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Yuval Noah Harari, author of the criticallyacclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods. Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style—thorough, yet riveting—famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda. What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the selfmade gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twentyfirst century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus. With the same insight and clarity that made Sapiens an international hit and a New York Times bestseller, Harari maps out our future.
Dedication To my teacher, S N Goenka (1924–2013), who lovingly taught me important things Contents Dedication The New Human Agenda PART I Homo Sapiens Conquers the World The Anthropocene The Human Spark PART II Homo Sapiens Gives Meaning to the World The Storytellers The Odd Couple The Modern Covenant The Humanist Revolution PART III Homo Sapiens Loses Control The Time Bomb in the Laboratory The Great Decoupling 10 The Ocean of Consciousness 11 The Data Religion Notes Acknowledgements Index 10 About the Author 11 Also by Yuval Noah Harari 12 Credits 13 Copyright 14 About the Publisher In vitro fertilisation: mastering creation Computer artwork © KTSDESIGN/Science Photo Library The New Human Agenda At the dawn of the third millennium, humanity wakes up, stretching its limbs and rubbing its eyes Remnants of some awful nightmare are still drifting across its mind ‘There was something with barbed wire, and huge mushroom clouds Oh well, it was just a bad dream.’ Going to the bathroom, humanity washes its face, examines its wrinkles in the mirror, makes a cup of coffee and opens the diary ‘Let’s see what’s on the agenda today.’ For thousands of years the answer to this question remained unchanged The same three problems preoccupied the people of twentieth-century China, of medieval India and of ancient Egypt Famine, plague and war were always at the top of the list For generation after generation humans have prayed to every god, angel and saint, and have invented countless tools, institutions and social systems – but they continued to die in their millions from starvation, epidemics and violence Many thinkers and prophets concluded that famine, plague and war must be an integral part of God’s cosmic plan or of our imperfect nature, and nothing short of the end of time would free us from them Yet at the dawn of the third millennium, humanity wakes up to an amazing realisation Most people rarely think about it, but in the last few decades we have managed to rein in famine, plague and war Of course, these problems have not been completely solved, but they have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges We don’t need to pray to any god or saint to rescue us from them We know quite well what needs to be done in order to prevent famine, plague and war – and we usually succeed in doing it True, there are still notable failures; but when faced with such failures we no longer shrug our shoulders and say, ‘Well, that’s the way things work in our imperfect world’ or ‘God’s will be done’ Rather, when famine, plague or war break out of our control, we feel that somebody must have screwed up, we set up a commission of inquiry, and promise ourselves that next time we’ll do better And it actually works Such calamities indeed happen less and less often For the first time in history, more people die today from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals combined In the early twenty-first century, the average human is far more likely to die from bingeing at McDonald’s than from drought, Ebola or an al-Qaeda attack Hence even though presidents, CEOs and generals still have their daily schedules full of economic crises and military conflicts, on the cosmic scale of history