Sapiens a brief history of humankind yuval noah harari
These panoramic explorations are not confined to the relative safety of what probably happened, but extend to the riskier why. Harari sources his myriad of evolutionary streams to three major transitions: The Cognitive Revolution (language, writing and abstract thought), The Agricultural Revolution (domestication the concepts of property, time investment and instrumentalism the harnessing of nature), The Scientific Revolution (investigative knowledge the control of nature the growth of industry, capital, empire and social control). "And what will our world be like in millennia to come?"
"Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? "100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. This bleak possibility and stark question are, in fact, the book’s very last passages – Harari’s dark coda to end a vivid, varifocal and often brilliantly orchestrated (his)story.Įven before we start, the book’s back cover offers an alluringly sharp synopsis signposting the trenchant writing within: "Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?" We are consequently wreaking havoc on our fellow animals and on the surrounding ecosystem, seeking little more than our own comfort and amusement, yet never finding satisfaction. "Self-made gods with only the laws on physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no one. This he does by constructing an often speculative narrative, taking us from our mindless biological roots to (his) imagined future scenarios of robots, cyborgs and humans, where our triumphant intelligence has rendered us:
Yuval Noah Harari is an academic in World History and his quest here is to offer an evolutionary history of humankind. These, together with literary panache, yield us both a Tardis and Aladdin’s Cave of ideas. It presents as a large book – nearly five hundred pages – yet this is remarkably small for a work of such historical scope and intellectual variety. Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind is a writer’s force of nature.