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hey everybody welcome to another impact
books book report this is long overdue
in my opinion but it is also one of the
books that I am absolutely um unsure of
how I'm going to pull this together and
do a book review this book is massive it
is a book called homodeus by my boy yval
Noah Harari he also wrote um Homo
sapiens or just sapiens excuse me which
was also a fascinating book I loved that
um this is sort of picking up where that
left off and asking the question and
positing some answers of where are we
going as uh the human species and he
paints a very interesting I cannot tell
you how intriguing I found this book but
also found that he was maybe a little
Bleak um in the end but this this book
really is utterly fascinating I for
anybody that's just curious um this is a
book you will not regret reading so um
I'm going to have to heavily rely on my
notes on this one it was very very dense
book and to avoid just sort of waffling
around um I'm going to give it to you
right from my notes so he makes a very
structured logical argument he lays out
who we are and that's really the first
movement of the book is to understand
humans um how our societies function how
we work how our brains work um and it
goes something like this um basically
that the humans have two imperative
drives they're always going to have that
are always going to be pushing them
forward one is um searching for true
immortality and two is happiness and
those are two things that are so innate
to who we are as human beings that were
never going to give up the search for
either of those so even if they both lay
truly outside the grasp of what human
beings are capable of which many people
think immortality is one of those things
I obviously do not um but that they are
so hardwired into us to want them that
we're always going to chase them and
there's huge business around it so we're
always going to to want that now
remember all of these arguments are
going to seem a little bit random at
first but they add up to some of his
conclusions so it's important to go
through um his next saying is on
happiness that's very interesting take
and he says that Evolution has
programmed happiness to be fleeting and
I've talked a lot about the difference
between emonic happiness which is
framework happiness it's becoming
something it's using Techni or a skill
in order to serve others and that fills
you with this sense of well-being but
one thing um
that I never really get into is even UD
demonic happiness is something that
comes and goes now it may be more
lasting than the momentary happiness of
eating a bowl of ice cream but he makes
a very compelling argument that every
kind of happiness is ultimately fleeting
and the example that he gives is he said
imagine that you ate one meal and you
had an eternal feeling of bliss and you
never you know were bothered to go eat
again and so you would eventually starve
to death you wouldn't pass on your jeans
or likewise imagine if you had one one
orgasm and it left you with an eternal
feeling of bliss uh you would never seek
to have another orgasm which means that
you wouldn't be spreading your genes and
so this that's why every one of our base
level human drivers is by its very
nature fleeting and that was uh just a
very succinct way of something that I've
spent a lot of time thinking about and I
found that really really interesting and
that fleeting nature again is going to
add up to where we're going as a species
to understand these drivers for
immortality for happiness that all of
these pleasurable things all of these
things that drive our behavior all of
them are are designed to be fleeting to
be ephemeral to be something that we we
have to keep going back for um really
inform sort of where he believes that
we're headed all right emotions are
biochemical algorithms the notion of
algorithms are really important to him
um and we'll get into um some of the the
what he calls new religions and dataism
being one of the new religions that
really rides on algorithms so this
notion of him explaining humans even
as being algorithmically driven is
pretty interesting um and he says that
algorithms are one of the most
fundamental building blocks of life
period And if we're going to understand
how human works we really do have to
understand algorithms and emotions are
essentially the most efficient way for
the algorithms to communicate back with
us and so um he talks about the
subconscious being where we can process
data in a way that is faster and vaster
so the conscious mind is um as Jamie
wheel explains it sort of the um the
headline
it's your subconscious is delivering up
sort of after the fact is it's you know
assessing its surroundings and all of
that it's feeding up these headlines and
that's what you experience in your
conscious mind but really below the
surface are all these algorithms vast
algorithms that are running that are
able to process and parse and assimilate
an insane amount of data now it would be
way too slow of a process for us to have
a sort of rational understanding of what
we're experiencing so what he saying is
the algorithms speak to us in emotions
so the emotions that we experience um
are actually just algorithmically driven
and it's the subconscious way of
speaking to the conscious mind so that
we will act very very rapidly and the
example that he gives in the book is a
baboon that's going after a bushel of
bananas that are between it and a tiger
and will it be able to get to the bushel
of bananas and Escape faster than the
tiger will be able to close distance and
it has to process a lot of data how fast
it is how fast the tiger is the distance
it is from the bananas the distance the
tiger is from the bananas um is the
tiger does it seem hungry or does it
seem disinterested all of those things
are going to factor into this baboon's
decision but it's not thinking about
that all on a conscious level it sees
the tiger sees the bananas and it has a
gut feeling to either go for it or turn
and run in the opposite direction and
that feeling of unease or confidence is
the algorithms that's them speaking up
to you and emotions uh he does a really
good job of explaining that and I found