humankind can lift its eyes up and start looking towards new horizons If we are indeed bringing famine, plague and war under control, what will replace them at the top of the human agenda? Like firefighters in a world without fire, so humankind in the twenty-first century needs to ask itself an unprecedented question: what are we going to do with ourselves? In a healthy, prosperous and harmonious world, what will demand our attention and ingenuity? This question becomes doubly urgent given the immense new powers that biotechnology and information technology are providing us with What will we with all that power? Before answering this question, we need to say a few more words about famine, plague and war The claim that we are bringing them under control may strike many as outrageous, extremely naïve, or perhaps callous What about the billions of people scraping a living on less than $2 a day? What about the ongoing AIDS crisis in Africa, or the wars raging in Syria and Iraq? To address these concerns, let us take a closer look at the world of the early twenty-first century, before exploring the human agenda for the coming decades The Biological Poverty Line Let’s start with famine, which for thousands of years has been humanity’s worst enemy Until recently most humans lived on the very edge of the biological poverty line, below which people succumb to malnutrition and hunger A small mistake or a bit of bad luck could easily be a death sentence for an entire family or village If heavy rains destroyed your wheat crop, or robbers carried off your goat herd, you and your loved ones may well have starved to death Misfortune or stupidity on the collective level resulted in mass famines When severe drought hit ancient Egypt or medieval India, it was not uncommon that 5 or 10 per cent of the population perished Provisions became scarce; transport was too slow and expensive to import sufficient food; and governments were far too weak to save the day Open any history book and you are likely to come across horrific accounts of famished populations, driven mad by hunger In April 1694 a French official in the town of Beauvais described the impact of famine and of soaring food prices, saying that his entire district was now filled with ‘an infinite number of poor souls, weak from hunger and wretchedness and dying from want, because, having no work or occupation, they lack the money to buy bread Seeking to prolong their lives a little and somewhat to appease their hunger, these poor folk eat such unclean things as cats and the flesh of horses flayed and cast onto dung heaps [Others consume] the blood that flows when cows and oxen are slaughtered, and the offal that cooks throw into the streets Other poor wretches eat nettles and weeds, or roots and herbs which they boil in water.’1 Similar scenes took place all over France Bad weather had ruined the harvests throughout the kingdom in the previous two years, so that by the spring of 1694 the granaries were completely empty The rich charged exorbitant prices for whatever food they managed to hoard, and the poor died in droves About 2.8 million French – 15 per cent of the population – starved to death between 1692 and 1694, while the Sun King, Louis XIV, was dallying with his mistresses in Versailles The following year, 1695, famine struck Estonia, killing a fifth of the population In 1696 it was the turn of Finland, where a quarter to a third of people died Scotland suffered from severe famine between 1695 and 1698, some districts losing up to 20 per cent of their inhabitants.2 Most readers probably know how it feels when you miss lunch, when you fast on some religious holiday, or when you live for a few days on vegetable shakes as part of a new wonder diet But how does it feel when you haven’t eaten for days on end and you have no clue where to get the next morsel