Homo Deus

By: Yuval Noah Harari

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Yuval Noah Harari, author of the best-selling Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, envisions a not-too-distant world in which we face a new set of challenges. Now, in Homo Deus, he examines our future with his trademark blend of science, history, philosophy and every discipline in between.

Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the 21st 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. War is obsolete. You are more likely to commit suicide than be killed in conflict. Famine is disappearing. You are at more risk of obesity than starvation. Death is just a technical problem. Equality is out - but immortality is in. What does our future hold?

©2016 Yuval Noah Harari (P)2016 Random House Audiobooks

The book is great but the narrative is incomplete

I read and listen to audible at the same time. I realised that the narration of the book is incomplete. The narrator tend to skip a few paragraphs. Due to this reason, i have to constantly pause the audiobook in order to read the paragraph myself.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

If you want to have your mind bend and stretched a bit, this book is for you

If Homo Sapiens gave me a few different and deeper perspectives about humanity, then Homo Deus really stretched my big picture systematic thinking mind into different orbits.

I can cery well see some of the scenarios discussed here come to fruition- in fact I see many of the trains having left the stations already.

If anything, the book assumes to have figured out consciousness as a mere emergent property of complex networks and algorithms for which the scientific community has no consensus yet. The possibility that human computational powers extend still deeper than the presumed smart algorithms of the future cannot be discarded. In fact, that seems to me to be our only hope of survival as a species.

Excellent book! Really excellent!!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Harari invites you to open your mind and read

Getting through vanishing od human kind is not that bad after someone explains it this way. Each story is just a subjective view, but this one serves to open your eyes and mind and take in more and more information and wonderful ideas.

very informative

mind-blowing research, abundance of information, thought provoking insight into the history and future, makes the reader to recall what was read and think about it

Basic info on a future

You will not learn something new if you are working for a venture capital investment fund ;) then you will have a general review on current investment opportunities in innovation field )

Mind bending page turner

Absolutely loved this book. If you are a futurist and have a curiosity about the evolution of human existence, then this book is for you. It’s captivating and written to leave you with equal amounts of questions and answers.

Intelligence vs Consciousness.

A great read, it relate a lot to Tedmark book Life 3.0. The future is data! I wonder how Yuval Harari feels about data and internet influence in the past US election , it's exactly like how this book predicts our future!

Nugget Full Material

You don't read this type of book just once. It is a lifetime study material .

Awesome book

I revisited this book and I found new interesting ideas that I missed the first time. One of all time favorites for me!

excellent and confusing

Homo Deus was a book that had to be written. It jogs through hundreds of historical, philosophical, metaphysical, economic, political, technological and psychological issues - skewering them together to present quite a few forward looking possibilities. I liked the way that it was done, but it ends up being a work of literature and not a resource for critical thinking. This is not a criticism - it allowed me to pull back slightly from the hardcore intellectual train of thought and enjoy it for what it is - a story. If the reader is not too critical of the academic and technical positions held up throughout, she will be left with much to ponder about for a long time to come.

The author himself provides the antidote should the reader find herself either furiously opposed to some of the views, or uncomfortably in agreement with some of the opinions - don't take it too seriously. If you do, you might want to take some other things in this world more seriously and that is a slippery slope with no useful outcome.

The story-line is woven together from so many facts - none of which are exhaustively examined so it ends up being pleasant and not hard work to keep track. If you can't make sense of it - not to worry, the author will provide you with a sufficient amount of leading provided you don't mind "going with it" for the time being.

So when I say I would have liked for it to have been better written, I am specifically referring the fact that I like where the book lands in the end and the viewpoint that unfolds. The (sometimes) incoherent turns and cut-backs that the author takes to arrive at this outcome undermines the seriousness of the final realization.

I enjoyed reading it, but had to hold on at times not to become too involved or too uninterested in order to get to the magnificent final conclusions. The nature of the content also does not offer much opportunity for the narrator - who does a fine job of not overdoing the reading, yet doing justice to the story-line and at times technical navigation of facts and concepts.

Full of "wow, I never thought of it like that!"

Where does Homo Deus rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

A really great follow-up to Sapiens. It didn't go in the direction I expected, but Harari, as ever, gives you lots and lots of food for thought!

What did you like best about this story?

The author manages to point out parallels in history that seem totally obvious once you hear them, but you'd never have thought of yourself. Then he extrapolates forward in a logical way to reach some very interesting, and sometimes challenging, predictions.

What does Derek Perkins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Personally I find this kind of non-fiction fascinating, but sometimes difficult to engage with when I'm not fresh. But by listening to it, so much of the hard work of bringing meaning out from the words is done by the narrator, so you can literally just sit back and listen.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

For me, this was one to take in in sections. The chapters are arranged logically and sensibly, and I like to absorb and reflect on one before I move on to the next

25 of 25 people found this review helpful

Second best book I've read

it stands just after Sapiens...amazing book! This book should be mandatory at schools, would make the difference.

19 of 21 people found this review helpful

Brilliant vision of where we might be heading

Brilliant, insightful, well researched and thought-provoking vision of the future of mankind. Disturbing and saddening in parts to realise the accuracy of his observations and logical extrapolation into the Brave new world that may await us.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Fascinating

Excellent book, incredibly thought provoking and challenging. Walks you through religious history to religious future and makes you question your existing prejudices.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

All that but no bag of chips

What did you like best about Homo Deus? What did you like least?

Conclusion and that it was a sequel to Sapiens even though I think it did not live up to the glory of Sapiens.

If you’ve listened to books by Yuval Noah Harari before, how does this one compare?

I rated Sapiens 5 and Homo Deus 3.5 (out of 5).

What does Derek Perkins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He has a great voice and his narration style for this book is spot on because it is similar to the narration of a well done documentary.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

I don't see how it could be made into a movie but who knows. I would only watch as a follow up to Sapiens being made into a documentary-like movie.

Any additional comments?

Once in a while a book comes along that blows your mind. So much so that you just can't help but sing its praise to anyone who chats with you for more than five mins. Sapiens was such a book for me. I was looking forward to Homo Deus but unfortunately it was not worth my anticipation. There were parts repeated from Sapiens which I guess were included to give context to anyone who hasn't read Sapiens. A bit annoying but fair enough. I could have lived with that if chapters did not fill me with anticipation only to fall flat.

Overall I still give Homo Deus 3.5 stars (out of 5) because it pushes the boundaries of our present day beliefs (what Harari calls the 'myths' we tell ourselves) and for the conclusion which still manages to leave the reader intrigued, challenged and, for some, resigned to the notion that the world is well on its way to that conclusion unless something gives.

Thankfully, the narration is good and Harari's brilliance still shines through the paragraphs. I can't help but wonder what else that brilliance would have unearthed if Harari had taken his sweet time with this sequel.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

What an eye opener

This book gives such a wide perspective on the really big issues facing humanity as we rush forward into a new age of connectivity.
Part history ,part speculation, for best results read with an open mind

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Yuval & Derek do it again!

What a book! Great ideas & concepts which are brilliantly read. Top book. If you liked the first then you will like this too!

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

Very thought provoking

Another excellent book by this author. Highly recommended. Some of his ideas and conclusions are difficult to take, but his logic is strong. Making us think was probably his purpose. Although tempting to listen without a break it probably better to take a break after each chapter and reflect on it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

peak behind the curtain

fabulous look into how current society has come to be and where is mostly likely natural course will take it. a must read for an inquisitive mind.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

thought provoking

yuval takes you on a tour you are not expecting. challenging, thought provoking, and insightful. I will digest this and return for another serving again.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful