Sapiens

In the end, I was a bit disappointed in this book. I had heard from a lot of people what an important and interesting book it was, so had high expectations. The early parts, focussing on ancient history, indeed had a number of interesting ideas, but that was marred by rather sweeping generalizations and speculations presented as fact. For example, the often repeated statement that hunter-gatherers had a varied diet and therefore didn't go hungry shows little understanding of population dynamics and how food webs work. Eating multiple species only helps if a harsh winter doesn't affect all of those species. Nevertheless, ideas such as that wheat domesticated H. sapiens rather than vice versa are interesting and challenging. In the second half of the book, focussing on recent times and the future, there were fewer new ideas and a few of them even seemed a bit dated with the passing of seven years after the book was published. Now that we are facing the dual crisis of a global pandemic and climate change, his view of a glorious future of cybernetically and genetically enhanced eternally living people seems rather less realistic.

“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari is a rare work. A truly interdisciplinary telling of the rise of Homo sapiens to be the dominant species on earth, Harari’s book tells the story of humanity from there emergency to the present moment (and possible futures) in a mere 466 pages. Hariri is a that most rare breed of scholar: a generalist who can weave a grand story with deep insight and artfulness. Moreover, the book is fun— not only is Hariri an author of big ideas, he is also a fantastic writer.

There are too many ideas in this book to discuss here. What do you expect with a book that tells the entire history of humanity from start to (perhaps) finish? I purposefully want to keep away describing each detail. The story is too complex, and Hariri tells it much better than I can. The book is one that is well worth reading slowly.

If there was one essential point that provides the foundation to Hariri’s text, it would be the need for large-scale human communities to be developed and maintained through multiple inter-subjective realities. These are stories that are not inherently or objectively true and yet are essential to the functioning of human society. What I enjoy about his use of this idea is that it does not say that these things are true and need to be followed blindly. Nor does he say that we must arrogantly reject them out of hand as not true and therefore not important. He says that these ideas are simultaneously not true and very important. He playfully says that many of the great religious traditions are inter-subjective realities but so is money, capitalism, nations, human rights, gender, aristocracy, and even science. Essentially, these are narratives or stories that we tell and bind us closer together.

One smaller point that resonated with me was Hariri’s discussion of the cruelty that humanity has wrought against other animals on earth. This idea is a reoccurring presence in the book. Sapiens overtook their cousins like the Neanderthals violently. They destroyed most of the big animals on all continents. Sapiens domesticated animals and kept them in virtual slavery, which has only become more cruel and barbarous as a logical consequence of industrialization. This point shows a deeper truth: that Sapiens collective rise has been at the expense of much individual suffering.

I finished this book and its ideas and concepts still rattle around in my brain. Its lucid writing and deft handling of thought-provoking questions will challenge your own identity and will make you think about the world. I plan on assigning it as the back-bone text for a course I am going to teach at a university on the idea of ideas. I cannot recommend this book more highly.

It's not very often one finds a book that challenges and re draws the lines that define what we think we are. This is one. Reading Sapiens has made me question everything about being a human. Why do we define ourselves as such? And where are the boundaries?
What are the levels of reality that exist and how do they affect us... Everything from fire to societies to money to the genome and artificial intelligence. Mankind since it walked out of the jungles (so to speak) and up until it's facing of its true nature. Are we gods? Can we be? Should we be?
All of this questions pondered and asked in a nice, friendly, even funny tone that shouldn't scare away even the newest among us the anthropologist wannabes.
My personal highlight was the realization of the importance of stories, as maybe our biggest invention as a species... and our ability to share and belief those stories that has in the end allowed for us to create the world we live in (and all the horrors and wonders within it)
It is easily a 5/5 book in my opinion, a must read and I know I will be returning to it and recommending it to almost everyone who I come in contact with.
Colour me mind-blown.