Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

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Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Dutch language, 2017)

Dutch language

Published Jan. 30, 2017

ISBN:
9789400407237

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2 stars (4 reviews)

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Hebrew: ההיסטוריה של המחר, English: The History of the Tomorrow) is a book written by Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari, professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The book was first published in Hebrew in 2015 by Dvir publishing; the English-language version was published in September 2016 in the United Kingdom and in February 2017 in the United States. As with its predecessor, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Harari recounts the course of history while describing events and the individual human experience, along with ethical issues in relation to his historical survey. However, Homo Deus (from Latin "Homo" meaning man or human and "Deus" meaning God) deals more with the abilities acquired by humans (Homo sapiens) throughout their existence, and their evolution as the dominant species in the world. The book describes mankind's current abilities and achievements and attempts to paint an …

11 editions

A religious tract for self-worshipping tech bros

1 star

Harari says the problems of famine, war and pestilence have been largely solved. How can he not be bothered by climate change and the threat of nuclear war? He deftly taxonomises reality into three forms - objective, subjective and inter-subjective, then fails to apply his specious system to his own dogma. He declares the ideas of techno-fascist Peter Thiel to be worthwhile simply because Thiel is rich. He equates emotions to algorithms, as if a parent's love for their child could be reproduced as a slider in a character creation page in The Sims video game.

These are the ideas of delusional trans-humanists who think they will be able to use their money to turn science fiction ideas into reality and buy immortality.

I give him one star for two reasons: his ideas on inter-subjective reality are actually quite powerful if applied judiciously. Also, there's a killer sentence: the line …

Review of 'Homo Deus' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Насколько была хороша первая книга настолько эта же слаба. Где-то к середине приходится просто продираться сквозь сто раз пережеванную одну и ту же мысль. Типа «бога нет, а животные точно такие же как мы». По началу я даже пытался выписывать логически ляпы и несостыковки но с какого-то момента это стало просто утомительным.

После небольшого, и да, достаточно интересного вступления, следует какая-то исповедь вегана-атеиста-гея (все три течения это действительно про автора). И хотя я не имею ничего против каждого из этих течений по отдельности тут они стали просто какой-то самоцелью. Книга просто превращается в трибуну для именно этих ценностей вместо анализа возможного будущего человечества о чём нам обещает заглавие.

P.S. Это первая книга в этому году которую я бросил просто не дочитав.

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3 stars