Science and Inquiry discussion

For March 2016 we will be reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. You can use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Eight people ahead of me on the Overdrive waiting list at my library. At three weeks each, that's 24 weeks or 6 months. I may not be able to even start reading by the time March comes around.

I bought this via my local independant bookseller a few weeks ago and just finished it 4 days ago. ***** (5 stars)

I really liked the way Harari broke the book into parts. It makes sense, but it's a different method than I've run across before.

Part One: The Cognitive Revolution
1: An Animal of No Significance
2: The Tree of Knowledge
3: A Day in the Life of Adam and Eve
4: The Flood
Part Two: The Agricultural Revolution
5: History’s Biggest Fraud
6: Building Pyramids
7: Memory Overload
8: There is No Justice in History
Part Three: The Unification of Humankind
9: The Arrow of History
10: The Scent of Money
11: Imperial Visions
12: The Law of Religion
13: The Secret of Success
Part Four: The Scientific Revolution
14: The Discovery of Ignorance
15: The Marriage of Science and Empire
16: The Capitalist Creed
17: The Wheels of Industry
18: A Permanent Revolution
19: And They Lived Happily Ever After
20: The End of Homo Sapiens
Afterword: The Animal that Became a God

I also liked his timeline. It differs some from others I've seen. He has humans migrating out of Africa about 20,000 years earlier than I last read & I hadn't realized there were so many of our species existing at the same time.

Years Before the Present
13.5 billion: Matter and energy appear. Beginning of physics. Atoms and molecules appear. Beginning of chemistry.
4.5 billion: Formation of planet Earth.
3.8 billion: Emergence of organisms. Beginning of biology.
6 million: Last common grandmother of humans and chimpanzees.
2.5 million: Evolution of the genus Homo in Africa. First stone tools.
2 million: Humans spread from Africa to Eurasia. Evolution of different human species.
500,000: Neanderthals evolve in Europe and the Middle East.
300,000: Daily usage of fire.
200,000: Homo sapiens evolves in East Africa.
70,000: The Cognitive Revolution. Emergence of fictive language.
Beginning of history. Sapiens spread out of Africa.
45,000: Sapiens settle Australia. Extinction of Australian megafauna.
30,000: Extinction of Neanderthals.
16,000: Sapiens settle America. Extinction of American megafauna.
13,000: Extinction of Homo floresiensis. Homo sapiens the only surviving human species.
12,000: The Agricultural Revolution. Domestication of plants and animals. Permanent settlements.
5,000: First kingdoms, script and money. Polytheistic religions.
4,250: First empire – the Akkadian Empire of Sargon.
2,500: Invention of coinage – a universal money.
The Persian Empire – a universal political order ‘for the benefit of all humans’.
Buddhism in India – a universal truth ‘to liberate all beings from suffering’.
2,000: Han Empire in China. Roman Empire in the Mediterranean. Christianity.
1,400: Islam.
500: The Scientific Revolution. Humankind admits its ignorance and begins to acquire unprecedented power. Europeans begin to conquer America and the oceans. The entire planet becomes a single historical arena. The rise of capitalism.
200: The Industrial Revolution. Family and community are replaced by state and market. Massive extinction of plants and animals.
The Present: Humans transcend the boundaries of planet Earth. Nuclear weapons threaten the survival of humankind. Organisms are increasingly shaped by intelligent design rather than natural selection.
The Future: Intelligent design becomes the basic principle of life? Homo sapie ns is
replaced by superhumans?

Betsy wrote: "Eight people ahead of me on the Overdrive waiting list at my library. At three weeks each, that's 24 weeks or 6 months. I may not be able to even start reading by the time March comes around."

I am not sure if your library supports the hoopla app or not. But if they do, hoopla has Sapiens in audio format. It is not available as an ebook to read. So if you are not fond of audio format, it might not work. I listened and thought it was a great format for this book. If you have not gotten your hands on the book yet, this might be a suitable option.

Here is a link to hoopla:
https://www.hoopladigital.com/search?...

Thanks, Charlene. There's still three people ahead of me on Overdrive. I'll check into Hoopla.

Found out that my library was the first to enable Hoopla, but the only copy of Sapiens that they had was in Danish. Then I checked back at Overdrive and they had 6 copies of an audiobook of Sapiens but 5 people waiting for each copy.