of food? Most people today have never experienced this excruciating torment Our ancestors, alas, knew it only too well When they cried to God, ‘Deliver us from famine!’, this is what they had in mind During the last hundred years, technological, economic and political developments have created an increasingly robust safety net separating humankind from the biological poverty line Mass famines still strike some areas from time to time, but they are exceptional, and they are almost always caused by human politics rather than by natural catastrophes In most parts of the planet, even if a person has lost his job and all of his possessions, he is unlikely to die from hunger Private insurance schemes, government agencies and international NGOs may not rescue him from poverty, but they will provide him with enough daily calories to survive On the collective level, the global trade network turns droughts and floods into business opportunities, and makes it possible to overcome food shortages quickly and cheaply Even when wars, earthquakes or tsunamis devastate entire countries, international efforts usually succeed in preventing famine Though hundreds of millions still go hungry almost every day, in most countries very few people actually starve to death Poverty certainly causes many other health problems, and malnutrition shortens life expectancy even in the richest countries on earth In France, for example, million people (about 10 per cent of the population) suffer from nutritional insecurity They wake up in the morning not knowing whether they will have anything to eat for lunch; they often go to sleep hungry; and the nutrition they do obtain is unbalanced and unhealthy – lots of starch, sugar and salt, and not enough protein and vitamins.3 Yet nutritional insecurity isn’t famine, and France of the early twenty-first century isn’t France of 1694 Even in the worst slums around Beauvais or Paris, people don’t die because they have not eaten for weeks on end The same transformation has occurred in numerous other countries, most notably China For millennia, famine stalked every Chinese regime from the Yellow Emperor to the Red communists A few decades ago China was a byword for food shortages Tens of millions of Chinese starved to death during the disastrous Great Leap Forward, and experts routinely predicted that the problem would only get worse In 1974 the first World Food Conference was convened in Rome, and delegates were treated to apocalyptic scenarios They were told that there was no way for China to feed its billion people, and that the world’s most populous country was heading towards catastrophe In fact, it was heading towards the greatest economic miracle in history Since 1974 hundreds of millions of Chinese have been lifted out of poverty, and though hundreds of millions more still suffer greatly from privation and malnutrition, for the first time in its recorded history China is now free from famine Indeed, in most countries today overeating has become a far worse problem than famine In the eighteenth century Marie Antoinette allegedly advised the starving masses that if they ran out of bread, they should just eat cake instead Today, the poor are following this advice to the letter Whereas the rich residents of Beverly Hills eat lettuce salad and steamed tofu with quinoa, in the slums and ghettos the poor gorge on Twinkie cakes, Cheetos, hamburgers and pizza In 2014 more than 2.1 billion people were overweight, compared to 850 million who suffered from malnutrition Half of humankind is expected to be overweight by 2030.4 In 2010 famine and malnutrition combined killed about million people, whereas obesity killed 3 million.5 Invisible Armadas After famine, humanity’s second great enemy was plagues and infectious diseases Bustling cities linked by a ceaseless stream of merchants, officials