Some chapters interested me less than others, but since humans are the focus of these books, that's to be expected. I also found this to be the case with the first book and yet I still feel compelled to pick them up. In this one he touches on some very thought-provoking topics and some less interesting ones.

Yuval Noah HarariIf gave us Sapiens, which told the history of mankind and then Homo Deus which looked at mankind's future. Now we have 21 Lessons for the 21st Century which looks at the challenges we currently face and it's enlightening, thought-provoking and occasionally just a little bit frightening. It's unlikely that mankind will face what - eighty years ago - would have been thought of as a traditional war, with armies, navies and air forces fighting it out hand to hand. It's much more likely that the threats we'll face will be relatively new. Harari looks at them in some depth.

Rather than waging war it's far more likely that the threat will come in the form of a cyberattack. We've seen examples of this already, but a large scale, coordinated cyber attack could be far more effective than traditional warfare and it leaves infrastructure unharmed. It could be the weapon of choice of governments or the terrorist.

I'm not going to go through each of the lessons - you'd be far better off reading the book than my interpretation of it - but there were some points which knocked me for six. Firstly, people worry about immigration: immigrants are going to take our jobs. Political campaigns are fought on the rights and wrongs of immigration, but with the increased ability of computers to perform tasks which have been done by humans, it's likely that it's not going to be an immigrant who takes your job, but an algorithm - and that's not something which any political candidate seems to consider, not least because the implications are just too complicated. Harari believes that in the long run, no job will remain absolutely safe from automation, but opportunities will arise in other sectors, particularly servicing Artificial Intelligence. Retraining will become important and perhaps necessary several times in a working life, creating more jobs in the education sector.

The collection of data online has been in the news a great deal recently: I doubt that many people were aware of the extent to which use could be made of information which we unwittingly (or even carelessly) supplied on sites which we had thought to be benign. The situation only begins to come into context when you realise that we are not those sites' customers but rather their product.

Governments are not as averse as some might expect to external crises: when the media concentrates on them it relieves the pressure on governments to do something about expensive problems such as healthcare or pollution. One of the major problems which we all face is global warming and what Harari has to say about this is thought provoking and decidedly frightening.

I've touched - very briefly - on just a few of the questions which Harari raises. He considers all aspects of twenty-first-century life in considerable detail. I found it a slow read, not because it was difficult to understand (in fact I was constantly surprised at the manner in which he could explain quite complicated concepts and make them easy to understand) but because I kept rereading sections or reading them out to others. I developed a degree of certainly on some questions but there were areas where I'd previously been certain of my views but now realise that I don't have the full picture and more thought will be required.

I am becoming quite an evangelist for this book. I am keen to discuss it with everyone I know and, when it is published in a couple of months, I’ll be making sure they all read it. Perceptive and witty, seriously well researched, I was mesmerised by Harari’s take on the world as it is now and how it could be in the near future. He is the first to admit he doesn’t have all the answers to solve modern dilemmas but he is a whiz at distilling current thinking on our personal and global problems into understandable themes for discussion.

Two themes struck me particularly. Firstly, the prospect of a physically and genetically superior elite based on how much you can afford to pay for technological innovations to improve your own body and those of your offspring is real and frightening. His ideas on how we might ensure fairness got me thinking.

Secondly, I was fascinated by his thoughts on educating our children in the future. I am already a dinosaur in these terms, imbued with the three Rs from infancy and the product of a narrow national curriculum, but I am invested in the future success of my grandchildren.

‘In such a [21st century] world, the last thing a teacher needs to give her pupils is more information. They already have far too much of it. Instead, people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and above all to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world.’

‘So what should we be teaching? Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching “the four Cs” - critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. More broadly, schools should downplay technical skills and emphasise general-purpose life skills. Most important of all will be the ability to deal with change, to learn new things, and to preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situations. In order to keep up with the world of 2050, you will need not merely to invent new ideas and product - you will above all need to reinvent yourself again and again.’

‘…in the 21st century, you can hardly afford stability. If you try to hold on to some stable identity, job or world view, you risk being left behind as the world flies by you with a whooooosh. Given that life expectancy is likely to increase, you might subsequently have to spend many decades as a clueless fossil. To stay relevant - not just economically, but above all socially - you will need the ability to constantly learn and to reinvent yourself, certainly at a young age like fifty.’

