Yuval Harari
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Yuval Noah Harari ( ; born 1976) is an Israeli
medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
,
military historian Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians ...
,
public intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...
, and
popular science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...
writer. He currently serves as professor in the Department of History at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
. His first bestselling book, '' Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind'' (2011) is based on his lectures to an undergraduate
world history Human history or world history is the record of humankind from prehistory to the present. Early modern human, Modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago and initially lived as hunter-gatherers. They Early expansions of hominin ...
class. His other works include the bestsellers '' Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow'' (2016), ''
21 Lessons for the 21st Century ''21 Lessons for the 21st Century'' is a book written by Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari and published in August 2018 by Spiegel & GrauHarari, Yuval Noah; Spiegel & Grau (2018). ''21 Lessons for the 21st Century''. . in the US and by Jonathan ...
'' (2018), and ''Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI'' (2024). His published work examines themes of
free will Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...
,
consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...
, intelligence, happiness, suffering and the role of storytelling in human evolution. In ''Sapiens'', Harari writes about a "
cognitive revolution The cognitive revolution was an intellectual movement that began in the 1950s as an interdisciplinary study of the mind and its processes, from which emerged a new field known as cognitive science. The preexisting relevant fields were psychology, ...
" that supposedly occurred roughly 70,000 years ago when ''
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...
'' supplanted the rival
Neanderthals Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
and other species of the genus ''
Homo ''Homo'' () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus ''Australopithecus'' and encompasses only a single extant species, ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively called ...
'', developed language skills and structured societies, and ascended as
apex predator An apex predator, also known as a top predator or superpredator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own. Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning that they occupy the hig ...
s, aided by the First Agricultural Revolution and accelerated by the
Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of History of science, modern science during the early modern period, when developments in History of mathematics#Mathematics during the Scientific Revolution, mathemati ...
, which have allowed humans to approach near mastery over their environment. Furthermore, he examines the possible consequences of a futuristic biotechnological world in which intelligent biological organisms are surpassed by their own creations; he has said, "''Homo sapiens'' as we know them will disappear in a century or so". Although Harari's books have received considerable commercial success since the publication of ''Sapiens'', his work has been more negatively received in academic circles.


Early life and education

Yuval Noah Harari was born and raised in Kiryat Ata, Israel, as one of three children born to Shlomo and Pnina Harari and raised in a
secular Jewish Jewish secularism (Hebrew: יהדות חילונית) refers to secularism in a Jewish context, denoting the definition of Jewish identity with little or no attention given to its religious aspects. The concept of Jewish secularism first arose ...
family of Bucovinian and
Polish Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...
descent. His father, Shlomo Harari, born Blajberg, was a state-employed armaments engineer, and his mother, Pnina, born Luttinger, was an office administrator. Harari taught himself to read at age three. He studied in a class for intellectually gifted children at the Leo Baeck Education Center in
Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
from the age of eight. He deferred mandatory military service in the
Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
to pursue university studies as part of the Atuda program but was later exempted from completing his military service following his studies due to health issues. He began studying history and international relations at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
at age 17. Harari studied at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
from 1993 to 1998, where he received a BA degree and specialized in medieval history and military history. He completed his
DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
degree at the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
in 2002 where he was a postgraduate student of
Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship ...
supervised by Steven J. Gunn. From 2003 to 2005, he pursued postdoctoral studies in history as a Yad Hanadiv Fellow. While at Oxford, Harari first encountered the work of
Jared Diamond Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American scientist, historian, and author. In 1985 he received a MacArthur Genius Grant, and he has written hundreds of scientific and popular articles and books. His best known is '' Guns, G ...
, whom he has acknowledged as an influence on his own writing. At a
Berggruen Institute The Berggruen Institute is a Los Angeles-based think tank founded by Nicolas Berggruen. History Berggruen Institute was formed in 2010 by founder Nicolas Berggruen and co-founder Nathan Gardels as a global network of "thinkers" dedicated to ...
salon, Harari said that Diamond's ''
Guns, Germs, and Steel ''Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies'' (subtitled ''A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years'' in Britain) is a 1997 transdisciplinary nonfiction book by the American author Jared Diamond. The book attempts to ...
'' "was kind of an epiphany in my academic career. I realized that I could actually write such books."