and pilgrims were both the bedrock of human civilisation and an ideal breeding ground for pathogens People consequently lived their lives in ancient Athens or medieval Florence knowing that they might fall ill and die next week, or that an epidemic might suddenly erupt and destroy their entire family in one swoop The most famous such outbreak, the so-called Black Death, began in the 1330s, somewhere in east or central Asia, when the flea-dwelling bacterium Yersinia pestis started infecting humans bitten by the fleas From there, riding on an army of rats and fleas, the plague quickly spread all over Asia, Europe and North Africa, taking less than twenty years to reach the shores of the Atlantic Ocean Between 75 million and 200 million people died – more than a quarter of the population of Eurasia In England, four out of ten people died, and the population dropped from a pre-plague high of 3.7 million people to a postplague low of 2.2 million The city of Florence lost 50,000 of its 100,000 inhabitants.6 Medieval people personified the Black Death as a horrific demonic force beyond human control or comprehension The Triumph of Death, c.1562, Bruegel, Pieter the Elder © The Art Archive/Alamy Stock Photo The authorities were completely helpless in the face of the calamity Except for organising mass prayers and processions, they had no idea how to stop the spread of the epidemic – let alone cure it Until the modern era, humans blamed 195; Middle Ages, as source of meaning and authority in 222, 224, 227, 228, 235–7, 305; Newton myth and 97, 98; religious fundamentalism and 220, 226, 268, 351; Scientific Revolution and 96, 97, 98, 115; war narratives and 241, 244 gods: Agricultural Revolution and theist 90–6, 97, 98, 156–7; defining religion and 180, 181, 184–5; disappearance of 144–5; dualism and 184–5; Epicurus and 30; humans as (upgrade to Homo Deus) 21, 25, 43–9, 50, 55, 65, 66, 98; humanism and 98; intersubjective reality and 144–5, 150, 155, 156–7, 158–60, 161–3, 176, 178–80, 323, 352; modern covenant and 199–200; new technologies and 268–9; Scientific Revolution and 96–7, 98; spirituality and 184–5; war/famine/plague and 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 19 Google 24, 28, 114, 114, 150, 157, 163, 275, 312, 321, 322, 330, 334–40, 341, 384, 392, 393; Google Baseline Study 335–6; Google Fit 336; Google Flu Trends 335; Google Now 343; Google Ventures 24 Gorbachev, Mikhail 372 Götze, Mario 36, 63 Greece 29–30, 132, 173, 174, 228–9, 240, 265–6, 268, 305 greenhouse gas emissions 215–16 Gregory the Great, Pope 228, 228 guilds 230 hackers 310, 313, 344, 382–3, 393 Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem 287 Hamlet (Shakespeare) 46, 199 HaNasi, Rabbi Yehuda 94 happiness 29–43 Haraway, Donna: ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ 275–6 Harlow, Harry 89, 90 Harris, Sam 196 Hassabis, Dr Demis 321 Hattin, Battle of, 1187 146, 147 Hayek, Friedrich 369 Heine, Steven J 354–5 helmets: attention 287–90, 362–3, 364; ‘mind-reading’ 44–5 Henrich, Joseph 354–5 Hercules 43, 176 Herodotus 173, 174 Hinduism 90, 94, 95, 181, 184, 187, 197, 206, 261, 268, 269, 270, 348, 381 Hitler, Adolf 181, 182, 255–6, 352–3, 375 Holocaust 165, 257 Holocene 72 Holy Spirit 227, 227, 228, 228 Homo deus: Homo sapiens upgrade to 43–9, 351–66; techno-humanism and 351–66 Homo sapiens: conquer the world 69, 100–51; end famine, plague and war 1–21; give meaning to the world 153–277; happiness and 29–43; Homo deus, upgrade to 21, 43–9; immortality 21–9; loses control, 279–397; problems with predicting history of 55–64 homosexuality 120, 138–9, 192–3, 195, 225–6, 236, 275 Hong Xiuquan 271 Human Effectiveness Directorate, Ohio 288 humanism 65–7, 98, 198, 219; aesthetics and 228–9, 228, 233, 233, 241–6, 242, 245; economics and 219, 230–1, 232, 232; education system and 231, 233, 233, 234; ethics 223–6, 