Sapiens, as its name suggests, is a book about the species Homo Sapiens, published in February 10th, 2015 by Yuval Noah Harari, a historian who gained a PhD in history from the University of Oxford and who currently lectures at the Department of History in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Sapiens discusses many tenets of modern-day humans, such as our possible relationship with at least five other human species before their extinction, how we came to organize ourselves into societies, how we came to utilize money instead of trust, and a myriad of other topics. Sapiens is a very accessible, interesting book with a wide scope, which should be widely read by all Sapiens.
Dr. Harari’s first topic of discussion in his book is time - 13.5 billion years ago, the universe as we know it came into existence; 3.8 billion years ago, Earth came into being by accident; 70,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens began forming cultures. Dr. Harari then discusses the “skeletons in the closet” of modern-day humans - there were at least six human species on Earth 100,000 years ago. Dr. Harari describes that these humans varied significantly in anatomy, and that it is feasible Homo Sapiens exterminated the other species.
The human brain itself, elaborated in the book, is our most powerful organ. While the brain allows humans to do tremendous feats, it also demands a lot of nutrients in order to function - Dr. Harari describes that “the brain accounts for about 2-3 percent of total body weight, but it consumes 25 percent of the body’s energy when the body is at rest” (9). He postulates that human brains probably grew over two million years, which has profited nicely. Another distinctive feature of the human animal is that we walk on two legs, while many animals walk on four. This had the unintentional side effect of making childbirth more dangerous for women, as walking upright narrowed the space for the birth canal, resulting in complications, which clearly illustrates the unexpected side effects a previous action could have.
Dr. Harari discusses the cognitive, agricultural, and scientific revolutions in depth in his book. In fact, three of the four sections in the book are dedicated to them - accordingly, “Part One: The Cognitive Revolution,” “Part Two: The Agricultural Revolution,” and “Part Four: The Scientific Revolution.” To summarize, the cognitive revolution lasted from 70,000-30,000 years ago, and this period saw many of humanity’s inventions, such as light sources, archery, needles, and boats. Dr. Harari then describes that “The most commonly believed theory argues that accidental genetic mutations changed the inner wiring of the brains of Sapiens, enabling them to think in unprecedented ways and to communicate using an altogether new type of language” (21). Harari describes that even though many animals could communicate well with each other, what differentiates human language is the sheer variety and complexity. Furthermore, language has to be learned in humans, while it comes naturally to many other organisms. For instance, while green monkeys could call each other to warn of predators and other dangers, these calls lack variety and distinction. Furthermore, it is possible that our concept of language arose to serve social needs such as gossip, despite sounding “like a joke” (24). Dr. Harari says that those who disbelieve the theory should look at today’s communication: most communication, such as journaling and texting, do indeed spread information about specific people. The Cognitive Revolution also enabled humans to spread across the planet, as “Prior to the Cognitive Revolution, humans of all species lived exclusively on the Afro-Asian landmass” (63). This would sow the seeds for the next revolution: the Agricultural Revolution.
The Agricultural Revolution occurred around 10,000 years ago. Humans, for most of our history, were hunter-gatherers, nomads. The Agricultural Revolution is believed to have either started in either a single area and then spread to other places, or to have occurred simultaneously in a multitude of areas. It is a common misconception that humans adopted agriculture the moment they realized how to utilize it - Dr. Harari details that hunter gatherers were far from stupid - in fact, authors like Jared Diamond attest that they were more intelligent than modern-era humans because they had to think creatively in order to find food. Contrary to many expectations, adopting agriculture cultivated humans, not the plants. Using agriculture doesn’t improve the quality of life - in fact, many diseases people suffer from today are zoonotic - they leapt from animals to humans during the Agricultural Revolution. Dr. Harari details that agriculture doesn’t guarantee anyone from violence, far from it. An illustration he had on page 82 shows tribal warfare in New Guinea involving two farming communities in 1960, remarking that “Such scenes were probably widespread in the thousands of years following the Agricultural Revolution.” The Agricultural Revolution made people desperate to protect the land they cultivated, and it also appealed to human greed, as farmers could rob and pillage other farmers for their wealth. What agriculture did offer, according to Dr. Harari, was population growth; while hunter gatherers could only have a few children at a time due to their mobile lifestyle, sedentary peoples could have many offspring. This population explosion led to the formation of villages, states, and empires, which subsequently led to the adoption of law codes to enforce order. The accumulation of wealth was also made possible by the sedentary lifestyle brought on by the Agricultural Revolution, which led to imaginary social classes in human society, which continues to the present.