Career

Harari has published multiple books and articles, including ''Special Operations in the Age of Chivalry, 1100–1550''; ''The Ultimate Experience: Battlefield Revelations and the Making of Modern War Culture, 1450–2000''; ''The Concept of 'Decisive Battles' in World History''; and ''Armchairs, Coffee and Authority: Eye-witnesses and Flesh-witnesses Speak about War, 1100–2000''. His book '' Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind'' was originally published in Hebrew in 2011 based on the 20 lectures of an undergraduate world history class he was teaching. It was then released in English in 2014 and has since been translated into some 45 languages. The book surveys the entire length of
human history Human history or world history is the record of humankind from prehistory to the present. Early modern human, Modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago and initially lived as hunter-gatherers. They Early expansions of hominin ...
, starting from the evolution of ''
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...
'' in the
Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...
. Harari compares
indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
to
apes Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found glo ...
in his
fall of man The fall of man, the fall of Adam, or simply the Fall, is a term used in Christianity to describe the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God in Christianity, God to a state of guilty disobedience. * * * * ...
narrative, leading up to the political and technological revolutions of the 21st century. The
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
edition became a bestseller in Israel, and generated much interest among the general public. Joseph Drew wrote that "''Sapiens'' provides a wide-ranging and thought-provoking introduction for students of comparative civilization," considering it as a work that "highlights the importance and wide expanse of the social sciences." In January 2016 at the Davos Forum, Harari was the originator of the idea that, as a result of the
Fourth Industrial Revolution "Fourth Industrial Revolution", "4IR", or "Industry 4.0", is a neologism describing rapid technological advancement in the 21st century. It follows the Third Industrial Revolution (the "Information Age"). The term was popularised in 2016 by K ...
, "humanity will be divided between a superelite of improved humans and a mass of 'useless people'" and that "power is in the hands of those who control the algorithms". He returned to the theme in an October 2017 interview with ''
People's Daily Online People's Daily Online is a state media company controlled by the People's Daily Press, the publisher of the ''People's Daily'', the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Formerly the online version of the ' ...
'' to which he said: Harari's follow-up book, '' Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow'', was published in 2016 and examines the possibilities for the future of ''Homo sapiens''. The book's premise outlines that, in the future, humanity is likely to make a significant attempt to gain happiness, immortality and God-like powers. The book goes on to openly speculate various ways this ambition might be realised for ''Homo sapiens'' in the future based on the past and present. Among several possibilities for the future, Harari develops the term dataism for a philosophy or mindset that worships
big data Big data primarily refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data processing, data-processing application software, software. Data with many entries (rows) offer greater statistical power, while data with ...
. Writing in ''
The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'',
Siddhartha Mukherjee Siddhartha Mukherjee ( Bengali: সিদ্ধার্থ মুখার্জী; born 21 July 1970) is an Indian-American physician, biologist, and author. He is best known for his 2010 book, '' The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of ...
stated that although the book "fails to convince me entirely," he considers it "essential reading for those who think about the future." Harari's book, ''
21 Lessons for the 21st Century ''21 Lessons for the 21st Century'' is a book written by Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari and published in August 2018 by Spiegel & GrauHarari, Yuval Noah; Spiegel & Grau (2018). ''21 Lessons for the 21st Century''. . in the US and by Jonathan ...
,'' published on 30 August 2018, focused more on present-day concerns. A review in the ''
New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...
'' commented on what it called "risible moral dictums littered throughout the text", criticised Harari's writing style and stated that he was "trafficking in pointless asides and excruciating banalities." ''
Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...
'' praised the book as a "tour de force" and described it as a "highly instructive exploration of current affairs and the immediate future of human societies." In July 2019, Harari was criticised for allowing several omissions and amendments in the Russian edition of his third book ''21 Lessons for the 21st Century'', using a softer tone when speaking about Russian authorities.
Leonid Bershidsky Leonid Davidovich Bershidsky (; born 23 November 1971) is a Russian journalist, publisher and columnist for '' Bloomberg View'', the editorial division of Bloomberg News. He is currently based in Berlin, Germany. Biography Bershidsky was born i ...
in ''
The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' (''MT'') is an Amsterdam-based independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking to ...
'' called it "caution—or, to call it by its proper name, cowardice", and Nettanel Slyomovics in ''
Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...
'' claimed that "he is sacrificing those same liberal ideas that he presumes to represent". In a response, Harari stated that he "was warned that due to these few examples Russian censorship will not allow distribution of a Russian translation of the book" and that he "therefore faced a dilemma," namely to "replace these few examples with other examples, and publish the book in Russia," or "change nothing, and publish nothing," and that he "preferred publishing, because Russia is a leading global power and it seemed important that the book's ideas should reach readers in Russia, especially as the book is still very critical of the Putin regime—just without naming names." In November 2020 the first volume of his graphic adaptation of ''Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind'', ''Sapiens: A Graphic History – The Birth of Humankind,'' co-authored with David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave'','' was published and launched at a livestream event organised by How to Academy and
Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
. In 2022, Harari's book, ''Unstoppable Us: How Humans Took Over the World'', illustrated by Ricard Zaplana Ruiz, was published and is a "Story of Human History — for Kids." In fewer than 200 pages of child-friendly language, Harari covers the same content as his best-selling book ''Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind'', but "he has simplified the presentation for this younger audience without dumbing it down." This book is "the first of four planned volumes."


