Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Yuval Noah Harari

Feb 2017 · HarperAudio · Narrated by Derek Perkins

About this audiobook

Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed 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 self-made 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 twenty-first 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.

Ratings and reviews

After completing 46% of the book I find this work only that much engaging as his previous book "Sapiens". His first book was insightful with an analysis of facts I could use to further increase my understanding with a broader picture I can appreciate and integrate into my own thoughts. I was learning. This book consists mostly of a philosophical perspective of hypotheticals that may or may not be useful in the sense that humans are nuanced and our political and evolutionary course might go into the direction he narrated but might not. He emphasizes his atheist contempt of theist doctrine way too much to the point it feels like an opinion piece. In 46% of the book I'm still waiting on him to get to a point. I recommend his first book "Sapiens" over this.

The book is well written and the narotor reads the book in a pleasing and clear manner. However, I do not agree with the author's suggested path forward for humanity based on the "lack of evidence " logos he offerd for such a mind numbed future for most people ( The Proliterie or "Prols" I believe they would be called)... I do recommend reading this interesting book. I think that we must be willing to listen to and serious consider opposing idaliogys to avoid falling into stagnation and appathe.

This was a perfectly balanced book. Starting from the beginning of time and bring it forward to today. Alot of interesting information, that will really have your scraching your help as the information set in.

About the author

Prof. Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling historian and philosopher, is considered one of the world’s most influential intellectuals today. His popular books—including Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind; Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow; 21 Lessons for the 21st Century; and the series Sapiens: A Graphic History and Unstoppable Us—have sold more than 45 million copies in 65 languages. Harari co-founded Sapienship, a social impact company with projects in the fields of education and storytelling, whose main goal is to focus the public conversation on the most important global challenges facing the world today. Harari has a PhD in history from the University of Oxford and currently lectures in the department of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.