In “Part 3: The Unification of Mankind,” Dr. Harari describes a variety of human cultures and practices. One of the foremost is money - money enforces conformity (every dollar is worth the same) and it replaces trust. Money, therefore, is practical, for it allows two strangers to get along with each other. However, a weakness regarding money is that when financial situations are dire, cooperation can be difficult, as one party may view the other as unreliable, and refuse to give aid. Harari then discusses a common human conception - the state. Empires, throughout history, have commonly pursued the enrichment of their own people at the expense of others, but they do commonly incorporate conquered peoples into itself, making “them” “us.” One of the chapters in the section is aptly titled “The Law of Religion,” for it discusses the usefulness of religion to humans. Dr. Harari describes it well when he says that “Polytheism thereby exalted not only the status of the gods, but also that of humankind” (213). This does make sense, as when many religions, like monotheistic ones such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are analyzed, they do share one thing in common: the divine creator views humans as worthy of his (or her?) time, which subsequently gives humans a self-esteem boost. Harari also points out an irony of Christianity - although they stressed God’s “mercy” and “grace” and emphasize the persecutions by the Roman authorities, they forget that the Romans made many attempts at compromise, and only began its persecution after Christians “went on to reject all attempts at compromise.” It is also an irony that in three centuries “the polytheistic Romans killed no more than a few thousand Christians. In contrast, over the course of the next 1,500 years, Christians slaughtered Christians by the millions to defend slightly different interpretations of the religion of love and compassion” (216). The most notorious of these crimes are the Thirty Years War, the Inquisition, and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. In the last incidence, “More Christians were killed by fellow Christians in those twenty-four hours than by the polytheistic Roman Empire throughout its whole existence” (216). Dr. Harari then moves on to the spread of religion, and the development of “humanist religions” - religions that glorify humanity - such as “liberal humanism,” “socialist humanism,” and “evolutionary humanism.” Liberal humanism generally asserts that individual freedoms should be protected, socialist humanism mandates that equality should be the main goal of humanity, while evolutionary humanism - most notoriously embodied in the Third Reich’s “Final Solution” - emphasizes humanity’s potential to create superhumans.
The Scientific Revolution, as detailed in the fourth section, gave humankind nearly god-like powers. That is, while humans cannot fly, they can create planes, which will enable them to travel faster than any flying creature on Earth. Dr. Harari notes that the Scientific Revolution only became possible once humans admitted their ignorance regarding many subjects in 500 CE. For the next 1,500 years, humankind discovered many new things, though the rate of learning varied greatly. For instance, for centuries, Europe’s geographers made virtually no progress when it came to mapping out the world, for they believed that Christian dogma answered everything. After many centuries, when ocean exploration was pursued, the European vision of the world was overhauled relatively quickly, as it quickly became apparent the previous version was extremely inaccurate. Furthermore, Dr. Harari enumerates that in the last few centuries, the rate of human technological development has skyrocketed, as seen in the mass improvement of the destructive capability of the atomic bomb in mere years. Dr. Harari ends his book with an afterword hypothesizing humanity’s capability and future. While he does admit that humankind has made real technological progress - “Seventy thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was still an insignificant animal minding its own business in a corner of Africa,” he also makes it abundantly clear on page 415 that we have produced “little that we can be proud of. We have mastered our surroundings … But did we decrease the amount of suffering in the world?” Harari then moves on to our future, for “despite the astonishing things that humans are capable of doing, we remain unsure of our goals and we seem to be as discontented as ever.” Or as Seneca would say, “No wind is favorable to a person who remains unsure of their destination” Harari ends his book on page 416 with a final cautionary note, noting that “We are … wreaking havoc on our fellow animals and on the surrounding ecosystem, seeking little more than our own comfort and amusement, yet never finding satisfaction. Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?”
Personal thoughts:
For the most part, I enjoyed this book. As stated before, it was highly accessible, relatively detailed, and covers human history very well, especially the three revolutions which completely altered humanity. I personally appreciated that the author took the time to detail humans before the Agricultural Revolution, as it should be remembered that humans did indeed spend most of their history as hunter gatherers, which also meant that they weren’t literate and couldn’t record their experiences. Regardless, our evolutionary history is just as important as our relatively recent times, as it was very feasible for hunter gatherers to have adopted agriculture at a much earlier or later time, which would have completely altered world history. I find the idea of agriculture never having been adopted by hunter gatherers as engrossing, as “modern” human history wouldn’t exist at all. When it comes to the afterword, I feel that he is accurate, as humans appear to specialize in technological, not humanistic, advances. It is an irony that the wealthiest country in the world, the US, ranks far below some countries when it comes to happiness, clearly demonstrating Dr. Harari’s stance. However, it should also be noted that the future is the present, and humanity definitely has the technology it needs to ensure a better future for all - for instance, we have enough food to feed everyone, but people starve due to mismanagement, misallocation of resources, and the meat industry (cattle are fed absurd amounts of grain) - if we can adopt a bigger worldview.
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