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Sapiens- A Brief History of Humankind
- 1. Branch: chemical engineering-17 Group: 1. Chahat Jain(17BCH005) 2. Keval Devdhara(17BCH018) 3. Jay Shah(17BCH043) 4. Chirag Shir(17BCH045) 5. Vandan Dudhat(17BCH055) A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari – book review Date: 11th April 2020
- 2. Yuval Noah Harari Yuval Noah Harari (born 24 February 1976) is an Israeli historian and a professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the popular science bestsellers Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2014), Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2016), and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. What is this book about: Harari’s pictures of the earliest men and then the foragers and agrarians are fascinating; but he breathlessly rushes on to take us past the agricultural revolution of 10,000 years ago, to the arrival of religion, the scientific revolution, industrialization, the advent of artificial intelligence and the possible end of humankind. His contention is that Homo sapiens, originally an insignificant animal foraging in Africa has become ‘the terror of the ecosystem. There is truth in this, of course, but his picture is very particular. He is best, in my view, on the modern world and his far-sighted analysis of what we are doing to ourselves struck many chords with me.
- 3. ◦ Harari surveys the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century, focusing on Homo sapiens. He divides the history of Sapiens into four major parts: Cognitive revolution • 70,000 BCE when sapiens evolved imagination Agriculture revolution • 10,000 BCE development of agriculture Unification of humankind • Political organization towards one global empire Scientific revolution • 1500 CE emergence of objective science The Beginning
- 4. The human family ⚫2.5 million years ago ⚫ Australopithecus ⚫ East Africa ⚫2 million years ago ⚫ Left their homeland ⚫Homo Neanderthalensis ⚫“Neanderthal” ⚫Europe & Middle East ⚫Homo Floresiensis ⚫Flores Island, Indonesia
- 5. ⚫70,000 years ago ⚫ Migrated from East Africa ⚫ Reached Middle East, Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia ⚫60,000 years ago ⚫ Reached China & Korea ⚫45,000 years ago ⚫ Reached Australia ⚫15,000 years ago ⚫ Reached America Homo sapiens’ journey Area of the fertile crescent, c. 7500 BCE, with main archaeological sites of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. The area of Mesopotamia proper was not yet settled by humans. Agricultural Revolution
- 6. ⚫Unify the world into a single system ⚫3 factors: ⚫ Money ⚫ Politic ⚫ Religion ⚫Empires’ history ⚫ 2250 BC: first empire: Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great, Mediterranean ⚫ 500 BC: Kiros the Great of Persia ⚫ Alexander the Great ⚫ Etc. The direction of history:
- 7. ◦ Western Europe and Britain which had played almost no important role in the history of the human civilization till about 1500 AD started to emerge and Europe took over to become the economic powerhouse between 1750 and 1850. ◦ While the development of both modern science and capitalism in Britain in a mere accident. The similar social structures (and imagined realities) of France, Germany, the US, and the other western nations allowed them to quickly follow up and copy Britain’s success. ◦ Societies in India and China, the economic powerhouse of that era, were organized differently and hence, they could not do the same. ◦ While the Arab world, India, and China also produced intellectuals and scholars (which Europeans did study), it was only in Europe that these intellectuals worked alongside the capitalists towards for-profit initiatives. The Imperial voyages to the distant lands would consist not only of military but also some scientists to make discoveries. The Marriage of Science and Empire
- 8. ◦ Europe’s biggest success was the marriage of modern science and capitalism. ◦ For the first time in the history of the world, a culture was making maps with empty areas marked for exploration. ◦ Lack of interest in the world beyond their empire ended up being costly for the Incas and the Aztecs. ◦ In 1764, Britishers conquered Bengal, the richest province of India, due to the policies of the British East India Company, a third of the population (about 10 million) died from 1769- 73 in the Bengal Famine. The Marriage of Science and Empire Other important topics of Book The Capitalist Creed The Wheels of Industry A Permanent Revolution
- 9. ◦ History talks about facts but rarely talks about how has human happiness evolved. Studies have shown that people with more money, good marriages, better social support, and lower subjective expectations (vs. the reality) are happier. ◦ Illness decreases happiness in the short- term. The subjective expectation is the most crucial aspect; advertisements make us miserable by increasing subjective expectations. ◦ It’s when our delusions about the meaning of our life synchronize with the collective delusions, that’s when we feel happy. ◦ Its when our personal delusions about meaning of our life synchronize with the collective delusions, that’s when we feel happy. And They Lived Happily Ever After
- 10. ◦ Till now all evolution has been evolutionary, it is likely that the future evolution will be Intelligent Design based designed in Laboratories. Either we will enhance human genes, we will add non- organic parts (cyborgs), or we will create life from completely inorganic material based on Artificial Intelligence. Due to a massive PR risk around ethical issues, most of these debates have focused on targeting plants, targeting amputated humans, and building AI for targeted tasks. The End of Homo Sapiens