Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

Astrophysics does not need to be filled with the unexplained technical jargon that only specialists or very keen readers can decipher. Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the finest astrophysicists who, like another prominent astrophysicist before him named Carl Sagan, has mastery in explaining complex astronomical concepts and mysterious cosmic phenomena in a tone and accessible language that most readers can grasp. I am glad I have read his "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry". The title kind of indicates that it's written for a quick review of astrophysics. It's true, but it also gives an illuminating glimpse of our mysterious universe and an urgency, like the word "hurry" to have some sense of our very existence. From the very start, the 0th time of big bang to all the way of 21st century's era of technological marvels, Tyson gives a good synopsis on how everything came about that surround us every moment but most of us remain oblivious to its origin....

"Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" is a very well written book, a sequel to Yuval Noah Harari's magnificent "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind". The writer's accessible way of explaining the technical and societal trend and unmistakable destination where humanity is heading to I found to be exhilarating but sometimes frightening too. It is fearsome to think about a world where humanity as we know of does not exist, but supplanted by unconscious intelligence, far superior than human beings could ever imagined to be. To reach his striking conclusion Harari showed how we treat other animals with utter indifference toward their pain and sufferings, even farm animals for food as if only for that reason their existence is justified. Humanity boasts its pureness, its love toward goodness, but these goodness does not apply to the animals as we treat them having lesser intelligence. As the writer argues, when we reach that inevitable point when artificia...