233; evolutionary see evolutionary humanism; formula for knowledge 237–8, 241–2; homosexuality and 225–6; liberal see liberal humanism; marriage and 223–5; modern industrial farming, justification for 98; nationalism and 248–50; politics/voting and 226–7, 232, 232, 248–50; revolution, humanist 220–77; schism within 246– 57; Scientific Revolution gives birth to 96–9; socialist see socialist humanism/socialism; value of experience and 257–61; techno-humanism 351–66; war narratives and 241–6, 242, 245, 253–6; wars of religion, 1914–1991 261–7 hunter-gatherers 34, 60, 75–6, 90, 95, 96–7, 98, 140, 141, 156, 163, 169, 175, 268–9, 322, 355, 360, 361, 378 Hussein, Saddam 18, 310 IBM 315–16, 320, 330 Iliescu, Ion 136, 137 ‘imagined orders’ 142–9 see also intersubjective meaning immigration 248–50 immortality 21–9, 30, 43, 47, 50, 51, 55, 56, 64, 65, 67, 138, 179, 268, 276, 350, 394–5 in vitro fertilisation viii, 52–3 Inanna 157, 323 India: drought and famine in 3; economic growth in modern 205–8, 349; Emergency in, 1975 264, 266; Hindu revival, 19th-century 270, 271, 273; hunter-gatherers in 75–6, 96; liberalism and 264, 265; population growth rate 205–6; Spanish Flu and 9 individualism: evolutionary theory and 103–4; liberal idea of undermined by twenty-first-century science 281–306; liberal idea of undermined by twenty-first-century technology 327–46; self and 294–304, 301, 303 Industrial Revolution 57, 61, 270, 274, 318, 319, 325, 374 inequality 56, 139–43, 262, 323, 346–50, 377, 397 intelligence: animal 81, 82, 99, 127–32; artificial see artificial intelligence; cooperation and 130–1, 137; decoupling from consciousness 307–50, 352, 397; definition of 130–1; development of human 99, 130– 1, 137; upgrading human 348–9, 352 see also techo-humanism; value of consciousness and 397 intelligent design 73, 102 internet: distribution of power 374, 383; Internet-of-All-Things 380, 381, 382, 388, 390, 393, 395; rapid rise of 50 intersubjective meaning 143–51, 155–77, 179, 323, 352 Iraq 3, 17, 40, 275 Islam 8, 18, 21, 22, 64, 137, 188, 196, 205, 206, 207, 221, 226, 248, 261, 268, 269, 270, 271, 274, 275, 276, 351, 392; fundamentalist 18, 196, 226, 268, 269, 270, 275, 351 see also Muslims Islamic State (IS) 275, 351 Isonzo battles, First World War 300–2, 301 Israel 48, 96, 225–6, 249 Italy 262, 300–2, 301 Jainism 94–5 Jamestown, Virginia 298 Japan 30, 31, 33, 34, 207, 246, 349 Jefferson, Thomas 31, 192, 249, 282, 305 Jeopardy! (game show) 315–16, 315 Jesus Christ 91, 155, 183, 187, 271, 274, 297 Jews/Judaism: ancient/biblical 60, 90–1, 94, 172–3, 174, 181, 193, 194–5, 268, 390; animal welfare and 94; expulsions from early modern Europe 197, 198; Great Jewish Revolt (AD 70) 194; homosexuality and 225–6; Second World War and 164–5, 165, 182 Jolie, Angelina 332–3, 335, 347 Jones, Lieutenant Henry 254 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 354–5 Joyce, James: Ulysses 240 JSTOR digital library 383 Jung, Carl 223–4 Kahneman, Daniel 294, 295–6, 338–9 Kasparov, Garry 320–1, 320 Khmer Rouge 264 Khrushchev, Nikita 263, 273–4 Kurzweil, Ray 24, 25, 27; The Singularity is Near 381 Kyoto protocol, 1997 215–16 Lake Fayum engineering project, Egypt 161–2, 175, 178 Larson, Professor Steve 324–5 Law of the Jungle 14–21 lawns 58–64, 62, 63 lawyers, replacement by artificial intelligence of 314 Lea, Tom: That 2,000 Yard Stare (1944) 244, 245, 246 Lenin Academy for Agricultural Sciences 371–2 Lenin, Vladimir 181, 207, 251, 271, 272, 273, 375 Levy, Professor Frank 322 liberal humanism/liberalism 98, 181, 247; contemporary alternatives to 267–77; free will and 281–90, 304; humanism and see humanism; humanist wars of religion, 1914– 1991 and 261–7; individualism, belief in 290–304, 305; meaning of life and 304, 305; schism within humanism and 246–57; science undermines foundations of 281–306; technological challenge to 