Hired - Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain, by James Bloodworth

This is a very important and timely book, a journalistic piece in the respectable tradition of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London or Ben Judah's This is London. The author goes undercover working in a few of the typical jobs on the rise - at an Amazon warehouse, an insurance company call centre and as a Uber driver. I was not surprised; my daughter worked for a while as a Uber driver, and I was always most suspicious of these very cheap services - if it is that cheap, someone is bearing the costs, because obviously the businesses must make profit, and who bears the cost is of course the worker. These companies make lots of money by cleverly circumventing work and tax laws, taking advantage of most people's wish to get cheap services by shamelessly exploring their workers. We don't think about it, and use them for the said cheap services, but the fact is they're eroding all worker's rights that were so painfully conquered along decades of struggle, and we should realise that by accepting it we're actually paving the way for our own rights - that we enjoy as "regular" workers - to be the next ones taken away. It's a chilling account, excellent food for thought.

L'Angoisse du Roi Salomon, de Romain Gary (Émile Ajar)

Another wonderful book by Romain Gary, written under his pseudonym Émile Ajar. It's funny how his writing style is similar to La Vie Devant Soi and different from Les Cerfs-Volants, the true mark of a heteronym, like our Fernando Pessoa, who was able to create several writing personas with very different styles.

But writing genius apart, this book is a jewel in its own right, moving, sensitive and intelligent. I don't want to describe it, just recommend it - you must read it. It kind of restores your faith in humanity.

Homo Deus, a Brief History of Tomorrow, by Yuval Noah Harari

It took me some time before deciding to read this book, after having liked Sapiens so much, I was somewhat afraid of being disappointed. But I wasn't - Homo Deus is perfectly on a par in what quality is concerned with its predecessor. Once more, Harari deals with the history and evolution of mankind, religion, science and technology, what it means to be human, and the challenges ahead of us in a most knowledgeable and insightful way, and the most objective, considering the limitations of our current minds and present knowledge, whose limits he manages to make us understand so cleverly. And the writing is always so clear and elegant, exactly like a book about science should be so it can reach a wide lay audience.

I felt sometimes skeptical about the time frames suggested in the book, I doubt things will move so fast, based on my personal experience, I know scientific and technological developments take more time than the hype makes us think: for instance, when I started working in Nephrology, more than 25 years ago, xenotransplantation and artificial wearable kidneys seemed just around the corner - well, they obviously weren't, even if treatments are much better now, they still are basically the same, and xenotransplantation and bionic kidneys seem just around the corner... still. I do believe we'll get there eventually, but it will take probably longer than he suggests.

Also, I think he disregards the importance that old religions and ways of living still have in most of the world. His possible futures apply mostly to the western world, but I think the West will still have to contend with the millions of non-Western people in interactions that will surely influence its own development and the way its technology will change its life. I certainly agree with him on how ancient religions are obsolete and unable to deal with modern challenges, but there are still lots of people under their influence and they will perforce influence the pace of Western development. Still, I believe his views to be mostly correct, especially if one takes the "satellite view" looking at history. In the near future, I envisage as more probable a kind of future (in the West, at least) as depicted in the excellent dystopian trilogy of novels by Margaret Atwood Oryx and Krake.

But then, the author repeatedly states that his provocative predictions are not prophecies, and that things can develop in a totally unexpected way. But making us to look at the history of man and to consider the challenges that present technology poses in such a clear and insightful way is invaluable to make us understand ourselves and consider our future.

I think these two books by Yuval Harari - Sapiens and Homo Deus - should be mandatory reading in high school, by the 10th grade. The teaching of History, Biology and Philosophy would surely be much improved.