Published works

* ''Renaissance Military Memoirs: War, History and Identity'', 1450–1600 (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2004), * ''Special Operations in the Age of Chivalry, 1100–1550'' (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2007), * ''The Ultimate Experience: Battlefield Revelations and the Making of Modern War Culture, 1450–2000'' (Houndmills: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008), * '' Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind'' (London: Harvill Secker, 2014) * '' Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow'' (2016), * ''Money: Vintage Minis'' (select excerpts from ''Sapiens'' and ''Homo Deus'' (London: Penguin Random House, 2018) * ''
21 Lessons for the 21st Century ''21 Lessons for the 21st Century'' is a book written by Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari and published in August 2018 by Spiegel & GrauHarari, Yuval Noah; Spiegel & Grau (2018). ''21 Lessons for the 21st Century''. . in the US and by Jonathan ...
'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2018)'','' * ''Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 1 – The Birth of Humankind'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2020) * ''Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 2 − The Pillars of Civilization'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2021) * ''Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 3 − The Masters of History'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2024) * ''Unstoppable Us, Volume 1 − How Humans Took Over the World'' (Bright Matter Books, 2022)'','' * ''Unstoppable Us, Volume 2 − Why the World Isn't Fair'' (Bright Matter Books, 2024)'','' * ''Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI'', (Fern Press, 2024), Articles * "The Military Role of the Frankish Turcopoles – a Reassessment", '' Mediterranean Historical Review'' 12 (1) (June 1997), pp. 75–116. * "Inter-Frontal Cooperation in the Fourteenth Century and Edward III's 1346 Campaign", '' War in History'' 6 (4) (September 1999), pp. 379–395 * "Strategy and Supply in Fourteenth-Century Western European Invasion Campaigns", ''
The Journal of Military History ''The Journal of Military History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the military history of all times and places. It is the official journal of the Society for Military History. The journal was established in 1937 and the e ...
'' 64 (2) (April 2000), pp. 297–334. * "Eyewitnessing in Accounts of the First Crusade: The Gesta Francorum and Other Contemporary Narratives", ''Crusades'' 3 (August 2004), pp. 77–99 * "Martial Illusions: War and Disillusionment in Twentieth-Century and Renaissance Military Memoirs", ''The Journal of Military History'' 69 (1) (January 2005), pp. 43–72 * "Military Memoirs: A Historical Overview of the Genre from the Middle Ages to the Late Modern Era", ''War in History'' 14:3 (2007), pp. 289–309 * "The Concept of 'Decisive Battles' in World History", '' The Journal of World History'' 18 (3) (2007), 251–266 * "Knowledge, Power and the Medieval Soldier, 1096–1550", in ''In Laudem Hierosolymitani: Studies in Crusades and Medieval Culture in Honour of Benjamin Z. Kedar'', ed. Iris Shagrir,
Ronnie Ellenblum Ronnie Ellenblum (; born June 21, 1952, Haifa, Israel; died January 7, 2021, Jerusalem, Israel) was an Israeli professor at the department of geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Human ...
and
Jonathan Riley-Smith Jonathan Simon Christopher Riley-Smith (27 June 1938 – 13 September 2016) was a historian of the Crusades, and, between 1994 and 2005, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge. He was a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Ea ...
, (Ashgate, 2007) * "Combat Flow: Military, Political and Ethical Dimensions of Subjective Well-Being in War", ''
Review of General Psychology ''Review of General Psychology'' is the quarterly scientific journal of the American Psychological Association Division 1: The Society for general psychology. The journal publishes cross-disciplinary psychological articles that are conceptual, theo ...
'' (September 2008) * Introduction to
Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher who is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's work specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secu ...
's '' Animal Liberation'',
The Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1887 by John Lane and Elkin Mathews, The Bodley Head existed as an independent entity or as part of multiple consortia until it was acquired by Random ...
, 2015. * "Armchairs, Coffee and Authority: Eye-witnesses and Flesh-witnesses Speak about War, 1100–2000", ''Journal of Military History'' 74:1 (gennaio, 2010), pp. 53–78.
"Yuval Noah Harari on big data, Google and the end of free will"
''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'' (August 2016).
"Why It's No Longer Possible for Any Country to Win a War"
''Time'' (23 June 2017).
"Why Technology Favors Tyranny"
''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...
'' (October 2018).
"Game of Thrones: A Battle of Reality Versus Fantasy"
Wired (24 May 2019)
"Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus"
''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'' (20 March 2020).
"Why Vladimir Putin has already lost this war"
''
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'' (28 February 2022)
"The End of the New Peace"
''The Atlantic'' (December 2022)
"Will Zionism survive the war?"
''
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'' (May 2024)


