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8 books like Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Homo Deus asks what humans will want once famine, plague and war matter less: longer lives, more happiness, more control over our own bodies. And what happens to free will when data knows us better than we know ourselves. Each book below takes one part of that question: genes, brains, biases or our effect on the planet.

  1. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari — book cover
    #1 · same author

    Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

    by Yuval Noah Harari

    If you read Homo Deus first, go back. Sapiens builds the argument about shared stories that the sequel depends on.

    Shared theme: cognition + how the mind works

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  2. #2

    The Gene

    by Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Harari's idea of upgrading humans rests on genetics. Mukherjee tells the history of the gene up to the tools that can now edit it, and the questions they raise.

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  3. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman — book cover
    #3

    Thinking, Fast and Slow

    by Daniel Kahneman

    Harari uses Kahneman's split between the experiencing self and the remembering self to argue the self is less unified than it feels. This is the source.

    Shared theme: cognition + how the mind works

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  4. #4

    Behave

    by Robert M. Sapolsky

    Sapolsky goes deep on the biology behind behaviour, the hormones, brain and genes that Harari covers in a few lines when he questions free will.

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  5. #5

    The Selfish Gene

    by Richard Dawkins

    Harari calls organisms algorithms. Dawkins's classic gives the gene's-eye view of evolution that this way of thinking grows from.

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  6. #6

    The Sixth Extinction

    by Elizabeth Kolbert

    Homo Deus opens with what humans have done to other animals. Kolbert reports on the extinctions happening now, one species at a time.

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  7. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely — book cover
    #7

    Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

    by Dan Ariely

    If algorithms are to know us better than we know ourselves, it helps to see how predictable our choices already are. Ariely's experiments show it.

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  8. #8

    A Short History of Nearly Everything

    by Bill Bryson

    For the science under Harari's big claims: Bryson explains how we know what we know about the universe and life on earth.

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Appears in these topics

Homo Deus is part of this curated reading list — each a “best books on X” cluster with a synthesis on how the books fit together.