This is a popular book. I may have to break down and buy it.

I had known there were other species of sapiens, but Harari did the best job of driving home the point that I've read so far. I'm not sure why his narrative struck this chord so well, but it did. I think it was the way his macro view placed the use of fire & tools into the scheme of things for me. That's something I was originally taught was unique to 'humans'. Although I've known intellectually, he made it more visceral.

Other species of 'humans' were around for far longer than we've been around. Our relatively sudden rise makes all our achievements seem far more precarious. I keep equating it in my head to the housing bubble.

I've been reading Sapiens, and it is truly an excellent book.

I liked this book and its idea of what made Homo sapiens more successful then other hominids, and the theory of why Europeans colonized other populations rather then the other way around.

Betsy wrote: "Found out that my library was the first to enable Hoopla, but the only copy of Sapiens that they had was in Danish. Then I checked back at Overdrive and they had 6 copies of an audiobook of Sapiens..."

I got the book from my library and started reading it. Got engrossed immediately, and now am thinking I might break down as well and buy my own copy. There are so many things in the book that I would normally mark up/highlight for further reference or checking/double checking later on line. That's just my habit, and I'd hate to scribble on the library copy.

Bigollo, I love meeting another book scribbler. So many people think they need to be kept pristine. My favorites are full of notes, underlines, & odd papers. I really love it when I stumble across a note from my father or grandfather in one.

Jim wrote: "Bigollo, I love meeting another book scribbler. So many people think they need to be kept pristine. My favorites are full of notes, underlines, & odd papers. I really love it when I stumble across ..."

Glad I am not the only one:).
I didn't inherit the habit though. I WAS taught to keep books pristine. Evidently, a small revolution took place in my brain at some point. And I, too, have my favorite books all marked up. Maybe my grandson will enjoy coming across my scribbles when he grows up. Or, wait a minute.. will that generation read books on paper? (Maybe better to ask: will they read books? :)

I finally finished this book. It is marvelous, and I highly recommend it. I especially appreciate the unusual terms that Harari uses to get his points across. For example, he calls the modern age "the Age of Ignorance." The growth of civilizations are due to a common beliefs in "imaginary fictions." Here is my review.

I am also enjoying the book. I was initially worried there would be little to add to Jared diamonds books (guns germs and steel, the third chimpanzee), but I am finding it has many interesting contrasts - empire hegemony vs multi-state competition, for example.
I also enjoy scribbling, but find ebooks better for this purpose - But only for books - reading science papers get printed and annotated!

David wrote: "I finally finished this book. It is marvelous, and I highly recommend it. I especially appreciate the unusual terms that Harari uses to get his points across. For example, he calls the modern age "..."

As you pointed out in your review, his notion that potatoes & wheat cultivated man is a great & entirely topsy-turvey way of looking at the situation, but makes a great deal of sense. He did that many times through out the book. I didn't entirely buy in to some of them, but I don't think he expects everyone to. It's just a different, highly instructive perspective.

I got a late start with this book, so I'm only about a quarter in, but I'm really enjoying it. I love his no-nonsense style. He reminds me of the child in the Emperor's New Clothes. On the other hand, I find myself reacting emotionally to some of his statements that are so contradictory to standard assumptions.

Amazon is offering to sell this ebook today (March 26) for $1.99

Thanks aPriL, got it.

....and just started reading it. When he talked about how and why bipedalism arose I wish he had mentioned the ability to carry things as one of the prime causes. That to me makes the most sense rather than signaling and getting a better view as he suggests. By being able to carry food items while walking upright, early humans could carry surplus food back to others and to a safer place to consume them.

I love the fact that Mr. Harari is not afraid to draw conclusions. He gives descriptions of the competing theories and then uses his clarity of mind and boldness to choose one and back it up. I also think that Steve's observation that the ability to carry things is a watershed moment that should have been cited.

An example of what I liked about the book is that he felt it important to examine the question of what was or is Sapien's happiest time and why. He should have included the importance of dignity. Harari references the Arab Spring but only in terms of measuring happiness based on possessions, thereby missing a key component in human happiness.

I enjoyed the section where he talks about history not being deterministic as some would like to think. For example if it hadn't been for a tent merchant named Paul and a Roman emperor named Constantine, there might not be a popular religion called Christianity today.

Finished it this morning. Did not enjoy it as much as I'd hoped although I did give it 4 stars. My biggest disappointment is that he never raised the issue of overpopulation during the discussion of Sapiens possibly becoming "A-mortal" by 2050.

If anyone comes across a good book on overpopulation I'd love to hear about it. As I state in my review, I think it is the root cause of many of Earth's problems since WWII, and will be until the trend reverses.

Here's my full review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Good review Steve. You are so right about over population causing (and seriously exacerbating) most of our societal and environmental problems. The author did offer some startling figures regarding the numbers of humans on the planet, the number of farm animals and the (depressing) numbers of almost everybody else.
I finally got around to reading this book and I couldn't put it down. It has been awhile since I read Jared Diamond's "The Third Chimpanzee" and "Guns Germs and Steel" but this book is similar, although different enough to not be redundant. I love that Harari writes point blank about the horrendous lives most farmed animals lead...a topic too painful and inconvenient for most people to address.

I finally finished this book. I enjoyed it, but not wholeheartedly. Here is my review.

Betsy wrote: "I finally finished this book. I enjoyed it, but not wholeheartedly. Here is my review."

Did he really say "humanity would be better of if we'd never discovered agriculture" or did he say it would have been better for many individuals early on? It's a fine, but important distinction. It's been most of a year since I listened to this, but IIRC, he pointed out that many of the early farmers possibly had worse quality of life than they would have if they were hunter-gatherers. Certainly an arguable point, but it did allow him to make what I thought was a wonderfully twisted observation that wheat was the big winner from an evolutionary point of view since its DNA is now spread all over the globe in quantities it never could have hoped for on its own. His question as to who domesticated whom is a bit tongue-in-cheek, thought provoking, if not really valid.

Jim, I've reflected a bit on the agriculture revolution piece since reading the book. I think the point was that individuals suffered for the benefit of the relatively few at the time, and more of us down the track. A similar point regarding empires I think. As one who still suffers the demands of a working week, I'd be happy to trade fewer hours for more 'leisure' - perhaps the current digital revolution will support that....although evidence so far doesn't support it. I know the option of subsistence isn't on the table, certainly not for all without dire consequences, but it does offer perspective.

Angus, point taken, but I don't know how anyone in a modern country can doubt that our current state of technology has allowed us far more leisure. Most in the US enjoy a 40 hour work week with a fair amount of vacation time. A couple of centuries ago, most were farmers &, having grown up on a family farm & owning one now (a gentleman's farm), I can tell you with complete certainty that there was a lot more labor & less down time. Even on my farm, vacations aren't easy to squeeze out.

From a pure labor perspective, the point is well made about early agriculture being harder on the individuals, but labor isn't the only point to consider. There's also mutual protection. I'm not sure what else, but I'm sure those folks had their reasons or they would have wandered off, the way they did before.

No doubt about the comparison for the recent trend Jim - happy that I'm not trying to eek out a living on a small plot of land on a windswept Scottish isle! My reflection on it is that the different stages are in their own bubbles, captured in the stories told to justify their existence. These must have resonated with the ancient slaves of early city states so they stayed in captivity.... Since we can choose, I'd like to think technology continues to liberate, which may not happen if our stories allow the perpetuation of wealth for a few rather than for the benefit of all. Sounds like I'm getting political...better stop now!

Angus wrote: "...I'd like to think technology continues to liberate, which may not happen if our stories allow the perpetuation of wealth for a few ..."

Just in my lifetime, I've seen technology liberate many people. Women are one example, farmers another.

As for the economic spread, I don't believe it's a new thing nor as big a deal as it once was in most modern countries. Yes, there's a huge disparity & some still go without the basics, but the numbers are way down just as violence is for the species. We just think there is more because of the way it is reported. It sells, so we see many examples that would have gone unnoticed & unreported years ago.

Also, our perception of what is violence & what we are entitled to has changed a lot. Things that we consider rights now were privileges or luck not too long ago. For example, bear baiting or viewing the inhabitants of an insane asylum were once considered entertainment. A few babies die now & we freak out while ...Global child mortality fell from 18.2% in 1960 to 4.3% in 2015... according to this page: https://ourworldindata.org/child-mort...
As they say, it's still unacceptably high, but things are definitely getting better.