Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian, philosopher, and author, best known for his books on human history and the future of humanity. He was born on February 24, 1976, in Israel. Harari has gained global recognition for his thought-provoking works that explore the broad arcs of history, the present, and potential future developments in technology and society.

His most famous works include:

  • "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" (2011): This international bestseller offers a sweeping overview of human history, tracing the evolution of Homo sapiens from the Stone Age to the modern era. Harari explores key developments in human civilization, such as the agricultural revolution, the rise of empires, and the advent of capitalism, all while questioning the nature of progress and human happiness.

  • "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" (2015): In this follow-up to Sapiens, Harari turns his attention to the future of humanity. He discusses the potential paths humanity might take as we gain more control over our biology, artificial intelligence, and other technologies, exploring the concept of "Homo Deus" (the "god-like" human) and the implications of these developments on society and ethics.

  • "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" (2018): This book focuses on contemporary issues and the challenges humanity faces in the present and near future, such as the impact of artificial intelligence, global politics, and environmental crises. Harari encourages readers to think critically about the world we live in and how we can shape the future.

Yuval Noah Harari has been praised for his ability to distill complex historical and philosophical ideas into accessible language, making his works appealing to both general readers and scholars alike. His thought-provoking insights into the past, present, and future have earned him a spot as one of the most influential thinkers of our time.

He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Oxford and has taught history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Harari is also a public intellectual, frequently speaking at conferences, universities, and forums around the world.

His books have been translated into dozens of languages, and he has become a major figure in popularizing history and philosophy to a global audience.

Articles by the author

Intelligence is the ability to solve problems, whereas consciousness is the ability to feel things such as pain, joy, love, and anger. Throughout history, intelligence always went hand in hand with consciousness.

Yuval Noah Harari

We are all living together on a single planet, which is threatened by our own actions. And if you don't have some kind of global cooperation, nationalism is just not on the right level to tackle the problems, whether it's climate change or whether it's technological disruption.

Yuval Noah Harari

The truly unique trait of 'Sapiens' is our ability to create and believe fiction. All other animals use their communication system to describe reality. We use our communication system to create new realities. Of course, not all fictions are shared by all humans, but at least one has become universal in our world, and this is money.

Yuval Noah Harari

Humans have an amazing capacity to believe in contradictory things. For example, to believe in an omnipotent and benevolent God but somehow excuse Him from all the suffering in the world. Or our ability to believe from the standpoint of law that humans are equal and have free will and from biology that humans are just organic machines.

Yuval Noah Harari

If you take 10,000 chimpanzees and cram them together into Wembley Stadium or the Houses of Parliament, you will get chaos. But if you take 10,000 people who have never met before, they can co-operate and create amazing things.

Yuval Noah 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.

Yuval Noah Harari

Every day, I absorb countless data bits through emails, phone calls, and articles; process the data; and transmit back new bits through more emails, phone calls, and articles. I don't really know where I fit into the great scheme of things and how my bits of data connect with the bits produced by billions of other humans and computers.

Yuval Noah Harari

People already have bionic arms and legs that work by the power of thought. And we increasingly outsource mental and communicative activities to computers. We are merging with our smartphones. Very soon, they will just be part of the body.

Yuval Noah Harari

Censorship no longer works by hiding information from you; censorship works by flooding you with immense amounts of misinformation, of irrelevant information, of funny cat videos, until you're just unable to focus.

Yuval Noah Harari

Animals are the main victims of history, and the treatment of domesticated animals in industrial farms is perhaps the worst crime in history.

Yuval Noah Harari

Dollar bills have absolutely no value except in our collective imagination, but everybody believes in the dollar bill.

Yuval Noah Harari

Intelligence is the ability to solve problems, and consciousness is the ability to feel things and have subjective experiences.

Yuval Noah Harari

If you don't like the word 'religion,' you can replace it with 'ideology' - it's largely the same thing. At the heart of both religion and ideology is the question of authority and where authority is coming from.

Yuval Noah Harari

The domesticated chicken is probably the most widespread bird in the annals of planet Earth. If you measure success in terms of numbers, chickens, cows and pigs are the most successful animals ever.

Yuval Noah Harari

For many centuries, even thousands of years, patriotism worked quite well. Of course, it led to wars an so forth, but we shouldn't focus too much on the bad.

Yuval Noah Harari

For thousands of years, until about 1850, you see humans accumulating more and more power by the invention of new technologies and by new systems of organization in the economy and in politics, but you don't see any real improvement in the well-being of the average person.

Yuval Noah Harari

Ignorance is not too dangerous. If you combine it with power, then this is a toxic mix.

Yuval Noah Harari