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You can come across Professor Yuval Noah Harari life story and biography on internet search engines often as only bestselling Sapiens book writer. 😊 He was born in Israel and was born into a family of three children, originally from Eastern Europe. You can find this kind of information anywhere. So, what makes Noah Harari different from other historians and writers? Let’s find the answer together 😊
First of all, let us say that it is very difficult to write such extraordinary books and look at the issues from a different perspective than everyone else. At this point we have to underline that what makes him different is his wide imagination and the limitlessness of his mind. Naturally, it must not be easy to gain these features. In this sense, while talking about his life, we will try to understand his mind and ideas from a different perspective.
Noah Harari Life Story
As people who have read all of Noah Harari’s books, we will try to shed light on his biography based on his mental world. Meanwhile, the knowledge that Professor Harari learned to read and write on his own at the age of three really comes to the fore in his biographies. Born in the Israeli city of Kiryat Ata in 1976, Professor Harari completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. After completing his doctorate at Oxford University in England, then, he returned to his country and still works as a professor of history at the Hebrew University.
In this point, we would like to point out here that; in our opinion, Harari is also a philosopher and intellectual thinker as well as a historian. His famous saying is important such as: “History is not only the science of the past, but also of change.” Accordingly, it could be said that Noah Harari, reflecting his different perspective and the depths of the world of mind, in his works Sapiens and Homo Deus actually looked at history, present and future from a very different and deep perspective. In these books, he also showed us that we should all re-examine and re-consider concepts such as religion, money, creation, law and history.
Views of Noah Harari
Since he is gay man and such marriages are not allowed in his country, Noah Harari married his husband Itzik Yahav in Canada. On the other hand, he met the Vipassana teaching and philosophy in his mid-twenties, Harari states that along with his marriage and states that also this philosophy and meditation which he spends at least 1 hour every day, changed his perspective on life. In his books, his love and respect for not only human beings but also all other living things and nature already reflects a philosophical depth and a personality based on meditation. Noah Harari, who closely follows current developments, constantly emphasizes that humanity is at the beginning of a new era dominated by artificial intelligence based on algorithms, which he calls Dataism.
In addition, Yuval Noah Harari highlights that “data” and the answers to the question “who will own the data” will shape the future of the whole world. On the other hand, although he is from Israel, Yuval Noah Harari evaluates Judaism and Jews from a critical point of view, as he does other religions.
In his book Sapiens, Harari stated that with the agricultural revolution, the hunter-gatherer structure of human beings evolved towards a settled and calmer life and he also stated that he had doubts that this revolution was beneficial for humanity and other living things. At the same time, in Sapiens book Harari states that with the agricultural revolution, people have weakened in some basic characteristics and they have begun to accept animals as second-class creatures that exist to serve them.
Harari’s Book List
Yuval Noah Harari, in his book Homo Deus, emphasizes that humanity has relatively won its struggle against hunger, wars and infectious diseases and now there is immortality as a new target. “Organisms are algorithms.” Harari says and he also states that thanks to the developing data science and biochemistry, humanity will be able to approach immortality in the future. However, he mentions that the power with biochemistry and data can also take over people’s emotions by controlling them. In addition, in another world-renowned and best-selling book, “21 Lessons for the 21st Century”, he talks about the reflections of today’s technological developments on our social and business life.
Frankly, people are worried about the current state of technology today. Especially people working in traditional jobs are wondering what the job market will be like in 10 years, for example. At this point, Harari gives 21 lessons and underlines the need for people to constantly renew themselves. If you are interested in these topics, you should definitely read this book.
Book List of Yuval Noah Harari;
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2014)
- Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2016)
- 21.Lessons for 21st Century (2018)
- Unstoppable Us, Volume 1: How Humans Took Over the World (2022)
Meaning of Life for Him
According to Harari, people make a big mistake when searching for the meaning of life. He says that people generally look to fictional stories when searching for the meaning of life. They think as if the world is a big stage and all people are actors. Moreover, they look at the role assigned to them in those stories. They form their expectations based on this role. These expectations and roles of stories create the meaning of life for people. For example, in the nationalist story, if you protect your country very well and serve it well, you will be successful. Additionally, these stories often contain references and expectations about afterlife.
So, if you play your role well in this world as a nationalist for instance, you will be rewarded with heaven after death. If you don’t play your role well and fail, you will go to hell! Professor Yuval Noah Harari says this is a big mistake people make. On the other hand, Yuval Noah Harari states that the meaning of life is not in stories. According to him, a person should search for the meaning of life within himself. A person who searches for himself through kindness and helping other people will find the right path.
It will help a person to listen to himself and meditate for a certain period of time. Thanks to meditation and listening to inner own voice, a person will discover the meaning he is looking for in life.