Critical reception

Harari's popular publications are considered to belong to the
Big History Big History is an academic discipline that examines history from the Big Bang to the present day, present. Big History resists specialization and searches for universal patterns or trends. It examines long time frames using a multidisciplinar ...
genre, with Ian Parker writing in 2020 in ''The New Yorker'' that "Harari did not invent Big History, but updated it with hints of self-help and futurology, as well as a high-altitude, almost nihilistic composure about human suffering." His work has been more negatively received in academic circles, with Christopher Robert Hallpike stating in a 2020 review of ''Sapiens'' that "one has often had to point out how surprisingly little he seems to have read on quite a number of essential topics. It would be fair to say that whenever his facts are broadly correct they are not new, and whenever he tries to strike out on his own he often gets things wrong, sometimes seriously." Hallpike further states that "we should not judge ''Sapiens'' as a serious contribution to knowledge but as '
infotainment Infotainment (a portmanteau of ''information'' and ''entertainment''), also called soft news as a way to distinguish it from serious journalism or hard news, is a type of media, usually television or online, that provides a combination of inform ...
', a publishing event to titillate its readers by a wild intellectual ride across the landscape of history, dotted with sensational displays of speculation, and ending with blood-curdling predictions about human destiny. By these criteria, it is a most successful book." In 2020, philosopher Mike W. Martin criticized Harari's view in a journal article, stating that " ararimisunderstands human rights, inflates the role of science in moral matters, and fails to reconcile his moral passion with his moral skepticism." In July 2022, the American magazine '' Current Affairs'' published an article titled "The Dangerous Populist Science of Yuval Noah Harari" by neuroscientist Darshana Narayanan, which pointed to the lack of scientific rigor in his books. "The best-selling author is a gifted storyteller and popular speaker," she wrote. "But he sacrifices science for sensationalism, and his work is riddled with errors." In November 2022, the German newspaper ''
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...
'' called Harari a historian and a
brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...
. It pointed out that the Yahav Harari Group, built by his partner Yahav, was a "booming product cosmos" selling comics and children's books, and soon films and documentaries. It observed an "icy
deterministic Determinism is the metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping mo ...
touch" in his books, which made them so popular in Silicon Valley. It stated that his listeners celebrated him like a pop star, although he only had the sad message that people are "bad algorithms", soon to be redundant, to be replaced because machines could do it better. Russian far-right political philosopher
Aleksandr Dugin Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin (; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian far-right political philosopher. He is the leading theorist of Russian neo-Eurasianism. Born into a military intelligence family, Dugin was an anti-communist dissident during the ...
has singled out Harari's "inclination towards a post-human existence" as evidence that the modern Western world is "the civilization of the Antichrist", which he Russian world">Russian_world.html" ;"title="he Russian world">he Russian worldand the Islamic world are therefore justified in opposing.