An incredibly interesting book and very readable. I’d recommend it to everyone, young and old, but especially teenagers and parents of teenagers as its messages will have immediate impact for those generations.

With thanks to Random House Vintage via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

As a big fan of the authors other books, Sapiens and Homo Deus I couldn't wait to get started on this. Although it was still a good read, I must admit I didn't enjoy it as much as the other two books I had previously read. The book gives us an insight to the future (also focuses on the present day) in the form of 21 lessons. It is thought provoking to say the very least (scary even!)
I love the authors writing style and passion.... this is a must read and i Will be recommending to fellow fans of Sapiens and Homo Deus.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for allowing me to read.

This book is neither ‘an enjoyable read’ nor is it ‘an easy read’. I will admit that it took me a good four weeks to plough through to the end. But, it is a good read if you’re looking for an intellectual challenge. Packed full of hypothetical situations, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century offers plenty of philosophical and reasoned debate on the effects of current global situations human nature.

This was just ok for me, I found some of it a little long winded and nothing I havent read before, it was interesting in parts but I did find myself wishing it to end. Not to my taste but I'm sure others till like it, it was very well written too.

The latest book from Yuval Noah Harari is not quite as compelling as Sapiens, but it is still an interesting read, in which he brings together many aspects of politics, sociology and economics to try and work out what might happen to humanity in the near future.
Thought provoking.

If you have read Homo Deus by the same author 21 Rules is an interesting sequel although not quite as impressive as the original. It would be hard to write a follow up as amazing as the original.

As always, masterful and exquisite non-fiction writing as we come to expect from Mr Harari. Delightful, wise and very perceptive. This book can be seen as an expansion and a companion to Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. The attention of this volume is focused on the Present as opposed to Past or the Future. Some parts will make you feel inspired, others will sow a despair. But it is a relevant and useful book that will give you a plenty to chew on.

Strongly recommended

‘A wise old man was asked what he learned about the meaning of life. ‘Well,’ he answered, ‘I have learned that I am here on earth in order to help other people. What I still haven’t figured out is why the other people are here.’

As Harari explains:
“We are now living in an age of information explosion - the last thing people need is more information. What they really need is somebody to arrange all of the bits of information into a meaningful picture – and this is what I try to do.”

Following on from Sapiens and Homo Deus, both of which were entertainingly accessible, this investigation of our species has a more personal approach, yet is just as vigorously researched and remarkably impartial.

There are so many fascinating insights that I wanted to highlight in this book that it is hard to chose examples, and many are frightening to contemplate, such as:
'Globalisation has certainly benefited large segments of humanity, but there are signs of growing inequality both between and within societies. Some groups increasingly monopolise the fruits of globalisation, while billions are left behind. Already today, the richest 1 per cent owns half the world’s wealth. Even more alarmingly, the richest hundred people together own more than the poorest 4 billion..This could get far worse..'

However I'm sure that contributors to Goodreads will particularly enjoy the section on the importance of literature, especially those aficionados of SF :-
“… it is equally important to communicate the latest scientific theories to the general public through popular-science books, and even through the skilful use of art and fiction. Does that mean scientists should start writing science fiction? That is actually not such a bad idea. Art plays a key role in shaping people’s view of the world, and in the twenty-first century science fiction is arguably the most important genre of all, for it shapes how most people understand things like AI, bioengineering and climate change. We certainly need good science, but from a political perspective, a good science-fiction movie is worth far more than an article in Science or Nature.”.

On the whole, the message Harari imparts is a positive one and he does offer some hope for the survival of our species. At the end of the book he describes his own personal way to discover a ‘firm ethical ground in a world that extends far beyond my horizons, that spins completely out of human control, and that holds all gods and ideologies suspect’.'

This is the book I will pass on to my grand daughter when she is of an age to wonder why our world is the way it is. In fact, I think it is essential reading for every human being on this planet.

What a thought provoking book! It really made me think about how things are likely to be in the future and how things have changed from our past.
Initially I wasn’t too sure if it was going to be too heavy a read for me based on the first few pages but I read on and I am glad I did so.
The author explains things so well with lots of examples to illustrate his points. I found myself agreeing with views that I had never given any thought to before.
I am glad I read this book, I feel that it has opened up my mind a little more than it was prior to this.
Indeed in the chapter on Education he says:
“people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and above all to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world.”
I feel that this is what this book has begun to do for me.