that utterly interesting and it made um
all of my emotions that much more
relevant when it makes it feel like it's
this conversation that I'm having with
my subconscious um processes and by the
way that's something that's really
useful in life is to when you get that
feeling and this is something I've
talked about before in terms of how do
you become more introspective how do you
become more self-aware is to realize
like when you feel something weird in
your gut something feels off there is an
algorithm running and it is trying to
tell you something something once you
understand that none of those Sensations
are random or halfhazard and they are
very much the result of um your unique
algorithms which have to do not only
with your genetics but your upbringing
and everything that's going on in your
life that it is uh trying to tell you
something and so whether or not you
listen to that is going to be determined
by what your goals are and so anyway we
could go off and whole tangent on that
we won't but that that's the way um that
the subconscious is speaking to you all
right uh whatever the dominant form of
Mythology is in human society is really
going to shape the very fabric of that
society and as we started getting into
this um I found this incredibly
interesting and he said that when
cultures um were more animist so we
viewed ourselves as being sort of at one
we were one piece of the cosmos we were
one piece of the planet and so um we
didn't necessarily view ourselves as any
better than um other animals so if we
were walking through the forest and we
came across a snake or um a tiger
whatever um animist societies may
actually speak to that animal and say
something like hey we're both here
looking for food I won't mess with you
if you don't mess with me and there's a
real sense of connection but as we move
out of an animist society and we go into
a society whose dominant form of
Mythology is theist then everything
changes and in theist religions um
you're living in a world where uh
basically the plants and animals are um
under human dominion and God has granted
us uh special status as human beings and
basically he says that this shift has
massive implications in terms of how we
treat animals in the environment which
we can certainly see um and it's really
the shift that has allowed us to slash
and burn entire rainforests and do uh
farming animal farming the way that we
do now which really wouldn't be possible
if we didn't have a dominant form of
Mythology that gave us dominion over all
of those things um so thought that was
interesting and I was very curious sort
of where he was going with this and
building on it um but ultimately where
he's going to take you is to the point
of saying okay we have a new religion
now and that new religion now is
humanism and that has implications but
does he think we're going to make the
crossover into our sort of next
generation of being a human um while
we're still human uh humanists or do we
transition what he calls dataism we'll
get to that in a minute um I'll just
read my direct note on this next point
that he makes dear God this is
fascinating uh the thing about mythology
and religion that allows humans to
cooperate in very large groups is that
they have um they're able to believe
that what their fellow humans are doing
is uh a natural lot or a commandment
from God now where this gets really
interesting he goes into um the Crusades
he goes into the Pharaohs in Egypt and
how the mythology played into the way
that everybody was treating each other
and um he talks about the Crusades being
sort of this fascinating moment where
you had two exact um mirrored belief
systems but they were opposing but
because they were mirrored we were able
to get into this huge clash between
Christianity and Islam but it was only
because you had two competing uh
religions that both believed in a single
God both believed that they were meant
to fight and die for the holy land that
they had to recapture that if either of
them had believed even just a slight
different variation other than my God is
the one true God my God is the one true
God and it's different than yours uh the
Holy Land Is Mine The Holy Land Is Mine
uh we have to kill the infidels we have
to kill the infidels right so it
literally it all lines up which is why
there was the just catastrophic
Collision that there was but if one of
the groups had dominant mythology that
said um you know like take one that's
animist right that we're all a part of
this and this land isn't anymore mine
than it is yours when you came to take
it over more likely than anything I
would back off and I would find other
pass to um deal with there would be no
sense of like holy ownership and a need
to fight for that land and I just like
the way he looked at it through the lens
and in fact this is one of the things
that he says is imagine you look back at
the Crusades you think oh my gosh that's
so ridiculous or you look back at the
way the pyramids were built using slave
labor and you think oh my gosh that's so
ridiculous and yet what are the beliefs
that we believe now that 100 years or
200 years from now people will look at
and say that's ridiculous idul so every
society looks back and even you know 100
years ago or 200 years ago and it all
seems patently ridiculous but we are
living through one of those moments
right now and thinking
about our own period and all the beliefs
that we have and we're about to get that
um get into that with humanism because
it made me realize I'm a humanist like
and I had no idea that there was even a
name for it um that ultimately almost
most certainly future Generations are
going to look back on it like it's just
sort of obviously ridiculous
um and then um he goes into defining
that there are three types of reality
one subjective two objective and three
inner subjective um the one that's
really interesting here is inner
subjective and money is the best example
so something that's an inner subjective
truth is something that is only true
because we all agree that it's true so
money is really just paper or gez in
today's modern era it's like uh zeros
and ones in a computer somewhere um so
that is only valuable as long as we all
agree that it's valuable and if we all