Awards and recognition

Harari twice won the Polonsky Academy for Advanced Studies, Polonsky Prize for "Creativity and Originality", in 2009 and 2012. In 2011, he won the
Society for Military History The Society for Military History is a United States–based international organization of scholars who research, write, and teach military history of all time periods and places. It includes naval history, air power history, and studies of technol ...
's Moncado Award for outstanding articles in military history. In 2012, he was elected to the Young Israeli Academy of Sciences. ''Sapiens'' was in the top 3 of ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list for 96 consecutive weeks. In 2018, Harari gave the first
TED Talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...
as a digital avatar. In 2017, ''Homo Deus'' won Handelsblatt's German Economic Book Award for the most thoughtful and influential economic book of the year. In 2018 and 2020, Harari spoke at the
World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...
annual conference in
Davos Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...
.


Personal life

Harari is gay, and in 2002 met his husband Itzik Yahav. Yahav has also been Harari's personal manager. They
married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
in a civil ceremony in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, Canada, because Israel recognizes civil marriages (same sex or opposite sex) only if conducted abroad, and no recognized religious institution in Israel arranges same-sex marriages. He lives in a middle-class suburb of Tel Aviv. Though he is an
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, Harari has practiced Vipassana meditation since 2000 and said that it "transformed" his life. As of 2017 he practiced for two hours every day (one hour each at the start and end of his work day); every year undertook a meditation retreat of 30 days or longer, in silence and with no books or social media; and is an assistant meditation teacher. He dedicated '' Homo Deus'' to "my teacher, S. N. Goenka, who lovingly taught me important things", and said "I could not have written this book without the focus, peace and insight gained from practising Vipassana for fifteen years." He also regards meditation as a way to research. Harari is a
vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...
and says this resulted from his research, including his view that the foundation of the dairy industry is breaking the bond between mother cow and calf. As of May 2021, Harari did not have a
smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
, but in an interview in October 2023, he explained that he owned a smartphone only for use in travel and emergencies. During the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, following former United States President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
's cut to
WHO The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...
funding, Harari announced that he and his husband would donate $1 million to the WHO through Sapienship, their social impact company. Harari is among the critics of Israeli
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...
, and is specifically opposed to the judicial reform plans of the
thirty-seventh government of Israel The thirty-seventh government of Israel is the current Cabinet of Israel, cabinet of Israel, formed on 29 December 2022, following the 2022 Israeli legislative election, Knesset election on 1 November 2022. The coalition government consists of ...
. In a conversation with
Lex Fridman Alexei "Lex" Fridman (; born 15 August 1983) is an American computer scientist and podcaster. Since 2018, he has hosted the ''Lex Fridman Podcast'', where he interviews notable figures from various fields such as science, technology, sports, and ...
in 2023 he said: "... And now the Netanyahu government is trying to neutralize, or take over, the
supreme court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
, and they've already prepared a long list of laws – they already talk about it – that will be passed the moment that this last check on the power is gone, they are openly trying to gain unlimited power".


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harari, Yuval 1976 births Living people 21st-century Israeli historians Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford Big History Gay academics Gay Jews Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Israeli commentators Israeli futurologists Israeli gay writers Israeli medievalists Israeli military historians Israeli people of Lebanese-Jewish descent Jewish Israeli atheists LGBTQ educators People from Kiryat Ata Technology commentators Theorists on Western civilization Transhumanists World historians