Just Finished Reading: Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (FP: 2011/2014)

Even at a wrist aching 466 pages this was still, of necessity, a whirlwind romp through Human history from our pre-historic ancestors (and the other human species that shared our world with us for a while) up to the present. Told in a chatty, breezy style – at times rather annoyingly so – this was an easy read whilst recovering from a bad cold. Cut into sections clustered around the various revolutions in our progress to the present giddy heights of world dominance the author concentrates on the great leap forwards represented by the Cognitive Revolution when, seemingly out of nowhere, we started planning, communicating more effectively as well as producing the first religious artefacts and leaving behind the first known works of art. Then there was the Agricultural Revolution where, over hundreds of years, our nomadic ancestors settled for longer and longer periods in one place building settlements and the first documented civilisations. Interestingly the author refers to this several times as a trap and most probably a bad move on our part. Of course with settlement and civilisations comes writing, hierarchy, organised religion, money, tax, professionalization, war, epidemics, famine and all the other good stuff that has followed us through history ever since.

As humans spread across the globe, ever so slowly at first but with increasing speed aided by commerce, religion and science, a recognisable uniformity began to emerge. Now we see it as McDonaldisation, or Hollywoodisation or other western cultural imperialistic that come to mind, but it has been a long time coming and the author makes compelling arguments to say that such global unification is inevitable. Of course, like agriculture, this doesn’t mean that the wo/man on the street will see better times. As with anything there are upsides and downsides and the final price might be a long time coming – generations – and when we see the price tag it might already be too late to go back.

Finally there is the Scientific Revolution – the Pandoran gift that keeps on giving. From very humble beginning indeed Science has allowed us to reshape the world as we see fit, the mould the very creatures around us, the alter the landscape on a planetary scale and to become the first animal which evolved on the planet to manage to get off it. The curve of progress, just about however you measure it, is going vertical. Where that level (and speed) of change is taking us is something the author speculates on – briefly – in the final section. He sees three possibilities: That we’ll use bio-engineering to transcend our humanity and become much more than evolution could ever achieve naturally. That we’ll meld man and machine and become neither or both and effectively no longer being human in the sense we understand it today. Or we create artificial life using silicon rather than flesh which will quickly outstrip its creators and do who knows what. As the Scientific Revolution speeds towards the Singularity the possibilities become infinite. But what will humankind do with this power? If History is any guide – probably nothing universally good. He ends to book with what reads as a warning and it worth quoting: “Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?” I guess future generations will find out – unless that is we manage our dissatisfactions and suddenly become much more responsible. But what are the odds?

Sometimes despite his style the author makes some very good points including one’s I thought I had come up with myself: the big one was the idea that everything we believe it – religion, politics, economic systems and much, much else besides are stories we tell ourselves, myths that we hold dear, consensual illusions that bind us together that have absolutely no foundation in fact. All of these things are ideas that live in our heads and, potentially in millions or billions of others and which are the very foundation of our ability to create global civilizations and everything you see around you. It is the stories we tell ourselves that make us who we are. If we tell different stories or stop believing in the ones we grew up with then the world changes. Monarchies become Democracies and money becomes less than worthless. Stories, nothing more. I found it a very persuasive argument but then again I was more than half way there to begin with.

If you fancy a chat around the campfire about the history and future of your species that doesn’t demand much background knowledge but will raise eyebrows and give you plenty of food for thought then this is definitely the book for you. Whilst not as amazingly earth-shattering as the critics would have you believe it’s still a very good read and well worth the time it’ll take you to finish it.