This blog post explores the future of scientific and technological development as presented in Yuval Noah Harari’s ‘Sapiens’ and its potential impact on human happiness.
While Yuval Noah Harari’s book ‘Sapiens’ also addresses how the end of Homo sapiens might unfold, people have long imagined and predicted what the future might look like. However, we must not stop at merely imagining the future; we must also consider whether that future can truly lead to the enhancement of happiness for all of humanity. Humanity has continuously evolved from the past to the present, yet few can confidently assert that this progress has made people happier. Now that every human being is respected and their happiness is the foremost consideration, we must ponder how the direction and pace of humanity’s development will impact people’s happiness going forward. Therefore, in this blog post, I wish to explore whether humanity can become happier than it is now, considering the post-Homo sapiens future envisioned by Yuval Noah Harari in ‘Sapiens’.
When judging whether a person is happy, people typically first think of ‘subjective well-being’. This means that how an individual perceives their experiences and the feelings or emotions they feel are crucial. Therefore, even when experiencing the same events, an individual’s happiness varies greatly, making it difficult to gauge at the collective level. Of course, events occurring in the past, present, and future differ significantly, but this alone cannot easily serve as a standard for happiness. This is because subjective well-being is greatly influenced by an individual’s expectations. What is unpleasant in modern times might have been routinely accepted in the past. While comparing happiness levels across generations is difficult, it is not impossible. This is because there are clearly things that universally bring happiness or unhappiness to all humanity, regardless of the era.
For example, death is such a thing. Death has always been considered the most dreadful thing for humans, plunging not only those awaiting death but also those around them into profound unhappiness. Of course, there are cases where death is desired, such as with euthanasia or assisted dying, but these can be seen as situations where people are facing unavoidable circumstances. Compared to the past, mortality rates have significantly decreased, and wars, which once claimed many lives, now occur only in specific regions. Furthermore, advances in modern medicine have increased the likelihood of receiving treatment even when ill, and epidemics are well-controlled through international cooperation, making mass deaths from infectious diseases rare compared to the past. Simply the reduced probability of death—the most dreaded event for humans—has enhanced the overall happiness of humanity.
Now, let’s examine the three future scenarios presented by Yuval Noah Harari and consider how people’s subjective well-being might change. First, if bioengineering becomes highly advanced, people suffering from illness will almost disappear. Even if illness renders a body unusable, a new body can be created and implanted in its place. Just as the transition from the past to the present saw reduced suffering from disease, increasing overall human happiness, the shift from the present to the future will likely follow suit. In fact, even greater happiness may be possible. Advances in bioengineering could even eliminate disability. While currently only imaginable, advances in bioengineering could restore even those with impaired brain function to their original state. Conversely, we must also consider the potential for bioengineering to bring misfortune. As mentioned in ‘Sapiens’, the development of technologies to enhance the body could create fundamental inequality among humans. While inequality currently stems from capital, in the future, if those who can afford it enhance their bodies while others cannot, differences in innate human capabilities could create a society with a different form of inequality than we see today. However, this problem might remain manageable, much like modern firearms. Guns are tools that anyone can use to easily kill people, something unheard of in the past, yet they are subject to strong controls. While gun accidents still occur, humans believe they can manage the gun problem. The same would apply to body enhancement. If appropriate regulations are put in place as the technology develops slowly, it should be possible to prevent chaos in society.
The second future Yuval Noah Harari presents, cyborgs, would not differ significantly from bioengineering in terms of happiness. If cyborgs develop within appropriate regulations, they would not cause unhappiness and, like bioengineering, could solve modern problems and enhance the happiness of humanity as a whole.
The inorganic engineering presented last in ‘Sapiens’ is harder to predict than the other two. Considering its ultimate goal, there will be humans without human bodies. While this could be considered a life form, it is difficult to think of it as human. Even if a digital mind created by a computer programmer could possess functions like self-awareness, consciousness, and memory, it lacks the organic mechanisms humans possess. In other words, when humanity and inorganic engineering begin to merge, a new species distinct from humans will emerge. Similar to cyborg technology, inorganic engineering can be used to merge with something non-human. Initially, simple computations performed by the brain will be replaced by attaching computers inside the body. However, the more complex the operations required for one’s job, the more people will advance the computer’s capabilities and increase its proportion within themselves. This is because humans must compete for jobs against rapidly advancing robots or young people returning from learning new technologies. Making humans into robots will be faster than endowing robots with the flexibility unique to humans. In this case, it is difficult to predict what will become of humanity’s happiness. Will humans become more comfortable with less work thanks to robots? Or will they have to strive even harder than now to integrate better robots with themselves? In a bleak future, a poor worker might even have computers handle the realm of human emotions to meet an employer’s demands and support their family. In such a case, the ability to feel happiness would vanish, rendering discussions of happiness and unhappiness meaningless. If technology advances to this extent, such tragic events will occur unseen by our eyes in various parts of the world. To prevent this, humanity must closely monitor the development of inorganic engineering, just as it does with bioengineering or cyborg technology.
The conditions for happiness can be found not only in subjective well-being but also within biochemical systems. Advances in biology lead to the conclusion that human happiness is ultimately determined by internal biochemical systems. This raises the question: could humans be happy regardless of subjective well-being, if substances inducing happiness were continuously produced within the body? At this point, it’s impossible to know, but when thinking of drugs that make people happy, currently only narcotics or antidepressants come to mind. However, these merely provide temporary pleasure or lift one’s mood; they don’t truly make people happy. Consider soma from Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World,’ also mentioned in ‘Sapiens’. Soma provides continuous happiness without impairing a person’s productivity or efficiency. If we rate happiness on a scale from 1 to 10, Soma keeps that level constantly at 10. The existence of Soma gives readers of ‘Brave New World’ a frightening feeling. It’s probably because it feels like this drug is manipulating us.
Advances in bioengineering will allow us to adjust human biochemical systems as we desire. While soma is portrayed as a drug created to manipulate people, future bioengineering could make us happy while still keeping us human. Some people typically feel happiness between 3 and 6, while others feel happiness between 5 and 8. Even when experiencing the same events, the latter group can become happier, while the former cannot. Future biotechnology will be able to adjust this difference. Feeling bad after a bad event and feeling happy after a good event remains the same. However, when nothing significant happens, the baseline satisfaction with life will increase. This isn’t about creating the bizarre phenomenon of feeling happy after an accident; rather, it’s about aligning with the higher tempo of life lived by those around you. Of course, some may resist adjusting their own biochemical systems, but many who feel unhappy will choose this path to happiness. People with adjusted biochemical systems not only live happier lives but also feel greater satisfaction, leading to greater fulfillment. This ultimately means that the individual’s productivity increases, and this heightened productivity contributes to the happy lives of many people, including myself. Therefore, if the enhancement of human happiness through bioengineering technology is achieved globally, it will lead to the enhancement of happiness for all of humanity.
Based on the considerations so far, it appears that human happiness will increase regardless of which direction Yuval Noah Harari proposed in ‘Sapiens’. This process resembles how technological advancements throughout history have progressively improved human life. Just as regulations were created to prevent inventions like firearms or vehicles—made for convenience—from endangering human life, future technologies will emerge alongside new regulations to ensure they do not threaten humanity. Consequently, modern problems will be resolved, and human life will become more peaceful and prosperous.
