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Homo Deus
Yuval Noah Harari
Contributed by Andrea Barraza
Content
Overview
Context
Themes
Reviews
Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
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Chapter 1
Summary

The first chapter of the book, titled ‘The New Human Agenda’, serves more as an introductory chapter, detailing some of the challenges and accomplishments that human beings have been experiencing over the course of time. In this chapter, Harari discusses the past and future, more specifically with regards to what may be experienced in the third millennium. The author discusses the challenges that have faced people in other periods, such as epidemics, starvation, and violence. In the third millennium, humanity has managed to ‘rein’ in famine, plague, and war (Harari 7). Thus, human beings of the future are likely to deal with the problems that are currently a major headache for us. Harari also discusses that human beings of the future are likely to be more proactive in dealing with the challenges they face. For instance, where they happen to experience a case of famine, they are less likely to leave it to fate; but rather, they will deem it as a misgiving and never allow it to happen. The author states that, “When faced with such failures we no longer shrug our shoulders” (Harari 8). In other words, they are keen to identify the specific strategies to handle the failure they encounter. They believe that they have a lot within their power to handle the different problems they face, hence human beings will be more interested in setting up a commission of inquiry to determine the reasons for the problems and make enough strides to handle it effectively. The strategy will also aim to prevent such a scenario from ever happening again.

The author also discusses that, with each passing year, human beings have become increasingly alarmed by the epidemics being faced, with some of these including SARS, Ebola, swine flu and the Black Death. Despite the challenges, human beings have managed to overcome these through time, where they now have a lesser impact than during their initial inception (Harari 21). Thus, the situation indicates that human beings of the future are likely to be even more sophisticated and capable of dealing with the various health problems that face us today. In just the same way smallpox had been completely eradicated, human beings of the future are more likely to completely eradicate the various diseases they will face (Harari 22).

Analysis

The ideas poised by Harari presents some of the major outcomes that may be achieved in the third millennium. The advancements made in the past showcases the likelihood of much-better outcomes in the future as people continue to conduct research. Harari’s thoughts showcase some of the major outcomes that may be achieved in the third millennium. For instance, problems such as famine and diseases are likely to be well-handled. The author also shows some level of optimism in future generations, drawing comparisons on the minor advancements that have been made in the area of smallpox and other diseases. Notably, he appears positive that human beings are likely to grow in their complexities and intellect, which will enable them to handle the problems they encounter more capably.

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