Homo Deus (Harari) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Homo Deus … then take off on your own:

1. Yuval Noal Harari insists that human beings have never had free will. He writes provocatively that "the free individual is just a fictional tale concocted by an assembly of biochemical algorithms." Talk about what he means. Do you agree with him? Why or why not? (By the way, what do you make of the author's concession on page 399 that perhaps we aren't algorithms after all? Does that undercut everything that went before?)

2. Harari makes the case in his book that we are at a point in human history in which famine, disease, and war are no longer the existential threats they once were: we can now manage them and reduce their devastation. Is he correct? And if so, what are the implications of that?

3. Do you agree, as the author posits, that we humans "are in fact trying to upgrade [our]selves into gods." What he does mean — and how, according to the the author, might that spell our doom?

4. We now have the technical ability to select embryos with the most optimal health or to slow down our aging process. Good things … or bad?

5. What frightens you most about the future? Do you see the possibility of humanity, as Harari imagines, breaking off into securely isolated islands of perfect beings with re-engineered brains and bodies? (Have you seen Westworld?) Or perhaps you envision machines endowed with artificial intelligence taking over our lives, becoming our overlords? (How about 2001 Space Odyssey?)

6. Harari predicts that at some point it will be feasible for a machine not only to reveal a diagnosis but also to explain to us what it means. As Harari writes: "how about receiving the news from an attentive machine that tailors its words to [our] feelings and personality type." Is that appealing? Or does it bother you? Would you rather have a flesh and blood doctor tell you your medical fate, even one with a lousy bedside manner, or a computer with soothing voice and affect?

7. Do you think Harari is an alarmist? Or do his prognostications have merit? Where do you see humanity heading?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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