Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

by Yuval Noah Harari

For the first time in history, more people die today from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals combined.

drought

wretchedness

dallying

starch,

byword

bitumen

serendipity,

hastily

rescinded.

myriad

glitch.

Death has become an almost automatic reason for lawsuits and investigations. ‘How could they have died? Somebody somewhere must have screwed up.’

baulk

moguls

explained that worshipping gods is a waste of time, that there is no existence after death, and that happiness is the sole purpose of life.

the right to the pursuit of happiness, not the right to happiness itself.

rosy

happiness depends on expectations rather than objective conditions.

orthodoxy.

ephemeral

gimmick.

transient

tedium.

pupils

vehemently

This is an existential threat to the social and economic order, which is why countries wage a stubborn, bloody and hopeless war on biochemical crime.

Such sensations are just ephemeral and meaningless vibrations. Even when we experience them, we don’t react to them with contentment; rather, we just crave for more. Hence no matter how many blissful or exciting sensations I may experience, they will never satisfy me.

When the mind learns to see our sensations for what they are – ephemeral and meaningless vibrations – we lose interest in pursuing them.

substratum.

tinkering

amoeba

inasmuch

After all, our wildest dreams are still the product of organic chemistry.

fathom

Confucius

foibles,

dallied

parched

aghast

Since no one understands the system any more, no one can stop it.

Viagra began life as a treatment for blood-pressure problems.

offspring,

ubiquitous

amendment.

Once you achieve a momentous breakthrough, you cannot restrict its use to healing and completely forbid using it for upgrading.

eugenics

patently

woes.

shacks,