stopped agreeing that it was valuable it
would immediately cease to be valuable
so take Bitcoin right Bitcoin people
started saying hey it's valuable it's
worth something and because that because
they were willing to trade it for goods
and services then it actually became
valuable um so that's really interesting
and this the notion of remember these
are all bricks that he's building to
lead up to like what's that Next
Movement so inter subjectivity becomes
critically important as you begin to ask
a question which he basically is
positing that we're ultimately going to
be taking over um the programming of the
human being that will basically invade
our own DNA that we will make
modifications um that it will be um sort
of he doesn't quite say this but
basically the concept is it'll be as
easily editable as um you know text on a
computer now so we eventually get to the
point where we can go in edit our DNA
we're going to have to then make
decisions about in what direction we
edit it and and those decisions are
going to be based entirely on the inner
subjective things that we value even
though they're not objectively valuable
um we're going to shape the next
generation of humanity in directions
based on that inner subjective truth so
what are inner subjective truths where
will we put our emphasis what are we
going to evolve ourselves into it's
pretty crazy um he notes that we're the
only animal that can imagine things that
we have not seen so other animals in the
animal kingdom use their forms of
communication to describe the world as
they see
but humans are the only ones that can
describe things like money companies
governments all right and this is where
it gets really interesting um in trying
to really explain explain the driver
shaping the human behavior of large
groups of people um he says that um you
can't just look at the neurons and
firing patterns in the brain you have to
understand uh the inner subjective
reality that I was talking about of
cultures and he said take North and
South Korea for instance they aren't so
different um from a genetic or
environmental standpoint um and yet they
have massive differences but their
differences are because they have
dramatically different inter subjective
fictions and that they believe um they
have very different inner subjective
fictions that they believe in and adhere
to uh the following is a direct quote
from the book by the way I just thought
this so interesting I took the time to
write all of this down verbatim um maybe
this is a quote maybe someday
breakthroughs in neurobiology will
enable us to explain communism and the
Crusades in strictly biochemical terms
yet we are very far from that point
during the 21st century the border
between history and biology is likely to
blur not because we will discover
biological explanations for historical
events but rather because ideological
fictions will rewrite DNA strands so the
quote continues but I'm just going to
interject here and say um that's what I
was talking about that we're going to
Value certain things we're going to
begin to manipulate our DNA code um and
make new humans in our own liking and
the things that we believe should be
good but like how tall should they be
how smart should they be should they be
empathetic should they be less
empathetic like what does all that look
like more emotional less emotional
should they be like Spock and pure
rationality like we're going to make
those decisions and they are very much
decisions based on inner subjective
truth um which that this whole part like
I just found insanely interesting
political and economic interest will
redesign the climate and the geography
of M mountains and rivers will give way
to cyberspace as human fictions are
translated into genetic and electronic
codes the inner subjective reality will
swallow up the objective reality and
biology will merge with history in the
21st century fiction might thereby
become the most potent force on Earth
surpassing even Wayward asteroids and
natural selection hence if we want to
understand our future cracking genomes
and crunching numbers is hardly enough
we must also decipher the fictions that
give meaning to our world all right so
when he talks about fiction there he's
talking about those in subjective
fictions that we're all telling
ourselves the religions that we believe
in the value systems that we have that
we have created that don't necessarily
have a foot and objective reality and so
what we choose to Value as we begin to
shape um DNA as we begin to I mean think
about crisper cast 9 and our ability to
go in and live literally edit our um
genome I mean it's it's really
fascinating to think where this is going
to go um I take a very optimistic
approach I think that we will um lean on
the better angels of our nature and I
think that good things will come out of
this um he paints maybe a little more
objectively balanced uh notion but I
think he leans a little um to the gloomy
side but nonetheless uh just incredibly
interesting um and he's saying uh
fiction isn't bad in fact this is a
quote fiction isn't bad it's vital
without commonly accepted stories about
things like money States or
corporations um no complex Human Society
can function we can't play football
unless everyone believes in the same
madeup rules and we can't enjoy the
benefits of the markets and courts
without similar makeb believe stories
but the stories are just tools they
should not become our goals or our yard
sticks when we forget that they are mere
fiction we lose touch with reality end
quote um this is where he gets into into
the new religions so humanism is a new
religion humanism sees Life as a process
of gradual interchange leading from
ignorance to Enlightenment by means of
experiences the highest aim of the
humanist life is to fully develop your
knowledge through a large variety of
intellectual emotional and physical
experiences that's end quote um that's
when I realized I'm a humanist uh
through literally no intention and that
was what I found so fascinating is that
it really is like a part of a bigger
movement and it's something that is
present in society and that we're just
moving that way now um you know when you
look at the society sort of at a macro
