A Complete Summary of Homo Deus

In his book, Yuval Noah Harari hypothesizes a technocratic dystopian future, in which the religion of data dominates the universe and renders humans obsolete and possibly extinct. Homo Deus begins by presenting the chief problem of the twenty-first century: Now that humans have mostly resolved the problems of famine, war, and plague, which projects will humankind prioritize? Harari argues the quest for immortality, happiness, and divinity will follow. To support this supposition, Harari refers to the history of humankind, placing focus on the 300-year long history of humanism. She does so, not to predict the future, but to make the point that the present as we know it today was not inevitable. It was only one of countless alternative futures that could have been. Harari thus encourages readers to re-orient their goals in the twenty-first century to deliberately mold the coming decades and future centuries.

Part I of Homo Deus tackles the big question of what it means to be human and questions whether humans are so different from other animals. Part II examines the world manipulated and molded by humans. This section places a critical lens on humanism, the religion Harari argues shaped the modern world as we know it today. The final part of Homo Deus paints a future in which techno-religions prevail in lieu of the individual. Part III comes full circle to state that from the perspective of data-ism, not only are humans no different from animals, but they are also no more valuable than tomatoes or stones.

Their value lies in the data they contribute to the data flow of the universe. Harari makes the further point that neither democracy nor capitalism will inevitably persist in the coming decades. When these political and economic systems collapse, what will take their place? In a world where non-conscious algorithms understand humans better than people know themselves, what will society, politics, economics, and daily life look like? And most chillingly, will humans still be relevant?

To be continued...