Monday, April 10, 2017

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow















Quiz Questions:

1. Why is it better to refer to the last 70,000 years from modern day the "Anthropocene" epoch? (72)

2. What percentage of BA graduates believe in the biblical creation story compared to the percentage of those who believe humans evolved without any divine supervision. (103)

3. Why does Darwin's ideas of species evolution disturb people more so than the theory of relativity? (104)

4. How does the conscious mind differ from the everlasting soul? (107)

5. Why is it necessary for science to rely on religious assistance in order to create viable human institutions, according to Harari? (189)

6. When we descend from the ethereal sphere of philosophy and observe historical realities, we find that religious stories almost always include what three parts? (191)

7. What is the chief formula for knowledge in medieval Europe compared to that of the Scientific Revolution? (238)

8. In what way does technology depend on religion? (270)

9. What is one of the enormous potential advantages that IBM's famous AI system, Watson, has over human doctors, as stated by Harari? (319)

10. According to Harari, what happens to the wealth and political power as algorithms push humans out of the job market, and how does this affect social boundaries? (327)

11. What is the ultimate goal of algorithms once they become established as all-knowing oracles, such as Google and Facebook? (346)


DQ's:

1. Does homo sapiens being more superior than other organisms make human life more important than animal?

2. Should schools provide students with more than one theory of human creation? (divine creation vs. evolution)

3. Do you believe the theory of evolution disproves the concept of an immortal human soul?

4. Is it necessary that science and religion be completely alienated from each other or can they work hand in hand or even be blended together?

5. Which is more valuable - intelligence or consciousness?

6. How will liberal beliefs survive the appearance of super humans with exceptional physical, emotional, and intellectual abilities?

7. Are organisms really just algorithms, and life is simply data processing or is there significance to the work and actions we do?

8. What, if anything, would be lost by replacing conscious intelligence with superior, non-conscious algorithms?

9. What would happen to society, politics, and daily life in general when non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithms know us better than we know ourselves?

1 comment:

  1. I apologize for some of the pictures of the text being upside down.

    ReplyDelete