"has turned the human species – at the
beginning, “an animal of no significance” midway up the food chain on
the African savannah – into “self-made gods”. But these “deities” lack
self-restraint. Wiping out other species, they have dominated the planet
without making themselves perceptibly happier. Now, with new
technologies enabling them to create artificial forms of life and alter
their own natures, they hardly know what to do with their new dominion.
“Is there anything more dangerous”, Harari asks, “than dissatisfied and
irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?”
- from the review by John Gray of
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari, Harvill Secker, UK£25, 464 pages.
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