Homo Deus

Title: Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow

Author: Yuval Noah Harari

Publisher: Vintage, 2017 (First published 2015)

ISBN: 9781784703936

Pages: 513

Yuval Noah Harari captured the imagination of millions of readers with his masterpiece ‘Sapiens’ which I am yet to read. This book is designed as something between a sequel and an afterthought of its more famous sibling. In this book, Harari sets out to explore the uncharted territory of the future humanscape, armed with a cutting analysis of human progress till now. Predicting the future of technology is a precarious initiative. We have seen Lord Kelvin prophesying the end of physics by the year 1900 and how wide he was off the mark. Harari makes three predictions about human life in the twenty-first century with one eye unflailingly focused on the road ahead while the other scanning the past for confirmation of his numerous theories. Wars and diseases will be totally eliminated and mankind would achieve the power to upgrade itself into a powerful being that is capable of exercising many of the privileges of divine beings in myths and legends such as growing organs or everlasting life. This quasi-divine species he euphemistically call Homeo deus. Harari is an Israeli historian and a professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

For thousands of years, humankind prayed and hoped for a day in which there will be no wars, no diseases and people lived for a very long time. Religions offered promises at first, but they rather contributed only bellicosity in their adherents. There is little chance of peace even if one religion dominated the entire earth. The religious wars between the Catholics and Protestants in the seventeenth century and the continuing strife between the Shia and Sunni factions in Islam reaffirm this hypothesis. On the other hand, increasingly lethal weapons applied brakes on man’s urge to go to war by propagating the doctrine of MAD - mutually assured destruction. Harari argues that without nuclear weapons, there would have been no Beatles, no Woodstock and no overflowing supermarkets in the west. The socialist world led by the USSR overwhelmed the liberal world in conventional weapons, but the US and its allies trumped them on nuclear warheads. Humanity is on the cusp of attaining immortality - which only means that there will not be any deaths due to diseases - even at the risk of handing over the burden of running the world to powerful, inorganic and non-conscious algorithms.

The progress experienced by Homo sapiens in the last few centuries is not solely engendered by technological improvements. A profound transformation was also going on in the social front. For 300 years, the world has been dominated by humanism, which sanctifies the life, happiness and power of Homo sapiens. Humanism put man at the centre of creation. It elevated us as the ultimate source of meaning of the world order. By corollary, our free will is therefore the highest authority of all. By such a transfer, meaning and source of authority divorced themselves from the divine will. This prime position of human will is manifest in five idioms of the modern world: the voter knows best, the customer is always right, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, if it feels good, do it and think for yourself. Harari also describes the split of humanism into three branches: liberalism, socialist humanism and evolutionary humanism. The first is epitomized by Western democratic societies, the second by the now defunct Soviet style communist societies and the third was represented by the Nazi-fascist regimes. The last two, for all practical purposes, no longer exist in the world. Harari’s rigid classifications remind the readers of the accuracy of the exact sciences. How far one could go with such a classification in the humanities is debatable.

Only physical and structural level, man is not above the other animals. How then did we get on top of them? Tool making and intelligence were particularly important for the ascent of mankind. But this was not the whole story. A million years ago, humans were already the most intelligent, tool making animal. The cutting edge came about around 70,000 years ago when the species underwent a cognitive revolution. Speech enabled humans to co-operate flexibly in large numbers, even with complete strangers. No animal shares this unique faculty. That's why the numbers are never enough to mount a revolution. Such upheavals are usually made by small networks of agitators rather than by the masses. Only man can weave an inter-subjective web of meaning, a web of laws, forces, critics and places that exist purely in their collective imagination. This web, exemplified by such abstract concepts as a nation, religion or even commercial enterprises, allows humans to bond together and flourish.

Harari handles the post-humanist scenario, taking into account the development in microbiology and computers. When the working of the brain was analysed, the concept of free will breathed its last. Our decisions, will, delusions and the feeling of general well being are made possible by changes in electrochemical processes in it and the startling fact is that it can be controlled remotely! Along with free will, the idea of a single authentic self went obsolete in one stroke. The next step came when it was evident that organisms are algorithms and life is a complex series of data processing. The advent of artificial intelligence decoupled from conscience and was non-conscious in nature, but highly intelligent algorithms may soon know us better than we know ourselves. Harari predicts the death of humanism at this point which is also where algorithms take charge of the planet. Humans would be treated as pet animals at that time. Much of this talk sounds like science fiction.

The author is unconcerned with the sensibilities of conservative readers. His statement that “if an extramarital affair provides an outlet for emotional and sexual desire that are not satisfied by your spouse of twenty years and if your new lover is kind, passionate and sensitive to your needs - why not enjoy it?” (p.263) maybe sound practical advice but comes as a shocking moral pronouncement for most others. Another casual generalisation that ruffles the feathers of many is that “when genetic engineering and artificial intelligence reveal their full potential, liberalism, democracy and free markets might become as obsolete as flint knives, tape cassettes, Islam and communism” (p.323).

The book is nicely written, but with occasional whiffs of pompous hot air. Staunch believers may better avoid this book in which a tirade against God and religion is seen in every third page. The narrative is designed like an absorbing speech or an enchanting lecture. It is interesting to read as a whole, but there are portions which the reader finds tiresome, such as conscience of sentient beings, and the ethical repercussions of the inevitable algorithmic takeover.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star