Book review: coutesy Wally Lazaruk and VRMNC’s History Book Club
In the month of May, the History Book Club read and discussed the book entitled Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.
In Sapiens, Harari explores how our species, Homo Sapiens, emerged in East Africa more than 150,000 years ago to spread across the world and become the dominant species on Earth. On our human journey, we experienced the Agricultural Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Information Revolution and now the Biotechnology Revolution. These revolutions changed us in lasting, and not always positive, ways.
In the Cognitive Revolution, 70,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens, translated as “wise man”, developed languages. Languages allowed humans to tell stories, to imagine, to create myths and beliefs. Through these imagined realities, large numbers of Homo Sapiens could communicate and collaborate in flexible ways. Our ability to create imagined realities led to our dominance over other species. Homo Sapiens spread throughout the world as a result of the creativity developed during this period. This migration also resulted in the destruction of megafauna and created ecological disasters.
In the Agricultural Revolution, 10,000 years ago, humans domesticated plants and animals. More food was collected per unit area and the population increased. However, the abundance of food did not improve the quality of human life, according to Harari. Humans had more work and less time to relax. As humans settled into communities, diets became less varied and nutritious and disease spread more easily in crowded villages. With the permanent establishment of villages, occupations such as merchants, shoe-makers and teachers were started. At the same time, suffering increased for humans at the individual level and for domesticated animals (chickens, cows, pigs and sheep). Peasants worked long hours to feed the elite who ruled the communities.
In this revolution, communities and societies created rules and laws for living together and were unified by sharing myths about money, empires and religion. Social classes were formed based on wealth, race, gender or ordination by a god. Societal divisions and inequalities were created and remain in the modern era. As well, writing symbols representing numbers were introduced to track activities and record taxes, debts, property and ownership.
In the Scientific Revolution (500 years ago), science, capitalism and exploration helped to define the society of today. Humans admitted that they do not know everything and that what we think we know could be proven wrong. Science attempted to answer life’s biggest questions. Knowledge was used in the search of truth and utility. Funding was guided by economic, political and religious interests. Scientific developments were used to gain influence, control and to increase profits. However, the natural world and its ecology have been degraded through the misuse of natural resources. Resources and people were exploited in favour of mass production of goods.
In the Industrial Revolution (200 years ago), new manufacturing processes were developed. Industries grew by creating wealth for investors and community. Energy sources and raw materials were harnessed to create wealth and to increase investments. Nevertheless, the rapid and unnatural growth harmed the emotional psyche of both humans and animals, according to Harari. Our quality of life and our maintenance of the environment remain far from ideal.
We are now on the brink of another revolution. Humans are transcending natural selection by using genetic engineering and accelerating the age of intelligent design. As we design our future, who do we want to become?
How can we use our imagination, languages and technology to create and communicate new worlds, alternatives and possibilities that will benefit us, our grandchildren and generations to come?
Some of Harari’s quotes in Sapiens:
- “Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths. Any large-scale human cooperation – whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city or an archaic tribe – is rooted in common myths that exist only in people’s collective imagination.”
- “We did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us.”
- “Money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised.”
- “Happiness does not really depend on objective conditions of either wealth, health or even community. Rather, it depends on the correlation between objective conditions and subjective expectations.”
- “We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine.”
Prepared by Wally Lazaruk, May 2022
References:
Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: a brief history of humankind,Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2014. 443 p.
Yuval Noah Harari: Official Website
Author Bio
Yuval Noah Harari, best-selling author, historian and professor, was born in Israel in 1976. He taught himself how to read at age three and studied in a class for intellectually gifted children from the age of eight. He began studying history and international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at age 17 and then completed his PhD at the University of Oxford in 2002. He is currently lecturing in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
His book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind was originally published in Hebrew in 2011 based on his lectures of an undergraduate history class he was teaching. The book was released in English in 2014 and then translated into approximately 45 additional languages. Harari also published Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2017) and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018).
Harari lives in Karmei Yosel in central Israel with his husband Itzik Yahav, who is also his agent and manager. They married in a civil ceremony in Toronto, Ontario.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Harari announced that he and his husband would donate $1 million to the World Health Organization.
Harari lectures around the world and has written articles for The New York Times, The Economist, the Financial Times and Nature magazine. He consults with politicians on the future, technology and artificial intelligence.
Source of information: Wikipedia and Yuval Noah Harari’s Official Website
