Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

by Yuval Noah Harari

humdrum

iota

dogma,

That I am an ‘in-dividual’ implies that my true self is a holistic entity rather than an assemblage of separate parts. This indivisible essence allegedly endures from one moment to the next without losing or absorbing anything.

That’s why the theory of evolution cannot accept the idea of souls, at least if by ‘soul’ we mean something indivisible, immutable and potentially eternal. Such an entity cannot possibly result from a step-by-step evolution.

Evolution means change, and is incapable of producing everlasting entities.

However, throughout this process the robot doesn’t experience anything. In contrast, a human being depleted of energy feels hunger and craves to stop this unpleasant sensation.

ascribe

eponymous

Subjective experiences explained human actions.

what happens in the mind that doesn’t happen in the brain?

ether,

loom.

ascertain

To do so the scientists started with the assumption that whenever humans report that they are conscious of something, they can be believed.

‘Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviours. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness.

sentient

The Canadian province of Quebec has since passed a similar Act, and other countries are likely to follow suit.

apathetic

flail

Only humans understand themselves as an enduring self that has a past and a future, perhaps because only humans can use language in order to contemplate their past experiences and future actions.

bales

straw

He is simply overwhelmed by an unexplained ecstasy.15

When I donate money to a beggar, am I not reacting to the unpleasant sensations that the sight of the beggar causes me to feel? Do I really care about the beggar, or do I simply want to feel better myself?16

Prussian

Twenty thousand years ago, the average Sapiens probably had higher intelligence and better toolmaking skills than the average Sapiens of today.

but because Homo sapiens is the only species on earth capable of cooperating flexibly in large numbers.

alacrity,

Flanked

cronies

apparatchiks

hallowed

pygmy

Sapiens don’t behave according to a cold mathematical logic, but rather according to a warm social logic.

incensed.

siphon

Intersubjective entities depend on communication among many humans rather than on the beliefs and feelings of individual humans.

Yet in truth the lives of most people have meaning only within the network of stories they tell one another.

enmeshed

dishevelled

gaggle

hence,

chimeras.

dammed

wove

The Agricultural Revolution, which began about 12,000 years ago, provided the necessary material base for enlarging and strengthening the intersubjective networks.

tithes

tilling

merging the priest-king with the god to create a living deity – pharaoh.