305–6, 307–50; value of experience and 257–9, 260, 387–8; victory of 265–7 life expectancy 5, 25–7, 32–4, 50 ‘logic bombs’ (malicious software codes) 17 Louis XIV, King 4, 64, 227 lucid dreaming 361–2 Luther, Martin 185–7, 275, 276 Luther King, Martin 263–4, 275 Lysenko, Trofim 371–2 MAD (mutual assured destruction) 265 malaria 12, 19, 315 malnutrition 3, 5, 6, 10, 27, 55 Mao Zedong 27, 165, 167, 251, 259, 263, 375 Maris, Bill 24 marriage: artificial intelligence and 337–8, 343; gay 275, 276; humanism and 223–5, 275, 276, 291, 303–4, 338, 364; life expectancy and 26 Marx, Karl/Marxism 56–7, 60, 183, 207, 247–8, 271–4; Communist Manifesto 217; Das Kapital 57, 274 Mattersight Corporation 317–18 Mazzini, Giuseppe 249–50 meaning of life 184, 222, 223, 299–306, 338, 386 Memphis, Egypt 158–9 Mendes, Aristides de Sousa 164–5, 164 Merkel, Angela 248–9 Mesopotamia 93 Mexico 8–9, 11, 263 Michelangelo 27, 253; David 260 Microsoft 15, 157, 330–1; Band 330–1; Cortana 342–3 Mill, John Stuart 35 ‘mind-reading’ helmet 44–5 Mindojo 314 MIT 322, 383 modern covenant 199–219, 220 Modi, Narendra 206, 207 money: credit and 201–5; Dataism and 352, 365, 379; intersubjective nature of 144, 145, 171, 177; invention of 157, 158, 352, 379; investment in growth 209–11 mother–infant bond 88–90 Mubarak, Hosni 137 Muhammad 188, 226, 270, 391 Murnane, Professor Richard 322 Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar 64 Muslims: Charlie Hebdo attack and 226; Crusades and 146, 147, 148, 149; economic growth, belief in 206; evaluating success of 174; evolution and 103; expulsions of from early modern Europe 197, 198; free will and 285; lawns and 64; LGBT community and 225 see also Islam Mussolini, Benito 302 Myanmar 144, 206 Nagel, Thomas 357 nanotechnology 23, 25, 51, 98, 212, 269, 344, 353 National Health Service, UK 334–5 National Salvation Front, Romania 136 NATO 264–5 Naveh, Danny 76, 96 Nayaka people 75–6, 96 Nazism 98, 164–5, 181, 182, 247, 255–7, 262–3, 375, 376, 396 Ne Win, General 144 Neanderthals 49, 156, 261, 273, 356, 378 Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylonia 172–3, 310 Nelson, Shawn 255 New York Times 309, 332–4, 347, 370 New Zealand: Animal Welfare Amendment Act, 2015 122 Newton, Isaac 27, 97–8, 143, 197 Nietzsche, Friedrich 234, 254, 268 non-organic beings 43, 45 Norenzayan, Ara 354–5 Novartis 330 nuclear weapons 15, 16, 17, 17, 131, 149, 163, 216, 265, 372 Nyerere, Julius 166 Oakland Athletics 321 Obama, President Barack 313, 375 obesity 5–6, 18, 54 OncoFinder 323 Ottoman Empire 197, 207 ‘Our Boys Didn’t Die in Vain’ syndrome 300–3, 301 Page, Larry 28 paradox of knowledge 55–8 Paris Agreement, 2015 216 Pathway Pharmaceuticals 323 Petsuchos 161–2 Pfungst, Oskar 129 pharmacists 317 pigs, domesticated 79–83, 82, 87–8, 90, 98, 99, 100, 101, 231 Pinker, Steven 305 Pius IX, Pope 270–1 Pixie Scientific 330 plague/infectious disease 1–2, 6–14 politics: automation of 338–41; biochemical pursuit of happiness and 41; liberalism and 226–7, 229, 232, 232, 234, 247–50, 247n, 252; life expectancy and 26–7, 29; revolution and 132–7; speed of change in 58 pollution 20, 176, 213–14, 215–16, 341–2 poverty 3–6, 19, 33, 55, 205–6, 250, 251, 262, 349 Presley, Elvis 159–60, 159 Problem of Other Minds 119–20, 126–7 Protestant Reformation 185–7, 198, 242–4, 242, 243 psychology: evolutionary 82–3; focus of research 353–6, 360–2; Freudian 117; humanism and 223–4, 251– 2; positive 360–2 Putin, Vladimir 26, 375 pygmy chimpanzees (bonobos) 138–9 Quantified Self movement 331 quantum physics 103, 170, 182, 234 Qur’an 170, 174, 269, 270 rats, laboratory 38, 39, 101, 122–4, 123, 127–8, 286–7 Redelmeier, Donald 296 relativity, theory of 102, 103, 170 religion: animals and 75–8, 90–8, 173; animist 75–8, 91, 92, 96–7, 173; challenge to liberalism 268; Dataism 367–97 see also Dataism; defining 180–7; ethical judgments 