How have we become the ‘master of the entire planet?’ Just how critical are the decisions that we make today? This is one of the most fascinating books I have read and here is my summary.
Summary of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Read this to find perspective
We roamed the earth 70,000 years ago in tribes, disconnected from the rest of the world. We had no greater impact on our environments than zebras, bees, or bears. We were an animal of insignificance for at least 58,000 years. How did that change?
This book gave me perspective on the shortness of our time here on this planet, both as an individual and a species. Here is my summary and the keynotes that I took when reading this fascinating book.
How are we able to cooperate with complete strangers?
How have we managed to overcome the forces of natural selection?
Is the world, from a macro-perspective, on a trend towards global unity?
Is progress at all useful if, as a species, we are not happy?
How have we, homosapiens, self-proclaimed ‘wise’ men, come to play God?
- 70,000 years ago: Cognitive Revolution
- 12,000 years ago: Agricultural Revolution
- 500 years ago: Scientific Revolution
Cognitive revolution
With the onset of the cognitive revolution 70,000 years ago, we created common myths, stories, religions which overcame the previous hurdles of large-scale co-operation, humans previously limited to around 150. Such myths, stories, religions, etc, are known as imagined realities. Today, imagined realities include but are not limited to:
- Money
- Limited Liability Companies
- Equality
- The American Declaration of Independence
- England
- Democracy
Such myths allow humans to transcend the here and now and follow idealized codes of conduct. However, such imagined realities are not a lie: they truly exist in our collective imagination and thus are inter-subjective realities. The myths that surround us dictate so much of what we believe and do.
Some historians, such Harari or Maurice Bloch argue that religion is simply the manifestation of our capacity to imagine other worlds.
The cognitive revolution allowed humans to communicate about things we have never seen or are not there, for instance, that there is not a lion behind the rock.
- Most of our psychology was developed about 10,000 years ago.
- In ancient groups there was little privacy but also little loneliness.
- The instinct to stuff your face with high calorie food is in our DNA.
The human collective today is far more knowledgeable than the whole population of 15,000 years ago. However, we are much more specialized today. What does this mean? Ancient forages, having a much wider and deeper knowledge of their physical surroundings than we do, were some of the most knowledgeable and skilful people in history.
There is no evidence modern humans have become more intelligent with time.
The expedition of travelling across the sea and landing in Australia marked the moment humans cemented themselves at the top of the food chain.
Agricultural revolution
Ever since the agricultural revolution, there has not been one predominant way of life for all humans. There has only been various cultures.
The agricultural revolution sprang up independently in many different parts of the world. It made life significantly harder for humans in the first few thousand years:
- More work
- Less leisure
- Growing population
This caused great suffering on the individual level, not just for humans but for domesticated animals like cows, sheep, etc. This is because luxuries tend to become necessities and spawn new obligations.
New myths must build upon or evolve from previous myths.
The main purpose of writing is to record numbers. However, our brains are much better at remembering biological, zoological, and social information. Writing has changed the way humans think: we think far more categorically than ever before.
Numbers are the world’s most prevalent language.
Imagined orders and devised scripts (e.g hieroglyphics) filled the gap left by our biological inheritance — allowing us to sustain mass co-operation networks.
People have created order in societies by classifying the population into imagined categories, such as superiors, commoners and slaves…
Hierarchies also serve an important function: to enable complete strangers to know how to treat each other without any acquainting or use of energy.
Equality and freedom are two fundamental values yet how can equality be achieved without curtailing the freedoms of those who are better off.
The modern world fails to square liberty with equality. Such contradictions in culture are known as cognitive dissonance. This is not necessarily bad: it forces us to think critically.
Most socio-political hierarchies lack a logical or biological basis — they are nothing but the perpetuation of chance events supported by myth.
What accounts for the university and stability of the patriarchal system?
- Strength of men? No.
- Aggression? No.
- Submissive women and competitive men? No.
We simply do not know.
Culture and money
The network of artificial instincts is known as culture.
Biology enables, culture forbids.
Liberal political and judicial systems founded on the belief that every individual has a sacred inner nature, indivisible and immutable, which gives meaning to this belief.
What is human behaviour determined by? Free will or biology?
There is no evidence that human well-being improves as history rolls along.
Likewise, there is no proof that it is only the widespread, successful cultures that are beneficial.
We live in a level 2 chaotic system: chaos that reacts to predictions about it.
History is moving relentlessly toward unity, towards one world culture.
The creation of money was purely an intellectual revolution and 90% of all money is electronic data, not physical money. Everyone always wants money precisely because everyone else wants money.
Empires
The number of distinct peoples has fallen drastically because of, for example, empires.
The imperial vision: we are helping you!
Empires spread their culture to gain legitimacy.
Who do I stand for? Or rather, who am I against?
Empires have been the world’s most common form of political organization for the last 2,500 years. What we believe is part of ‘our culture’ was actually forced upon us by other empires who conquered our ancestors. There are actually many benefits of empires: art, music, governance, technology…
Religious revolution
Religion is the third great unifier of humankind, alongside money and empires.
