Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

"Sapiens showed us where we came from. Homo Deus shows us where we're going." After recently having read The Skeptics Guide to The Future, I jumped on the tomorrow bandwagon, and the premise of Y. N. Harari's Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow clicked instantly with me.

Throughout the book, I felt engaged and emotionally invested. The narrative flows seamlessly from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. Y. N. Harari uses his historical expertise to connect the dots and form a cohesive story. Although the author spends the first 80 pages setting the stage, I was happy to be along for the journey.

While some might expect concrete predictions, Y. N. Harari takes a different approach, opting instead to expand our minds and stimulate our imaginations and fears. As the author puts it, "instead of narrowing our horizons by forecasting a single scenario, the book aims to broaden our horizons and make us aware of a much wider spectrum of options."

Can we envision a future in which we willingly surrender all our privacy? Decades ago, the notion of people recording every aspect of their lives and sharing it with millions of strangers would have seemed absurd. Will we need the counsel of friends, relatives, and spouses if Dataism suggests that a system knows us better than we know ourselves? Will our experiences eventually be valued as little as those of sheep?

If you want a more philosophical take on the future, Homo Deus can scratch that itch. By the end of the book, you will likely have collected a range of deep reflections and questions you haven't thought of before. I know I certainly did, and this is why it's easy for me to recommend this book.