level like when that started happening
and all that I have no idea but it was
utterly fascinating to hear somebody I'd
never met reflect back my belief system
which felt so unique to me um to
articulate it so well I thought that was
really fascinating so um that made me
really pause when this same guy said and
let me tell you what religion is coming
and uh we'll get to that in a second uh
but this is a lead into that so this is
a quote the main products of the 21st
century will be bodies brains and minds
and the gap between those who know how
to engineer B's brains and those who do
not will be far bigger than the gap
between Dickens Britain and the M's
Sudan indeed it will be bigger than the
gap between Homo sapiens and
Neanderthals now knowing him that's uh
one of his sort of um almost warnings
seeing as how Homo sapiens eradicated
the Neanderthals um so I think there's
something lurking in the margins on that
one uh and then he says that dataism is
really the only new quasi religion that
is poised to take over from humanism and
dataism basically states that everything
that humans and machines do is um a data
processing algorithm and that really
according to data dataism it's all about
how the data is processed the efficiency
therein so according to dataism
Communism for instance and capitalism
aren't competing ideological systems
instead they are both variations of data
processing and capitalism which uses
distributed processing and communism
uses centralized data processing um
capitalism has proven itself to be a
much more efficient form of data
processing uh anyone is able to join the
system at least in theory and this is
why um Comm communism fell because just
to like get bred to people is brutally
difficult when every decision is
centralized so um he posits that
capitalism won because it's just a more
efficient way of processing the data the
markets determine the prices not some
governmental agency the markets
determine um who makes how much of what
not the governmental agencies so it's
all done locally um and the yeah it's
constantly fluctuating the markets are
making decisions in real time um and he
says capitalism has proven itself to be
a much more efficient form of data
processing um and that one of that's one
of the reasons that capitalists prefer
lower taxes because as you raise taxes
the wealth pulls in one area the
government and the decisions of things
uh become more and more centralized with
the government and that's why capitalism
which wants to maintain this sort of
fierce distributed um data processing
would push back against that um okay one
thing that he prognosticates is that as
the data processing algorithms become
more and more important and we all feed
everything we do into the data system
and he does he talks a lot about like
you know what happens when um all of
your emails are being read by AI that
follows you it's Unique to you you have
it for you know decades and it reads
every email it listens to every phone
conversation it listens to all the music
that you listen to it watches everything
that you buy uh the types of people that
you date it's you know um reading your
heart rate and subjective and objective
measures of happiness and all of that so
that to the point where instead of you
going through Tinder and saying O I want
to see this person it goes actually know
remember that they were fun uh when you
dated somebody just like that before
they were fun for the first month and
then you really began to burn out on
them and then ultimately the breakup was
brutal and you went into a period of
depression for 6 months after that so I
advise even though this guy looks a
little more boring you should actually
go out with him and that you had a
relationship like that before and it
actually brought you more happiness and
you would actually uh you know for a
year after uh lamented the breakup and
so this is you know what we suggest
based on all the like thousands of data
points that AI would have and as he was
describing it and I've done a
significantly worse job as he was
describing the book I thought I want
that I want that AI in my life like I
wanted to read my emails because I'm
certainly not going to I want it to
listen to my phone calls I want it to be
you know reading the data being kicked
off by my Fitbit and all that it sounded
amazing and I knew he kind of meant it
as a warning but it sounded phenomenal
to me um he goes out of his way to note
that we can't really predict the future
uh but his final words are a little
Bleak and he essentially says in the
face of dataism humanism loses its
importance humans become one more piece
of data and we're only as important as
the data we kick off and that that is um
ultimately going to make us and this is
almost a direct quote turn um disappear
in a stream like a lump of dirt floating
Downstream and um I thought wow I
actually get what he's saying uh because
you do if data isn't were to sort of
swallow the world then AI would be way
more important than humans because it
can uh process so much more data than we
can so much more rapidly uh it would
kick off a lot more data so like H does
one human life really matter that much
from a data processing standpoint not
really um so that
was not the most uplifting of endings
but he did he goes out of his way to say
hey look these are just like guesses you
never really know uh where this is all
going to end up so regardless of a
mildly Bleak like um sort of take on it
I cannot stress enough this book will it
is fascinating and it will make you look
at yourself life culture where we're
going all in an amazing new light I
found this utterly fascinating this was
one of those books I couldn't shut up
about I was talking to everybody that
walked by me about this this book uh it
was yeah just amazing it gets my highest
recommendation um and I really believe
that you should read things that you
disagree with I think that's important
so if any of the ideas I said in here
like you think oh man that doesn't
really resonate with me man that might
be more reason to read it all right guys
if you haven't already be sure to
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until next time my friends be legendary
take
care