Polytheism tends to be more open and accepting of multiple beliefs despite the fact that it is often seen as more barbarian and uneducated than our current beliefs.
Monotheism can be similar to polytheistic gods with the use of patron saints.
According Buddhism, the mind craves freedom from pain or that pleasure remains or intensifies. Thus, the mind craves more in all situations and all suffering arises from such craving.
Natural law religions: communism, capitalism, liberalism, for example.
Scientific Revolution
Science has increasingly revealed that human behaviour is determined by hormones, genes and neurological synapses. If this is true, then for how much longer will we ignore that biology does not agree with the concept of free will? Interesting.
Modern people look for completely new knowledge. Old people developed their understanding of previous knowledge. This was compounded by the general laws of traditional mythologies and scriptures, which held that the golden age was in the past.
The willingness to admit ignorance has made modern science more dynamic, supple, and inquisitive than any previous tradition of knowledge. If we do admit that we are ignorant, even about our shared myths, how can we hold society together?
Development of technology used to be about tactics, not tools.
Gunpowder was invented accidentally by Daoist Alchemists searching for the elixir of life.
Scientific research can only flourish in alliance with some religion or ideology.
The scientific revolution and modern imperialism is inseparable.
Between 1500 and 1850, Europe built its unique potential.
Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfishness. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist-consumerist ideal. This ethic gives the masses free rein to their cravings and passions.
Science does not take death as an inevitability.
The real test of knowledge is not truth but utility.
Economic and capitalistic interests determine what we research and what we do with those findings.
All credit is based on the idea that science and technology will advance. We collectively trust that the future will be better than the present.
Adam Smith’s insight that by becoming richer you benefit everyone, not just yourself: the pie grows in size so everyone gets a larger slice.
However, profits must be reinvested in new production, not hoarded.
A need felt in the wild continues to be felt subjectively, even if it is no longer really necessary for survival and reproduction.
Most people do not realise just how peaceful the times we live in are.
War is at an all time low because the costs of war have increased because of nuclear weapons whilst the benefits of war have decreased since:
- Physical resources drive less of the economy
- International trade is more lucrative than conquest
- Tightening of international connections
Genetic engineering is allowing humans to break the laws of natural selection.
Next stage of human history will not only involve biological and technological changes, but also changes in human consciousness and identity.
What do we want to want?
Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?
Happiness
If happiness is based on pleasurable feelings, then increasing our happiness is a matter of increasing our biochemical release. If it is based on meaning, then increasing our happiness is a matter of deluding ourselves about the meaning of our lives.
Happiness results from the processes within the body and not from the outside world. What are such processes?
Buddhist philosophy of happiness: you are not your feelings. If you understand this, you can release the need to keep chasing the need to feel happy, content, or not feeling angry or sad.
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how” — Nietzsche
Frugality and the destruction of the local community
- Frugality: fixing your trousers instead of buying new ones.
- Annually, the US population spends more on diets than the amount needed to feed all the hungry people in the world.
- Consumer goods have become essential mediators in relationships between family members, spouses and friends.
- Most people in history lived in conditions of scarcity. Frugality was thus their watchword. The austere ethics of the Puritans and Spartans are but two famous examples: a good person avoided luxuries, never threw food away, and patched up torn trousers rather than buying a new pair.
In the space of 200 years the local community has been reduced to a shadow of what it once was. The free market, state and technology now reigns as supreme leader and (tries to) answer our calls for security, comfort, justice, inspiration… In freeing the individual, where it is okay to love and marry who you choose, follow your passion, not become a doctor, for example, the local community has been reduced to rubble.
What do we have in its place?
Consumerism, objects are now essential mediators of relationships. We have unrestrained freedom. We can give in as much to our desires whether food, sex, television, endless entertainment because it is good. ‘Just do it’ after all. Right?
Perhaps not.
Where has this gotten us and how can discipline, frugality even, actually benefit us?
This strongly relates to the secularization of the west and, whether or not you are religious, questions arise when considering what is now in the place of religion? What has replaced the values and beliefs that bounded countrymen, farmers, and knights alike together in Medieval Christendom?
Conclusion
From an animal of insignificance to a proud and powerful species capable of breaking even the laws of natural selection, homo sapiens.
What is our path?
What will we become?
Do we give ourselves too much importance?
Should we try and remember that we are mortal?
First, there was the cognitive revolution with which we created imagined realities. Then, the agricultural revolution, in which our quality of life worsened for the first few millennia because changes were so miniscule and unnoticeable between generations. It was during this time that empires arose and fell, religions spread across the world, and exploration took place. Following this, the scientific revolution revolutionized the common mindset to: we are ignorant and know little about the world. Unknown parts of maps were now left blank, signifying unexplored territories. Now we live in times that are constantly revolutionary: the internet, atomic weapons, space exploration, the decoding of our DNA.
What is next?
Will we become a-mortal?
What will we become?
Day 7/30 Article Writing Challenge. Thanks for reading!
