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Book clubs  •  26 May 2020

 

Homo Deus book club notes

Transport your reading group to our not-too-distant future.

In Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari envisions a near future in which we face a new set of challenges. He probes the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape our century and beyond.

So, what are your hopes, dreams and fears for tomorrow’s world? Explore this question and more, and take your book club on an adventure like no other.

Discussion points and questions:

  • Do you agree with Harari that storytelling intelligence is what makes us the strongest animal on the planet? What else distinguishes us from other animals?
  • The job market has changed rapidly over the last ten-to-fifteen years, with the growth of the ‘gig economy’, a decrease in ‘careers for life’ and some becoming automated. How do you think jobs will continue to change over the next twenty years?
  • Which groups in society will benefit more or less from the automation revolution, and which countries and areas of the world might profit most?
  • After reading ‘The Time Bomb in the Laboratory’ chapter and Harari’s thesis on free will: do you agree with his thesis that freedom is a ‘hollow term’ and that ‘free will exists only in the imaginary stories we humans have invented’? Is ‘feeling’ free the same as ‘being’ free?
  • What chapter of the book resonated with you most (and why)?
  • What scares you about the future Harari explores?
  • What do you find exciting about the future Harari explores?

Feature Title

Homo Deus
Sapiens showed us where we came from. Homo Deus shows us where we're going.
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