50 pages 1 hour read

Yuval Noah Harari

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2015

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Background

Philosophical Context: The Evolution of Human Thought and Its Impact on Modern Ideologies

The philosophical underpinnings of Homo Deus are rooted in the historical evolution of human thought, particularly the shift from a God-centered to a human-centered worldview. This transition, influenced by the Enlightenment era, fundamentally altered the way humans perceive their place in the universe.

In the pre-Enlightenment era, theocentric views dominated, positioning a divine force as the central element of existence and human life. Knowledge, ethics, and purpose were predominantly understood in the context of divine will and religious doctrines. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Enlightenment, building upon the intellectual currents of the Renaissance—marked a radical shift. It championed reason, science, and individualism, gradually leading to a human-centric worldview. This shift laid the groundwork for ideologies like humanism, which places human desires at the forefront of philosophical thought and politics.

The book explores this intellectual journey but takes it a step further by examining the concept of dataism. Dataism, emerging from the current technological and scientific milieu, posits a paradigm where the flow and processing of data become central to understanding the universe, surpassing the importance of human-centric narratives. This ideology reflects the latest evolution in thought, where the reliance on and trust in algorithms and data processing challenges the supremacy of human-centric perspectives.