195–7; evolution and see evolution; formula for knowledge 235–7; God, death of 67, 234, 261, 268; humanist ethic and 234–5; monotheist 101–2, 173; science, relationship with 187–95, 197–8; scriptures, belief in 172–4; spirituality and 184–7; theist religions 90–6, 98, 274 revolutions 57, 60, 132–7, 155, 263–4, 308, 310–11 Ritalin 39, 364 robo-rat 286–7 Roman Empire 98, 191, 192, 194, 240, 373 Romanian Revolution, 1989 133–7, 138 Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) 365–6 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 223, 282, 305 Russian Revolution, 1917 132–3, 136 Rwanda 15 Saarinen, Sharon 53 Saladin 146, 147, 148, 150–1 Santino (chimpanzee) 125–7 Saraswati, Dayananda 270, 271, 273 Scientific Revolution 96–9, 197–8, 212, 236–7, 379 Scotland 4, 303–4, 303 Second World War, 1939–45 21, 34, 55, 115, 164, 253, 262–3, 292 self: animal self-consciousness 124–7; Dataism and 386–7, 392–3; evolutionary theory and 103–4; experiencing and narrating self 294–305, 337, 338–9, 343; free will and 222–3, 230, 247, 281–90, 304, 305, 306, 338; life sciences undermine liberal idea of 281–306, 328–9; monotheism and 173, 174; single authentic self, humanist idea of 226–7, 235–6, 251, 281–306, 328–41, 363–6, 390–1; socialism and self-reflection 251–2; soul and 285; techno-humanism and 363–6; technological challenge to liberal idea of 327–46, 363–6; transcranial stimulator and 289 Seligman, Martin 360 Senusret III 161, 162 September 11 attacks, New York, 2011 18, 374 Shavan, Shlomi 331 Shedet, Egypt 161–2 Silico Medicine 323 Silicon Valley 15, 24, 25, 268, 274, 351, 381 Sima Qian 173, 174 Singapore 32, 207 smallpox 8–9, 10, 11 Snayers, Pieter: Battle of White Mountain 242–4, 243, 246 Sobek 161–2, 163, 171, 178–9 socialist humanism/socialism 247–8, 250–2, 256, 259–60, 261–2, 263, 264, 265, 266–7, 271–4, 325, 351, 376 soul 29, 92, 101–6, 115–16, 128, 130, 132, 138, 146, 147, 148, 150, 160, 184–5, 186, 189, 195, 229, 272, 282, 283, 285, 291, 324, 325, 381 South Korea 33, 151, 264, 266, 294, 349 Soviet Union: communism and 206, 208, 370, 371–2; data processing and 370, 370, 371–2; disappearance/collapse of 132–3, 135, 136, 145, 145, 266; economy and 206, 208, 370, 370, 371–2; Second World War and 263 Spanish Flu 9–10, 11 Sperry, Professor Roger Wolcott 292 St Augustine 275, 276 Stalin, Joseph 26–7, 256, 391 stock exchange 105–10, 203, 210, 294, 313, 369–70, 371 Stone Age 33–4, 60, 74, 80, 131, 155, 156, 157, 163, 176, 261 subjective experience 34, 80, 82–3, 105–17, 143–4, 155, 179, 229, 237, 312, 388, 393 Sudan 270, 271, 273 suicide rates 2, 15, 33 Sumerians 156–8, 159, 162–3, 323 Survivor (TV reality show) 240 Swartz, Aaron 382–3; Guerilla Open Access Manifesto 383 Sylvester I, Pope 190–1 Syria 3, 19, 149, 171, 220, 275, 313 Taiping Rebellion, 1850–64 271 Talwar, Professor Sanjiv 286–7 techno-humanism: definition of 352–3; focus of psychological research and 353–9; human will and 363–6; upgrading of mind 359–66 technology: Dataism and see Dataism; inequality and future 346–50; liberal idea of individual challenged by 327–46; renders humans economically and militarily useless 307–27; techno-humanism and see techno-humanism Tekmira 203 terrorism 14, 18–19, 226, 288, 290, 311 Tesla 114, 322 Thatcher, Margaret 57, 372 Thiel, Peter 24–5 Third Man, The (movie) 253–4 Thirty Years War, 1618–48 242–3 Three Gorges Dam, 163, 188, 196 Thucydides 173, 174 Toyota 230, 294, 323 transcranial stimulators 44–5, 287–90, 362–3, 364 Tree of Knowledge, biblical 76–7, 77, 97, 98 tuberculosis 9, 19, 23, 24 Turing, Alan 120, 367 Turing Machine 367 Turing Test 120 23andMe 336 Twitter 47, 137, 313, 387 US Army 287–90, 362–3, 364 Uganda 192–3, 195 United States: Dataism and 374; energy usage and happiness levels in 34; evolution, suspicion of within 102; Kyoto protocol, 1997 and 215–16; liberalism, view of within 