Homo Deus
Homo Deus is by turns horrific, terrifying, and rage-inducing. It balances this with moments of awe and wonder at all humanity has accomplished and the things we continue to do. Reading this book is like balancing on the knife's edge of despair and optimism. But Harris never quite lets you fall wholly into either emotion. Which means that the book ultimately left me with a weird, unsettled feeling and a whole lot to think about.
Harris paints with broad-strokes. He takes the macro view of history, and boy is it macro. Because of that view he makes a lot of sweeping statements and ignores almost all nuance and detail. Sure, he holds up any number of examples, but he never really digs down into the weeds to examine things on a more human level or timescale.
A lot of the book is a condensed re-hash of Sapiens, necessary because he's using past trends to inform his predictions about the future. And some of his conclusions didn't sit right with me. Not that I know quite enough to argue, and he always makes such general statements that it's hard to really argue anyway. But on the whole, his is a view of history I understand and agree with, and one that ultimately makes me hopeful about the immediate future, despite his predictions for the far future and the ultimate extermination of humanity by our own hand.
Harris himself advises the reader to take everything he says with a grain of salt. This is, ultimately, just another story humans tell about themselves in an attempt to understand things we may never be capable of understanding. But the reason I ultimately loved this book, the reason I'd put it on a must-read list for just about anyone, is because it made me think deeply about a lot of stuff.
This book challenged some of my core beliefs. And while I don't know that it ultimately changed my mind about anything, it's always a good exercise to really examine what you believe. It makes those beliefs stronger in the end.
Not to mention that it gave me any number of ideas for cool science-fiction stories. Not that I'm likely to ever write any of them. But it was fun to have my brain buzzing with an endless supply of what-ifs.
This book will probably piss off any number of people who try to read it (for one, Harris takes it for granted that God is dead and the influence of Christianity and Islam are waning if not nearly gone already). They may ignore his arguments entirely. There were definitely a few spots where I had trouble accepting (or outright rejected) the things he was saying. That's not the point. The point is to make us think deeply about the future we are creating.
Harris presents one possible future. It's one he thinks is likely. But he also points out that society is a chaotic system, and one that responds to predictions. Nothing is written in stone. But we stop paying attention and participating at our own risk. Or rather, at our childrens' risk.
Harris paints with broad-strokes. He takes the macro view of history, and boy is it macro. Because of that view he makes a lot of sweeping statements and ignores almost all nuance and detail. Sure, he holds up any number of examples, but he never really digs down into the weeds to examine things on a more human level or timescale.
A lot of the book is a condensed re-hash of Sapiens, necessary because he's using past trends to inform his predictions about the future. And some of his conclusions didn't sit right with me. Not that I know quite enough to argue, and he always makes such general statements that it's hard to really argue anyway. But on the whole, his is a view of history I understand and agree with, and one that ultimately makes me hopeful about the immediate future, despite his predictions for the far future and the ultimate extermination of humanity by our own hand.
Harris himself advises the reader to take everything he says with a grain of salt. This is, ultimately, just another story humans tell about themselves in an attempt to understand things we may never be capable of understanding. But the reason I ultimately loved this book, the reason I'd put it on a must-read list for just about anyone, is because it made me think deeply about a lot of stuff.
This book challenged some of my core beliefs. And while I don't know that it ultimately changed my mind about anything, it's always a good exercise to really examine what you believe. It makes those beliefs stronger in the end.
Not to mention that it gave me any number of ideas for cool science-fiction stories. Not that I'm likely to ever write any of them. But it was fun to have my brain buzzing with an endless supply of what-ifs.
This book will probably piss off any number of people who try to read it (for one, Harris takes it for granted that God is dead and the influence of Christianity and Islam are waning if not nearly gone already). They may ignore his arguments entirely. There were definitely a few spots where I had trouble accepting (or outright rejected) the things he was saying. That's not the point. The point is to make us think deeply about the future we are creating.
Harris presents one possible future. It's one he thinks is likely. But he also points out that society is a chaotic system, and one that responds to predictions. Nothing is written in stone. But we stop paying attention and participating at our own risk. Or rather, at our childrens' risk.
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