What are some interesting concepts discussed in the book Sapiens?
The book Sapiens -A brief history of the human kind written by Yuval Noah Harrari is a must-read and here is why !
The book is divided into three sections the cognitive revolution, Agricultural and Industrial revolution. Whenever Evolution of humans was discussed, it was explained in a linear fashion as to how one human species has succeeded the previous. But the truth is very far from that, as Earth was once home to more than one species of human at the same time. Then how did our species of homo sapiens managed to out-do the other species in the game of evolution. This is attributed to the cognitive abilities that homo sapiens developed that archaic humans did not have. To put in simpler terms, homo sapiens developed the ability to imagine stories that did not exist in objective reality(Gravity is an objective reality ,it still works even if humans stop believing in it). The author throws light on how this is different from lying(many mammals like monkeys can “lie”). This ability to create and believe in common myths helped us to co-operate in large numbers. if we were to go to war with Neanderthals they would stand no chance against us(though they are much more stronger than us physically).
The Agricultural Revolution explains how and why sapiens adopted agriculture as opposed to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle . It also drives the point home on how agricultural revolution is not what it’s cut out to be. He calls it history’s biggest lie. He expounds how a peasant toiled long hours in the sun and was still left to the mercy of rains, seasons and environment. The diet has also had become less diversified(mostly wheat) and deprived the essential nutrients. Not taking away that agriculture provided the safety of homes and was able to feed more mouths there by increasing the number of people. But more DNA prints (more people) cannot be misunderstood as more happiness or quality of life. It is a mere evolutionary success.
In the last part it is explained as to how humans accidentally discovered gun powder and a way to convert one form of energy to other. This propelled the industrial revolution and it kept growing leaps and bounds. It was explained how humans went from starvation to surplus in the turn of few hundred years. Today humans have forayed into multiple sciences like genetics ,space, cyborgs that we might end up changing the course of history.
Along side these revolutions the book answers “why” multiple ideologies like imperialism, capitalism and forms of worship like polytheism, dualism and monotheism emerged owing to the contemporary socio, economic and political factors. And how these ideologies kept changing as time went by.
To conclude sapiens answers a very important question that has been haunting human beings from times immemorial: Is there a purpose to the history or is there an end goal towards which we are moving. And the answer though is not a sensational revelation. It is just that history has no purpose whatsoever it is just a blind evolution process with some strange turns.
