I have uncountable positive comments I could make about the wisdom it shows and issues it raises. ‘Homo Deus’ is my favourite non fiction book in years, an all time favourite. Fuelled by passion and intellect, organised and delivered for any curious human of under average intelligence to genius to absorb and understand.
The scientific community believes in the efficacy of facts, and those loyal to that community continue to believe that they can win public debates by throwing the right facts around, despite much empirical evidence to the contrary.‘Sapiens’ will stand out in history as a clearly mapped out record of the evolution of human beings from apes to modern day. Scientists who believe that facts can change public opinion may themselves be the victims of scientific groupthink. Most people don’t like too many facts, and they certainly don’t like to feel stupid.
Bombarding people with facts and exposing their individual ignorance is likely to backfire. Most of our views are shaped by communal groupthink rather than individual rationality, and we hold on to these views due to group loyalty. Such hopes are grounded in a misunderstanding of how humans actually think. Scientists hope to dispel wrong views by better science education, and pundits hope to sway public opinion on issues such as Obamacare or global warming by presenting the public with accurate facts and expert reports. Providing people with more and better information is unlikely to improve matters. People rarely appreciate their ignorance, because they lock themselves inside an echo chamber of like-minded friends and self-confirming news feeds, where their beliefs are constantly reinforced and seldom challenged. Consequently, some people who know next to nothing about meteorology or biology nevertheless propose policies regarding climate change and genetically modified crops, while others hold extremely strong views about what should be done in Iraq or Ukraine without being able to locate these countries on a map. The world is becoming ever more complex, and people fail to realize just how ignorant they are of what’s going on. Yet like many other human traits that made sense in past ages but cause trouble in the modern age, the knowledge illusion has its downside. “From an evolutionary perspective, trusting in the knowledge of others has worked extremely well for Homo sapiens.
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