Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Yuval Noah Harari
Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/Observer
Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/Observer

Yuval Noah Harari: you ask the questions

This article is more than 7 years old
Got something to ask the historian and author? Here’s your chance, ahead of an interview to be published later this month

In 2014, a professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem published a book with the ambitious aim of outlining the story of humanity. Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind made him a global sensation, garnering fans such as Barack Obama, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. In 2016, the New York Times bestseller was followed by the equally far-reaching Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, described in the Observer as “a highly seductive scenario planner for the numerous ways in which we might overreach ourselves”.

Later this month, the Observer will publish an interview with Harari and we are offering our readers the chance to put a question to him. So, if you have any questions on topics including:

The history of humankind and its battles with war, plague and genocide.

Predictions for the future of humankind, such as the rise of biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

Vipassana meditation, which Harari practises for two hours every day in addition to a yearly month-long silent retreat.

Post your question in the comment section below, email us at review@observer.co.uk or tweet us @ObsNewReview by Monday 13 March.

The interview will be followed on 2 April with a live event in London, with the historian and author in conversation with the Observer’s editor, John Mulholland. Tickets are available here.

Harari in his own words

“We did not domesticate wheat, wheat domesticated us.”

“Even what people take to be their most personal desires are usually programmed by the imagined order.”

“Modernity is a deal [...] The entire contract can be summarised in a single phrase: humans agree to give up meaning in exchange for power.”

“I do find it worrying that the basis of the future, not only of humankind, the future of life, is now in the hands of a very small group of entrepreneurs.”

Homo sapiens, you and me, we are basically the same as people 10,000 years ago. The next revolution will change that.”

“Many people in their teens wonder about these big questions, what’s the meaning of life, what are we doing here, then somewhere in their 20s they seem to say: ‘I’ll just get married. I’ll just have kids. I’ll get back to that later.’ But they never do. For me, it kept boiling.”

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed