(Book) Sapiens -Yuval Noah Harari (8/10)

[Basman]

Page count: 464 (about 400 excluding notes, etc.)

A biological/evolutionary perspective on what humans are as a species. The book makes a relatively brief overview of humans history, covering pre-history, the agricultural revolution, religion and the science, while drawing several general conclusions about human nature based on these four major human revolutions in history, as per outlined in the book.

The core concept of shared fictions/imagination and the power of imagination are enlightening and give context to human behavior and the main takeaway from this book if nothing else.

It makes several conclusions for how humans, and by extensions society, function at its core, such as the notion that humans are a species that function of shared fictions (intangible constructs that are only real because the populace treats it like real, for example money, the state, religion, etc.), which is one of the major core concepts of the book and if nothing else the main take away in my opinion. It contextualizes human conduct in a materialistic way that that you can appreciate in your own daily life, down to the micro, all the way to the macro.

It is however anthropologically shallow, opting rather for a broad overview. You have to be careful with how you apply the ideas of this book to the real world. The concepts of this book can be overly simplistic when you take into account why for example patriarchy has been the norm for human civilizations or why exactly only homo sapiens are the only surviving species of human. More academic texts can give you a more nuanced and rigorous take on specific questions relating to human history and nature, but it is in the broadness where this book shines.

It is a challenge to present the entirety of human history within 400 pages. This book is pop-history/science/anthropology, if nothing else by virtue that no academic would make a book like this in the first place. It is something which a lot of people like to criticize it for. Sapiens seems to be popular to hate for supposed many inaccuracies, though I still find this book to be broadly insightful, even if the finer details might be glossed over to a certain extent or it makes specific errors. It contextualizes human activity in real time, which is rare and valuable. I think people are to a certain degree being contrarian, as Harari was heavily praised during his 15 minutes of fame. I find the criticism of Sapiens overblown ultimately. It is not meant to be academic. There are "so many errors", but they never make any specific examples, at least which substantially undermine the conclusions. For example, the conclusion that currency is a solution to the exchange of value which enables commerce isn't undermined if he was wrong about how the Aztecs counted goods using rope. Or if he was wrong about the exact nature of Mesopotamian written language.

Nevertheless, this book has been fundamental in my understanding of how humans work and what exactly they are. It is something we tend to take wholly for granted. We tend to not see ourselves as a particular species for one who are the way they are for relative and particular reasons.

8/10