Book Review: Sapiens (by Yuval Noah Harari)


Where are the other Humans? Tigers, lions, leopards and jaguars are evolutionary siblings (Genus panthera). So are horses, zebras and donkeys (Genus Equus). Where are our evolutionary siblings?

From about 2 million years ago to until around 30-40 thousand years from now, our sibling species lived on this planet. We are Homo Sapiens. They were Homo Erectus, Homo Floresiensis, Homo neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals), and others. No, they were not monkeys. They were Humans. The other members of Genus Homo.

Somehow, they became extinct, but we survived. Perhaps we had played a role in the extinction of the Neanderthals; but we’re not quite sure. Slowly, we spread out from Africa to the rest of the world, and we are thriving—at least for now. We chose to call our humble selves Homo Sapiens; meaning ‘wise man’ in Latin.

Nearly fifty millennia ago, a magical spark happened to our brains that enabled us to imagine things. We call it the Cognitive Revolution, when we become intelligent. Our intelligence has not found a definite clue about its own genesis yet, but we have learned how immensely it changed the course of our species and that of our surroundings.

Suddenly, the animal kingdom had a new rowdy. He wasn’t strong as an individual, but his ability to coordinate with other Sapiens and to make sharp stone-tools made him the boss.

After the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens quickly rose to the top of the food-chain. We started wreaking havoc on other species. By the time we started to learn farming around 12,000 years ago, we had already removed most large animal species from this planet’s land mass. But the real domination of the planet had just begun.

Farming caused strange changes. It gave us poor diet, diseases, back-pains and wars. But it ensured we had our daily caloric requirements covered—except when the rain god was not happy. Since, we could now settle down at one place, civilization could begin. Agriculture was bad for the individuals, but great for the population growth.

Once settled down, we invented languages, religions, empires and economies. Thanks to our imagination, we could create ‘imagined realities’—things like nations, money, gods and companies—to enable us to coordinate in large numbers.

Soon, the imagined realities became stronger than the actual realities. For instance, the fate of the river Yamuna is in the hands of the country India. Surprisingly, ‘India’ is an imagined entity, and Yamuna is a real entity.

The most powerful entities today are all imagined realities—United States, Alphabet Inc., United Nations, Supreme Courts, Federal Banks to name a few. They ensure that billions of people coordinate with each other so that the species Homo Sapiens can progress.

With the Scientific Revolution a few hundred years ago, we have taken great control of this planet today, so much so that we have learned to limit the power of nature. Scientific progress means our species can now handle famines, floods and diseases much more effectively.

Our ancestors were at mercy of nature; but up to a great extent, we are not. Nature can throw a few dry monsoons or a new infectious disease at us, but most of us would still survive; our ancestors wouldn’t have.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is about the journey of our species through time and its major milestones. It narrates highlights of our entire history.

Yuval uncovers how Sapiens progressed as a species and what that meant for the individual living beings. He explains the effect of our progress on other members of the animal kingdom. Towards the end, he tries to anticipate what the future of our species may look like and what the major challenges will be.

You have to give full marks to Yuval for this book. I can understand why this book became an instant hit in Silicon Valley and everywhere else as soon as it was published in English in 2014.

Not only does Yuval have a powerful command on his subject, he also is an extremely skilled narrator. It would be an impossible job for most authors to keep readers deeply engaged for more than 400 pages. While reading, you will feel like observing very closely the lives of the hunter-gatherer and the early farmer. When the book is complete, you can’t help but be sad.

Sapiens makes us think hard and reconsider our most deeply held beliefs—about food, money, religion, our past, our future, our purpose, our impact on the planet, and life in general. At a few places the book will also make you feel uncomfortable.

Here is another great feature of the book: Yuval clearly demarcates the facts, the theories and his opinions, and he leaves full scope for the reader to marvel at the facts, ponder over theories and agree or disagree with his opinions. His arguments are so well-reasoned and well-researched that you can’t help but give them a deep thought no matter how diverging they are from your presently held beliefs. This book is capable of leaving a strong impression on the reader's psyche.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed and this prompts you to read the book if you haven't already.

Good day!

More from me at parthbelani.blogspot.com.

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