists think consciousness is the useless by-product of certain brain processes.

Connected to mind is the concept of intelligence. Are we the only intelligent species on earth? Have we managed to control earth because of our superior intelligence? Maybe not, 1 million years ago humans were as intelligent as now but they remained insignificant creatures.

What makes us really special, according to Harari, is that we are the only species able to cooperate flexibly in large numbers.

Harari states that fictions (e.g. money, gods, nations and values) enable better cooperation at large scales and also determine our goals (e.g. if we all believe in our nation we can cooperate together to make it greater). Religion is a fiction too. It is created by humans, not deities. It is defined by its social function which is to control people. It provides a system of moral laws, not invented by humans (but by God's or nature) which humans have to obey. Although science deals with facts, it needs religion to maintain large scale social order. According to science there is no meaning to our existence. However Humanism provides a platform to find meaning which is not rooted in a cosmic plan. Humanism worships humanity. It believes we (our experiences, our feelings) are the the ultimate source of meaning and our free will is the highest authority. Again science does not agree. There is no Free will. Our desires are the result of biochemical chain reactions. Furthermore, we are not individuals, we are flashes of experiences, which appear and fade (this according to brain studies). What science and technology are doing now is to create some sort of intelligence (no need to be conscious intelligence) which can perform tasks better than us. Particularly, AI can replace humans who professionalise or specialise. AI could not replace a hunter gatherer.

As science needs religious support and as Humanism cannot provide this support anymore, new streams of thought are emerging namely, techno-humanism and dataism. The last two chapters of the book deal with both ideologies/religions. If you want to know more about them, read the book!!