Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Official U.S. edition with full color illustrations throughout.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity's future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style--thorough, yet riveting--famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda.

What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century--from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus.

With the same insight and clarity that made Sapiens an international hit and a New York Times bestseller, Harari maps out our future.

BUY THE BOOK

464 pages

Average rating: 7.75

56 RATINGS

|

4 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

E Clou
May 10, 2023
8/10 stars
Fascinating and intricate. Harari builds a spiderweb, starting with the history of human thought, building and building until you understand how plausible his predictions of the future are.

This was the first time I had encountered this particular explanation of why we should study history- not just to avoid repeating it, but to understand that the actions that we take as a given are actually options. (See his section on lawns.)

This was the first time I had considered humanism in the particular way he explains it, and the first I even heard of dataism. Strongly recommend this book for its intellectual content, but it's worth mentioning that it was also so fun to read that I could not stop.

If you want the super short summary, Harari wrote this article for the Financial Times: https://ft.com/content/50bb4830-6a4c-11e6-ae5b-a7cc5dd5a28c
carmzies
Apr 26, 2023
6/10 stars
wow, I'm depressed
Anonymous
Apr 07, 2023
10/10 stars
Have not read a book that has forced me to think so profoundly about our future as a species. Sure I worry about climate change, how to resolve war and injustice and how industries / jobs may change but this blew open the lid with a range of questions, ideas and potential changes that I've never considered. It makes you realize that we have totally pointless political conversations today. In my country we're debating same sex marriage at the moment. I would much prefer to be having public conversations about artificial intelligence, the affect on the job market (even potentially for professions like doctors, teachers, truck drivers, pharmacists), whether intelligence or consciousness is more important and what happens where non conscious beings have increasing power and control in our world? What does all that mean?

Read the book and let's discuss :)
KayR
Dec 22, 2022
8/10 stars
Not quite as gripping as Sapiens, but thought-provoking and well written. I'd score it 8/10.

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.