HUMANITY HAS HAD astonishing success alleviating famine, disease, and war.
(It might not always seem that way, but it’s true.) Now, Homo sapiens is on the brink of an upgrade—sort of. As we become increasingly skilled at deploying artificial intelligence, big data, and algorithms to do everything from easing traffic to diagnosing cancer, we’ll transform into a new breed of superhuman, says historian and best-selling author Yuval Harari in his new book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Which is great, except that we might also become so dependent on these tools that our species will become irrelevant—our value determined only by the data we generate. wired spoke to Harari about this coming life in the matrix just before he left for his annual 45-day tech-free meditation retreat.
WIRED: In your book you predict the emergence of two completely new religions. What are they?
HARARI: Techno-humanism aims to amplify the power of humans, creating cyborgs and connecting humans to computers, but it still sees human interests and desires as the highest authority in the universe.
This story is from the March 2017 edition of WIRED.
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This story is from the March 2017 edition of WIRED.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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