Humanity is at a critical moment in history. Our species faces the potential risk of extinction and the rise of a new human species that threatens to replace the current one or become the dominant one. In this thoroughly researched book, Amakiri Welekwe addresses these concerns by examining history from God’s perspective. History doesn’t just tell us something about the past; it also points to the future. We cannot change the past, but history helps us avoid costly mistakes and change our path for our tomorrow.
This book delves into the past, seeking to provide an understanding of how and why our species came to dominate the earth. It attempts to address important existential questions such as who we are, why we are here, why the world is in such a mess, where history is headed, and the impact of technology. How will events ultimately pan out in the end? For the author, the future of humanity is not in Yuval Harari’s Homo Deus. Instead, he takes us back to where it all began and, from the profound insights of this journey through history, he offers a new humanity realigned with the Creator’s original plan. This is the Homo Novus or New Man.
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The title, Homo Novus, refers to an altogether different evolutionary leap, a new species of humanity that believers can join through connection with Jesus Christ. Welekwe draws on a lifetime of work in information technology to discuss issues like the “surveillance capitalism,” bioengineering, cybernetics, and the possibility of the Singularity, all as part of his exploration of bigger ideas, like the illusions of the view of history that humanity is on a path of ascendance. He warns, “Every new invention we pull off just widens the gap between us and the Garden of Eden—the Paradise of God.”
He builds to that argument by considering the relationship between humanity, technology, and God over millennia, often from a Biblical perspective. Christian readers may find his conclusions and explorations of theology persuasive, but in his arguments Welekwe takes faith as a given, offering little to convince readers who don’t already share convictions like this one: “I express this with caution—if faced with a choice between death and loyalty to Christ and His kingdom, one should be prepared to choose death.”
Takeaway: Impassioned treatise surveying humanity’s tech future but calling for a recommitment to God.
Comparable Titles: Jacob Shatzer’s Transhumanism and the Image of God, Craig M. Gay’s Modern Technology and the Human Future.
Production grades
Cover: B-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A
