Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don't know what they want?
Yuval Harari, born in 1976, is an Israeli historian and professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The quote above is from his previous book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, (2011 in Hebrew, 2014 in English), which makes the point that human culture in the post-tribal age of large populations derives its coherence from "fictions," mental constructs with no concrete reality, such as gods, money, laws, nations and human rights.
In his new book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (available now in the U.K. and in the U.S. in February), Harari describes our future: Through bio-engineering, artificial intelligence and advancing medicine, we will become, by definition, gods, with indefinitely long lives and complete creative license to design ourselves and our environments.
Yuval Harari, born in 1976, is an Israeli historian and professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The quote above is from his previous book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, (2011 in Hebrew, 2014 in English), which makes the point that human culture in the post-tribal age of large populations derives its coherence from "fictions," mental constructs with no concrete reality, such as gods, money, laws, nations and human rights.
In his new book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (available now in the U.K. and in the U.S. in February), Harari describes our future: Through bio-engineering, artificial intelligence and advancing medicine, we will become, by definition, gods, with indefinitely long lives and complete creative license to design ourselves and our environments.
Harari's logic is compelling, though one might add that we don't know
what a god is, only what it does. As in physics, where we label atomic
particles in terms of their behavior and effects on other particles- not in terms of what
they are, which we don't know- so, even though we may define a god as "a super-human being or spirit worshipped as having power over nature or
human fortunes" (OED), that describes what a god does, not what it is. Whatever a god is, though, that's what we're going to be, Harari writes. The transformation will usher
in the age of Homo Deus, and herald the eclipse of Homo Sapiens. In other
words, we're about to go extinct:
Every day
millions of people decide to grant their smartphone a bit more control over
their lives or try a new and more effective antidepressant drug. In
pursuit of health, happiness and power, humans will gradually change first one
of their features and then another, and another, until they will no longer be
human.
Harari is as much concerned with our progeny's difficulties
in figuring out how to be gods as he is with our extinction:
When humankind
possesses enormous new powers, and when the threat of famine, plague and war is
finally lifted, what will we do with ourselves? What will the scientists,
investors, bankers and presidents do all day? Write poetry?
He may have
answered his own question. Others have come to the same conclusion about our final purpose. One of Arthur C. Clarke's visions of ultimate humanity (The City and the Stars, 1956) features
two small human settlements on a desert-covered earth of the far future. One of the groups lives in a self-sustaining mechanical environment which no one has any idea how to
operate or repair (fortunately it repairs itself). Inhabitants spend their time
writing poems which they send to each other. The other group lives a tribal, nomadic life in
portable tents. Their distinguishing feature is that they are telepathic,
so no one can lie. Presumably they handle honesty by speaking to each
other in poetry.
By the way, I ran
some of these ideas by my gila monster friend, Robert (to hear my discussion of
Robert with Dr. Cheryl Lubin on her show, In
Our Times, click on http://latalkradio.com/…/defa…/files/audio/Cheryl-092016.mp3),
and he was somewhat contemptuous. He told me (telepathically- the only
way to speak with gilas) that his kind had achieved this putative godlike state
eons ago. He said all it represents is re-entrance to the cosmic womb,
which he said is humankind's goal, though we won't admit it.
I think at this
point I owe my readers a poem.
If I were a god
By Harry the
Human
If I were a god
I'd find it odd
that even a
clod
who'd been so
awed
by seeming
divinity
though he felt
no affinity
lurched in the void
feeling scared
and annoyed
where a soul
should have buoyed
godlike views,
not destroyed
them.
Yes, imagine it: I
am a god, writing poems like this for all eternity!
Harari is an exceptionally thorough, clear and fascinating author, the perfect antidote to the irrelevant pabulum of the American presidential campaign. I highly recommend him!
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