Book Review Sapiens PDF

 

 Yuval  Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and professor in i n the Department of History at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of popular science  bestsellers : A brieffrom history humankind, Homo Deusexamines : A brief freewill, history of tomorrowSapiens and 21 lessons f rom the of 21st century. His writings Part 03 consciousness, intelligence and happiness.

 

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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 cognitivee revolution, The agricultural revolution, The scientific rrevolution. cognitiv evolution. The book addresses the central  points of our Evolution Evoluti on and Explores Explore s the Positive Positiv e and Negative points of these th ese developments devel opments.. Also, Sapiens Sapien s also addresses the future of humanity, where these revolutions will lead man and what we will become.

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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 pages on our present and possible future rrather ather than our past. The  book begins begins strong enough enough with a very interesting interesting presentation presentation of early human human history and development development of early human species.

 

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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.

 

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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 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. “W “Wee 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, company, we are accountable to no one. Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?"

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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.

 

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The ability to thi think nk ga gave ve ea early rly hu humans mans langu language, age, which eventu eventually ally led to agricu agricultural ltural advances allowing them to grow exponentially 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 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.

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Improv Improvements ements in trad tradee were only po possibl ssiblee with the in inventio vention n of mon money ey and writin writing.W g.With ith 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.

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Wi With th bet better ter Ec Economic onomic and Co Communic mmunication ation m means, eans, Scient Scientific ific Pr Progres ogresss gave our ra race ce 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.