I read "A Brief History of the Future" until about two o'clock in the morning every day for the past two days, and I was surprised that I didn't feel trapped. Because I had to go to work the next day, I had to put down my books and rest. Yuval Harari has a fan base of readers from his previous book "A Brief History of Humankind". This "A Brief History of the Future" was deeply loved by readers as soon as it was released. It was published in February 2017 and has been added to the list by July 2018. Print 35 times, which is equivalent to printing every 15 days. Without going into detail about the content of "A Brief History of the Future," I would like to give a thumbs up to the translator Lin Junhong. His translation is naturally accurate and beautiful, as if this book was written by Lin Hongjun himself.

The overall view of "A Brief History of the Future" is broader than that of many books with the word "overall view" in their titles, because his vision is always positioned in "human beings" , "world", past and future. Homo sapiens emerged from the animals and ushered in the Anthropocene. How will humans pursue immortality, happiness and divinity in the future? Whether dataism will replace humanism in the future, the book does not give a clear answer. Harari only provides readers with various conjectures and argument references. As he said at the beginning of the book, predicting the future is only to liberate the past, which is also the best reason to study history. I have listed the ten most touching quotes from the book.

First, recognizing mankind’s past efforts actually conveys hope and responsibility, and inspires us to work harder in the future. One of the central issues in the mid-term is to protect humans and the earth from being harmed by humans’ own power.

Second, every time a certain achievement is achieved, the most common reaction of the human brain is not to be satisfied, but to want more. Whenever faced with a choice between economic growth and ecological stability, politicians, business leaders, and voters almost always choose growth.

Third, judging from mankind’s past records and current values, the next goal is likely to be immortality, happiness, and reincarnation as a god. For modern humans, death is a technological problem that we can and should solve. As long as there is a technical problem, there will be a technical solution. After fighting against famine and disease, fighting against aging and death is just a continuation of this battle, and it also reflects the most important value of contemporary culture: human life.

Fourth, the glass ceiling of happiness has two pillars, which belong to the psychological and physiological levels. On a psychological level, happiness depends on your expectations rather than objective conditions. But the bad news is that as objective conditions improve, expectations will continue to inflate.

5. Countless teachers around the world preach Newton’s myth and encourage students to be curious. As long as we get enough knowledge, we can create heaven on earth. Farmers think that they are the pinnacle of all creation created by God, while scientists want all humans to evolve and become gods.

Sixth, the key factor for us to conquer the world is actually the ability to unite many human beings. If you want to start a revolution, don't ask: "How many people support my idea?" Ask: "How many supporters do I have who can effectively cooperate."

Seven, all large-scale human beings Cooperation, in the end, is based on the order we imagine. Human beings continue to strengthen each other's beliefs in a self-reinforcing manner. Each mutual confirmation tightens the web of meaning until you have no choice but to believe what everyone else believes. Homo sapiens rules the world because only sapiens can weave an intersubjective web of meaning.

8. Religion cares most about order. The purpose of religion is to create and maintain social structure, while science cares most about power. Religion is a contract and spirituality is a journey. While most people readily accept ready-made answers provided by those in authority, followers of spirituality are not so easily satisfied. The uncompromising pursuit of truth is actually a spiritual journey.

9. The narrative self has no sense of how long time lasts. Every time the narrative self wants to make a judgment about our experience, it doesn't care how long it lasts. It will only use the "final peak" law, that is, it only remembers the peak and the end, and then averages it as the value of the entire experience. The narrative self does not sum up all experiences, but averages them.

Ten, for true believers, to break away from data is to risk losing the meaning of life. If you feel something and no one else knows about it and you don't contribute to the global exchange of information, what's the point?