Homo Deus: a brief History of Tomorrow

Homo  sapiens.  Those  who  miss  this  train  will  never  get  a  second  chance.  In
order to get a seat on it, you need to understand twenty-first-century technology,
and  in  particular  the  powers  of  biotechnology  and  computer  algorithms.  These
powers are far more potent than steam and the telegraph, and they will not be
used merely for the production of food, textiles, vehicles and weapons. The main
products  of  the  twenty-first  century  will  be  bodies,  brains  and  minds,  and  the
gap between those who know how to engineer bodies and brains and those who
do not will be far bigger than the gap between Dickens’s Britain and the Mahdi’s
Sudan.  Indeed,  it  will  be  bigger  than  the  gap  between  Sapiens  and
Neanderthals. In the twenty-first century, those who ride the train of progress will
acquire  divine  abilities  of  creation  and  destruction,  while  those  left  behind  will
face extinction.
Socialism, which was very up to date a hundred years ago, failed to keep up
with the new technology. Leonid Brezhnev and Fidel Castro held on to ideas that
Marx  and  Lenin  formulated  in  the  age  of  steam,  and  did  not  understand  the
power of computers and biotechnology. Liberals, in contrast, adapted far better
to  the  information  age.  This  partly  explains  why  Khrushchev’s  1956  prediction
never materialised, and why it was the liberal capitalists who eventually buried
the  Marxists.  If  Marx  came  back  to  life  today,  he  would  probably  urge  his  few
remaining disciples to devote less time to reading Das Kapital and more time to
studying the Internet and the human genome.
Radical  Islam  is  in  a  far  worse  position  than  socialism.  It  has  not  yet  even
come to terms with the Industrial Revolution – no wonder it has little of relevance
to  say  about  genetic  engineering  and  artificial  intelligence.  Islam,  Christianity
and  other  traditional  religions  are  still  important  players  in  the  world.  Yet  their
role is now largely reactive. In the past, they were a creative force. Christianity,
for example, spread the hitherto heretical idea that all humans are equal before
God,  thereby  changing  human  political  structures,  social  hierarchies  and  even
gender relations. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus went further, insisting that
the meek and oppressed are God’s favourite people, thus turning the pyramid of
power on its head, and providing ammunition for generations of revolutionaries.
In  addition  to  social  and  ethical  reforms,  Christianity  was  responsible  for
important  economic  and  technological  innovations.  The  Catholic  Church

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established  medieval  Europe’s  most  sophisticated  administrative  system,  and
pioneered  the  use  of  archives,  catalogues,  timetables  and  other  techniques  of
data processing. The Vatican was the closest thing twelfth-century Europe had
to Silicon Valley. The Church established Europe’s first economic corporations –
the  monasteries  –  which  for  1,000  years  spearheaded  the  European  economy
and introduced advanced agricultural and administrative methods. Monasteries
were the first institutions to use clocks, and for centuries they and the cathedral
schools  were  the  most  important  learning  centres  of  Europe,  helping  to  found
many of Europe’s first universities, such as Bologna, Oxford and Salamanca.
Today  the  Catholic  Church  continues  to  enjoy  the  loyalties  and  tithes  of
hundreds of millions of followers. Yet it and the other theist religions have long
since turned from a creative into a reactive force. They are busy with rearguard
holding  operations  more  than  with  pioneering  novel  technologies,  innovative
economic  methods  or  groundbreaking  social  ideas.  They  now  mostly  agonise
over  the  technologies,  methods  and  ideas  propagated  by  other  movements.
Biologists invent the contraceptive pill – and the Pope doesn’t know what to do
about  it.  Computer  scientists  develop  the  Internet  –  and  rabbis  argue  whether
orthodox Jews should be allowed to surf it. Feminist thinkers call upon women to
take  possession  of  their  bodies  –  and  learned  muftis  debate  how  to  confront
such incendiary ideas.
Ask yourself: what was the most influential discovery, invention or creation of
the  twentieth  century?  That’s  a  difficult  question,  because  it  is  hard  to  choose
from a long list of candidates, including scientific discoveries such as antibiotics,
technological inventions such as computers, and ideological creations such as
feminism. Now ask yourself: what was the most influential discovery, invention
or creation of traditional religions such as Islam and Christianity in the twentieth
century? This too is a very difficult question, because there is so little to choose
from. What did priests, rabbis and muftis discover in the twentieth century that
can  be  mentioned  in  the  same  breath  as  antibiotics,  computers  or  feminism?
Having  mulled  over  these  two  questions,  from  where  do  you  think  the  big
changes of the twenty-first century will emerge: from the Islamic State, or from
Google?  Yes,  the  Islamic  State  knows  how  to  put  videos  on  YouTube;  but
leaving  aside  the  industry  of  torture,  how  many  new  start-ups  have  emerged
from Syria or Iraq lately?
Billions  of  people,  including  many  scientists,  continue  to  use  religious
scriptures  as  a  source  of  authority,  but  these  texts  are  no  longer  a  source  of
creativity. Think, for example, about the acceptance of gay marriage or female
clergy  by  the  more  progressive  branches  of  Christianity.  Where  did  this
acceptance  originate?  Not  from  reading  the  Bible,  St  Augustine  or  Martin

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Luther. Rather, it came from reading texts like Michel Foucault’s The History of