Sapiens & Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harrari
Book Review
What’s the best nonfiction book you’ve read recently? I read Sapiens in January and just recently finished Homo Deus. While both are incredible reads, Homo Deus was my favorite of the two.
Sapiens relays the history of human kind - from the beginning of Homo Sapiens and hunter gatherer tribes, to the cognitive, agricultural and scientific revolutions all the way up to modern times. The book relies not just on history, but biology, economics, anthropology and more to explore the question of how and why Homo Sapiens became superior to all other living species. Spoiler alert - our species success in the battle for dominance is largely due to our ability to coordinate.
While I didn’t necessarily agree with all of the author’s philosophical theories, he certainly presents a thought-provoking perspective. If you’re a history buff (or were a history major like me 😉), I highly recommend adding this to you TBR list. It’s certainly a dense read - I felt like I was reading a history textbook half the time - but worth the persistence.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars
Homo Deus, the follow-up to Sapiens, explores the intriguing (though sometimes frightening) future of humankind. Harari, the author, makes the argument that in the not so distant future, Homo Sapiens will essentially merge with technology to create a new, more highly advanced species. Now that we have reigned in many of the destructive forces of the past - like war, famine and plague - Homo Sapiens will inevitable turn their attention to controlling aspects of life that were previously reserved for the gods - things like overcoming death.
I swear the creators of Westworld must have read Homo Deus before writing season 3, as many of the plot lines in the most recent season resemble the predictions made by Harari. Again, this is certainly a dense read - but incredibly fascinating and worth the time.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars