Book Summary and Reviews of 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

Reader Reviews

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Anna Rowe

Impressed
Twelve hours of my life well spent. There are enough concepts in this book to keep you pondering for the rest of your life. Best read with a very open mind.

Cathryn Conroy

I Don't Agree with Everything Posited Here, But the Book Made Me THINK—And That's a Power of Reading
This is not the kind of book I could read in the winter while curled up in front of a blazing fire or in the summer lazing poolside. This is the kind of book I felt I should read sitting up straight in my desk chair. This book is work! But like anything that demands full concentration, a bit of effort, and even a furrowed brow, the reward is (mostly) worth it.

Written by Yuval Noah Harari, this is a series of predictions of problems we will face in the 21st century—from the power of artificial intelligence to the theater of terrorism. What makes it fascinating is that it is also a philosophical treatise. Harari may make a prediction—such as, the job market as we know it will disappear—but he counters it with what this means for individuals, families, companies, governments, and society as a whole.

Here are just a few of his predictions/philosophical treatises:
• Find out how the merger of biotechnology and artificial intelligence will seek to change the very meaning of humanity. (Read that sentence again. It's really frightening!)

• Find out why philosophy may be best college major for finding a job (yes, really!), and why physicians, psychiatrists, and even artists could be replaced by computers. (But nurses will still have jobs.)

• In the 21st century, what asset do you think will be the most valuable? Land, machinery, or personal data? Yep, it's personal data. And with enough of it coupled with enough computing power, data giants (think Facebook, Google, and Amazon) will be able to hack the deepest secrets of life. How will they manipulate human beings?

• Find out why it will be extremely difficult for major powers to wage successful wars in the 21st century—and it's not only because of the suicidal threat of nuclear weapons.

• Find out why the future is not what you see in movies. It is totally different and far scarier.

And then Harari takes an odd—and for me, quite disconcerting—detour. When it comes to religion, instead of predicting the form and shape it will take and the impact it will have on individuals, nations, and cultures in the 21st century as he did with every other issue he explores in the book, he spends pages and pages and pages debunking as fictional stories the tenets and history of the world's major religions, focusing especially on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. I vehemently disagreed with his thoughts, but I kept reading…waiting for what he didn't offer: He did not connect those important dots and offer his opinion of the future of religion in this century. And until he got to this subject, that was the point of the book. Because he didn't do this, he just used his book as a bully platform against religion. And that's the reason I gave it three stars.

I will say this: While I didn't agree with everything Harari posits, he always made me think. And that's one of the greatest powers of reading.

Other books by Yuval Noah Harari at BookBrowse