Thursday, October 12, 2017

HOMO SAPIENS and HOMO DEUS

I've just finished reading the second of two books by author Yuval Noah Harari which explore the history of man to this point as well as his future as a species.

The first book, Homo Sapiens, essentially explains that with the advent of the agricultural age some 12,000 years ago, man essentially went from nomadic hunter gatherer to settled farmer and master of the animal kingdom.

The second book, Homo Deus, looks at man's quest for immortality and the possibility that he will ultimately become subservient to artificial intelligence.

Both fascinating and challenging stuff. Although I've yet to be impacted by AI directly, I realize that my life has been influenced by its precursor whenever I get Netflix alerts about programmes I might like to watch or when my GPS system helps me navigate the city or when my programmable thermostat regulates my home environment.

The biggest challenges for me in these books are the blatant statements that God is dead, man is soul-less and that there is no overarching plan for us, that religion is as antiquated as the encyclopedia.

However, I feel that man's quest to become homo deus (man-god) will fall short as long as he believes that he's the sun and not the sunshine.

For a more complete review of these books, have a look at the link below.


Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari review – how data will destroy ...

https://www.theguardian.com › Arts › Books › Science and nature















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