Book Summary: Homo Deus

On advancement

Max Planck – science advances one funeral at a time. When one generation passes away do new theories have a chance to root out old ones

On happiness

Epicurus:
- outlined an entire ethic of dos and don’ts to guide people to along the treacherous path to happiness
- Despite our unprecedented achievements in the last few decades, its far from obvious that contemporary people are significantly more satisfied than their ancestors
Life sciences:
- happiness and suffering are nothing but different balances of bodily sensations
- We never react to events in the outside world
- but only to sensations in our own bodies
- depression is a kind of unpleasant bodily sensation
- our biochemistry adapted to increasing our chances of survival and reproduction, not our happiness
- biochemical system rewards actions conducive to survival and reproduction with pleasant sensations
  - Food
  - mates

Studying History

Aim: Loosening the the grip of the past
Enables us to notice possibilities that our ancestors could not or did not want us to imagine
It does not tell us what to choose
it gives us more options, to image alternative destinies

Agricultural deal:

Farmers justify their exploitation of domesticated animals in the name of new theist religions

Body is an algorithm

Individual versus Group

Large numbers of people behave in a fundamentally different way than do small numbers

Sunk Cost Bias and Meaning

Non-material entities / religion

An entity is real if it can suffer
religion / belief system is a tool for governing defined by its social function
confers superhuman legitimacy on human laws, norms and values
legitimates human social structures
Asserts we are subjected to a system of moral laws that we did not invent
Helps the state collect taxes without itself lifting a finger
regulations on biochemical pursuit of happiness
- good drugs – strengthen political stability, social order and economic growth
- bad drugs – threatens stability and growth

Religion versus Spiritualism

Religion seeks to cement the worldly order
Spirituality seeks to escape it
Spiritual wanders most important obligation is to challenge the belief and conventions of dominant religion – Zen Buddhism “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him”

Transition from Religion to Humanism

From What God/central authority said is true
What you feel is true. Its far more important to know what you think about these matters
Assumes each human has a single authentic inner self
The central question is if human can choose his desire in the first place
Transcranial simulators has proven to be able to alter human consciousness, resulting in enhanced capabilities
The divide between the Identifying self versus the Experiencing self
- Decisions are made by the Identifying self that functions without the ability to have comprehensive data

Modernity, the rat race and technology

In the capitalist world, the lives of the poor improve only when the economy grows
Despite all our achievements, we feel a constant pressure to do and produce even more
every generation destroys the old world and builds a new one in its place
Continued belief in the growth story that is being supported by belief in the hi-tech Ark

Hi-tech Ark

is currently one of the biggest threats to the future of man and its eco-system
Humans are in danger of loosing their economic value because intelligence is decoupling from consciousness
Automation
- Types of job
  - Agricultural
  - Industry
  - Services
The coming technology bonanza can probably feed all humans. But without something to do humans will go crazy
AI which first starts out as an Oracle will eventually turn into sovereign

Forthcoming Techno religions:

Techno-humanism
- technology enhanced humans: cyborgs
Data-religion
- having enough data means knowing what to ignore
- machine can know us better than ourselves
- organisms are really just algorithms
- Intelligence versus consciousness