Emergence of the Homo Deus
In the video, Dr. Yuval Noah Harari lectures on the possible emergence of the Homo Deus. According to Harari, all species have evolved over the past centuries, except humankind (Harari, 2017). Therefore, in his view, it will not take long before Homo sapiens evolve into what he calls Homo Deus. He addresses very serious genetics concepts of human engineering that will change Homo sapiens to Homo Deus. He highlights that human beings have managed unthinkable catastrophes over the past centuries, including managing plagues, famines, and war. Despite expressing his thought on various biological and social experiences that have happened throughout the human race, Harari should know that most of the things he notes have been influenced by nature.
According to Dr. Harari, human beings or Homo sapiens will become gods of the earth (Harari, 2017). To this extent, he acknowledges that there is a supreme being who controls nature. He caused famines, wars, and plagues, among other calamities. He created human beings and gave them control of the planet earth; therefore, the Homo sapiens were given the freedom to manage the environment; they can destroy (engineering) it the way they have done or conserve (engineering) it to what interests them. Thus, human engineering concepts of Harari may only take shape on the specimens (individuals) of social engineering; otherwise, his theory of Homo Deus or man becoming a god remains an illusion.
Dr. Harari also says that because human beings survived and have managed to contain numerous forms of calamities and pandemics, they are increasingly becoming immortal beings (Harari, 2017). He further notes that people of the contemporary world are healthier, brighter, and live longer lives than their ancient counterparts. He continues by reiterating that modern humanity dies older than in the Stone Age period (Harari, 2017). These analogies are right, but they do not point towards any evolution into any new form of human beings. Human beings, over time, have indeed invented and modified numerous substances and objects to better their lives, including adding value to plants to improve their medicinal. More inventions and continual advancement in technology have increased comfort in man’s life over centuries.
Human being invention was geared to solving a social problem or responding to calamities. Over these inventions, man has only modified plants, metals, and animals. Every man’s imagination leads to another because of the imperfection in those creations. It can also be noted that man will only invent or genetically modify what God wants him to engineer. Otherwise, man inventions have led to more problems for the universe and human beings themselves.
Homo Deus or the human god, is unlikely to be realized (Harari, 2017). However, the human being will continue to engineer many things in different fields but will never engineer human beings. There is no single time that human beings will create something more superior than him in the form of another human being. If that happens, there will be many useless human beings on earth. The human inventions and continued enhancement of technology will increasingly lead to many worthless rational people across various socioeconomic sectors. Consequently, any further designs that will diversify and create more useless class will only lead resistance; thus, leading to terrible wars, the world had never experienced or expected.
Therefore, Dr. Harari’s contribution to Homa Deus is likely to remain a myth; however, human intelligence will continue to grow with constantly emerging problems from their inventions (Harari, 2017). There are needs to solve these problems; hence, more knowledge or information will be needed. Nevertheless, there shall never be something like techno-human beings with computerized or technologized emotional, sensation, or thoughts. What if they fail to work because of virus or what if the hung or if their memories are erased or hacked? There is no single day that the world will experience techno humanism; however, technological advancements will continue to easing life.