Book Review Sapiens.pdf

Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and professor in the Department of History at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of popular science bestsellers Sapiens : A brief history of humankind, Homo Deus : A brief history of tomorrow and 21 lessons from the 21st century. His writings examines freewill, Part 03 consciousness, intelligence and happiness.

• Sapiens presents a work on the evolution of humanity. In it, the author Yuval Noah Harari rewrites the history of the human being through time. Turning to striking facts such as the development of communication :- The cognitive revolution, The agricultural revolution, The scientific revolution. The book addresses the central points of our Evolution and Explores the Positive and Negative points of these developments. Also, Sapiens also addresses the future of humanity, where these revolutions will lead man and what we will become. • A brief history of human kind aims to provide a readable and concise historical summary of the progress of human evolution. It explains complex issues in a way which can actually be understood and comprehended by most people. The author also spends many pages on our present and possible future rather than our past. The book begins strong enough with a very interesting presentation of early human history and development of early human species.

• Gossip of humans leads to shared tales about common experiences, ancestors, and problems. These tales evolve into myths which are widely shared and identify large groups as ‘us’. "There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings.“ As modern existential and linguistic philosophers have thought for some time, these ideas - scientific, religious, technological, social, and legal are fundamental fictions that become progressively indistinguishable from the ‘natural’ world which is apart from the imagined world of language.

• Everything comes together for Harari in the last few pages of Sapiens, where he takes a superbly reasoned and deeply disturbing telescopic look ahead into the future of humankind. He believes “we stand poised on the brink of becoming true cyborgs, of having inorganic features that are inseparable from our bodies, features that modify our abilities, desires, personalities and identities".But there’s no escape from our limitations nonetheless. Despite “the astonishing things that humans are capable of doing, we remain unsure of our goals and we seem as discontented as ever", writes Harari. “We are more powerful than ever before, but have very little idea of what to do with all that power. Self- made gods with only the laws of physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no one. Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?" • Although the author later brings up valid concerns about our treatment of animals and abuse of collective power, his rant against agriculture is truly bizarre considering that without it he would not be able to write this very book.

1.

The ability to think gave early humans language, which eventually led to agricultural advances allowing them to grow exponentially. Homo sapiens had some distinct advantages that let them get ahead of other human species on earth. Most importantly are the differences in human’s brains. These began with the Cognitive Revolution around 70,000 years ago. This was a time when mental development rose relatively suddenly, setting our ancient ancestors apart.

2.

Improvements in trade were only possible with the invention of money and writing.With agriculture, humans became more efficient with their time and energy. This let some people begin doing other work like weaving or blacksmithing. These individuals would then trade or barter with farmers, exchanging their goods for food. While this new system was better, it quickly became inefficient.

3.

With better Economic and Communication means, Scientific Progress gave our race the abilities necessary to get to where we are today. Now that they had efficient food, trading, and writing methods, our ancestors could begin thinking more. This led to a scientific revolution with many people considering ways to improve their way of life.

Much of Sapiens is extremely interesting, and it is often well expressed. As one reads on, however, the attractive features of the book are overwhelmed by carelessness, exaggeration and sensationalism. Never mind his standard and repeated misuse of the saying "the exception proves the rule" (it means that exceptional or rare cases test and confirm the rule, because the rule turns out to apply even in those cases). There's a kind of vandalism in Harari's sweeping judgments, his recklessness about causal connections. But apart from those points, this is one of the most compelling books penned by Harari.