247n; nuclear weapons and 163; pursuit of happiness and 31; value of life in compared to Afghan life 100; Vietnam War and 264, 265; well-being levels 34 Universal Declaration of Human Rights 21, 24, 31 Urban II, Pope 227–8 Uruk 156–7 Valla, Lorenzo 192 Valle Giulia, Battle of, 1968 263 vampire bats 204–5 Vedas 170, 181, 270 Vietnam War, 1954–75 57, 244, 264, 265 virtual-reality worlds 326–7 VITAL 322–3 Voyager golden record 258–9 Waal, Frans de 140–1 Walter, Jean-Jacques: Gustav Adolph of Sweden at the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) 242, 243, 244–5 war 1–3, 14–19; humanism and narratives of 241–6, 242, 245, 253–6 Warsaw Pact 264–5 Watson (artificial intelligence system) 315–17, 315, 330 Watson, John 88–9, 90 Waze 341–2 web of meaning 143–9 WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic) countries, psychology research focus on 354–5, 359, 360 West Africa: Ebola and 11, 13, 203 ‘What Is It Like to Be a Bat?’ (Nagel) 357 White House lawn 62, 62, 63 Wilson, Woodrow 309 Wojcicki, Anne 336 World Cup Final, 2014 36, 37, 63 World Food Conference, Rome, 1974 5 World Health Organization 10, 11, 13 writing: algorithmic organisation of societies and 160–3; invention of 157–60, 379; shaping reality through 163–77 Yersinia pestis 7, 7 Zeus 47, 144–5, 176 About the Author YUVAL NOAH HARARI has a PhD in history from the University of Oxford and now lectures at the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializing in world history His first book, Sapiens, was translated into twenty-six languages and became a bestseller in the US, UK, France, China, Korea, and numerous other countries In 2010 he became president of the Royal Society of Literature He lives in London Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com Also by Yuval Noah Harari Sapiens Credits Cover design by Milan Bozic Cover illustration: www.stuartdaly.com Copyright HOMO DEUS Copyright © 2017 by Yuval Noah Harari All rights reserved under International and Pan- American Copyright Conventions By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks Translated by the author First published as The History of Tomorrow in Hebrew in Israel in 2015 by Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir Previously published in Great Britain in 2016 by Harvill Secker, a division of Penguin Random House Group Ltd ISBN: 978-0-06-246431-6 (International Edition) EPub Edition September 2016 ISBN 9780062663177 17 18 19 20 21 OFF/RRD 10 About the Publisher Australia HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty Ltd Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia www.harpercollins.com.au Canada HarperCollins Canada 2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada www.harpercollins.ca New Zealand HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive Rosedale 0632 Auckland, New Zealand www.harpercollins.co.nz United Kingdom HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF, UK www.harpercollins.co.uk United States HarperCollins Publishers Inc 195 Broadway New York, NY 10007 www.harpercollins.com * The formula takes a multiplication symbol because the elements work one on the other At least according to medieval scholastics, you cannot understand the Bible without logic If your logic value is zero, then even if you read every page of the Bible, the sum of your knowledge would still be zero Conversely, if your scripture value is zero, then no amount of logic can help you If the formula used the addition symbol, the implication would be that somebody with lots of logic and no scriptures would still have a lot of knowledge – which you and I may find reasonable, but medieval scholastics did not * In American politics, liberalism is often interpreted far more narrowly, and contrasted with ‘conservatism’ In the broad sense of the term, however, most American conservatives are also liberal