Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

by Yuval Noah Harari

Suppose you live in a medieval town that suffers from annual outbreaks of dysentery. You resolve to find a cure. You need funding to set up a workshop, buy medicinal herbs and exotic chemicals, pay assistants and travel to consult with famous doctors. You also need money to feed yourself and your family while you are busy with your research. But you don’t have much money. You can approach the local miller, baker and blacksmith and ask them to meet all your needs for a few years, promising that when you finally discover the cure and become wealthy, you will pay your debts. Unfortunately, the miller, baker and blacksmith are unlikely to consent. They need to feed their families today, and they have no faith in miracle medicines. They weren’t born yesterday, and in all their years they have never heard of anyone finding a new medicine for some dreaded disease. If you want provisions – you have to pay cash. But how can you get the money when you haven’t discovered the medicine yet, and all your time is taken up with research? Reluctantly, you go back to tilling your field, dysentery keeps tormenting the townsfolk, nobody tries to develop new remedies, and not a single gold coin changes hands. That’s how the economy languished, and science stood still.