Summary of Sapiens: Includes Key Takeaways & Analysis

This is a summary of the original coving all things human. Where did humans come from? How has the experience of being human changed over the centuries, from hunter gather to empire builder to student of the stars? How has human culture been at times in cooperating with and at other times at odds with human evolution? How has our fast rise up the food chain affected us? Where is the human species going? What does it even mean to be human?Key points are:1- There were multiple types of humans on earth together at the same time. We may be the descendent of multiple species (Homo Sapiens and Homo Erectus for example), or our ancestors, Homo Sapiens, might have driven the others to extinction.2- Prehistoric humans were no more significant than any other species of animals.3- The defining characteristics of a human are: large brain, walk upright (which leads to our babies being born premature compared to other animals), tool users, great learners, and social animals engaged in complex social relationships.4- Fire was the key to our rise to power, and was so influential that there are fire myths in nearly every culture (see James George Frazier's Myths of the Origin of Fire). The ability to harness fire may have been our most significant accomplishment.5- All humans may share a single maternal ancestor, born in East Africa around 70,000 years ago.6- During the Cognitive Revolution, humans learned how to share stories and information, and to gossip, which is important in establishing viable trust relationships.7- Storytelling is the key to human survival. No large group, larger than 150 members, could cooperate without some ability to discuss that which does not exist, either because it never existed (mythology, legends), it is an abstract concept (mathematics, democracy, the stock market), or it does not yet exist (and the people are trying to figure out how to make it exist). It talks about a cognitive revolution about 30,000 years ago wherein humans were able to develop abstract language and the ability to create myth, and through that the ability to unite under those myths to form cultures and societies. However, groups that large tend to have rather violent problems.8- We rose the food chain so fast, we're still afraid we're going to be something's lunch.9- There is no "natural way", only cultural norms.10- Foragers lived about 60-80 years because of their diet and because they weren't often exposed to communicable diseases.11- Prehistoric humans saw all animals, humans included, as basically equal.12- Humans, with their great ability to hunt and their practice of burning down forests caused and are causing the greatest ecological disaster to ever hit planet Earth. This is commonly referred to as the Holocene extinction event.13- 45,000 seafaring humans landed in Australia from Afro-Asia, and proceeded to wipe out most of the species they found there.14- The domestication of wheat about 10,000 years ago kicked off the Agricultural Revolution, which might not have been all it was cracked up to be. Closer living conditions and dependence on a crop (as opposed to just following the food around wherever it happened to be) led to disease, starvation, and malnutrition. The population grew, but the quality of life diminished.15- Shared fantasies (nations, markets, currency) must be safeguarded, though indoctrination and if necessary violence, for human society to persist.16- Writing was invented by the Sumarians 5,000 years ago.17- Soon after writing was developed, cataloguing followed, so to find all the things that were written down.18- The system of Arabic numbers is the most popular writing system in the world.19- In order to have a nation you need to have a great many people subjugated to the will of a small few.20- Nearly all societies are patriarchies, but scientists don't know why.21- The only things that are unnatural are impossible in nature, such as humans turning invisible. What we call unnatural behavior is only counter the norms of the parent culture.22- Human cultural myths are often self-contradictory leading to change driven by both self-reflection and conflict.23- Cultures are merging, forming into a single global society.24- Human cultural myths drive a sense of order that divides "us" and "them".25- Money has value because everyone agrees it has value. This is termed "inter-subjective". It is based on various systems of trust. When it became trans-cultural (such as when the gold standard was in use) global economics became possible. It both builds and erodes ties between cultures.26- Empires are marked by ever expanding (or when times are bad, ever contracting) borders encompassing a swath of different cultures all pulled under the same umbrella.27- Empires absorb bits of cultures they've conquered while at the same time erasing the cultural identity of the conquered.28- Imperialists say they want to be for the good of all their subjects, particularly the new ones they're about to slaughter and subjugate.29- Religion is a trans-cultural belief in one or more supreme beings.30- Religion arose of necessity during the Agricultural Revolution.31- Monotheism reigns supreme because the monotheists killed pretty much everyone else.32- As deity-based religion fades, natural-law based religions rise to take its place.33- History reacts to predictions about it, making it a level 2 chaotic system.34- History doesn't care much about humanity as a whole, nor about any individual human. It just rolls along its course.35- Scientific inquiry is connected with politics and economics. I will argue scientific reality is not. The earth moves whether we will it or no.36- The greatest achievement of the scientific revolution was the ability of humanity to admit there is a lot we do not know.37- Humans didn't care about progress until science showed the world it was possible.38- The drive for knowledge kick started European imperialism.39- Asian countries had enough to conquer locally. They had no interest in conquering far off lands.40- Capitalism is built on faith that the future will be better than the past.41- Capitalism assumes eternal unending growth, which isn't possible.42- We can't have free markets without some kind of political influence, since the trust required to make it work depends on the stability provided by politial leaders.43- Energy drove the industrial revolution, initially steam power.44- The more energy we can harness, the more productive we can be.45- We exploit animals because we are wilfully ignorant of their mental and emotional well being.46- For capitalism to work, frugality must be frowned upon. It relies on ever increasing production and consumption.47- The Industrial Revolution replaced community and family with state and market.48- States push individualism as a way to keep people from banding together to overthrow said state.49- Culture can be a stronger force than biology.50- Nation and consumer tribes have supplanted strong family units in the 21st century.51- The worldwide happy index has not gone up. Indeed it might have gone down.52- Happiness is driven by the correlation between expectation and reality, so the advertising industry with its huge promises could be driving down the happy index.53- Biologists say individuals have a fixed happy point, higher in some than others.54- Happiness is also driven by how a person sees the purpose of his or her own life.55- Bioengineering and cyborg technology could fundamentally change what it is to be human.As a summary, this is more detailed that the Instaread titles, and much longer, but not quite as well structured. I would have liked to see more discussion on some of the more questionable topics, such as what prehistoric man thought of anything. The book claims they saw all animals, including humans, as equal, but I'm curious how the author makes this assertion, as being prehistoric means there is no written or oral history of what they thought or believed. It does an excellent job of conveying the flavor and key points of the original, and it raises thought provoking issues.I received an advanced readers copy of this book.

Saw Mr. Harari on TV interviewed before a large audience regarding his second book, HOMO DEUS. I was blown away by his insights and evidence-based approach to his scientfic predictions. In many regards he seemed very Richard Dawkins-like with a bit more of a philosophical bent (Harari is a Ph.d. Philosopher). Taken by his genius, I opted to read HOMO DEUS, but felt I first needed to read SAPIENS. Already quite familiar with the Anthropology of Homo sapiens, I decided to read the more succinct SUMMARY OF SAPIENS, as the full-bodied version seemed a bit much to digest in the short time I had available. While very informative and generally correct in most of it's suppositions, I found SUMMARY OF SAPIENS to be more philosophical than scientific, although not at all inconsistent with the generally proven tenets of evolution. Perhaps the original edition would have been more robust in this regard. As a published scientist myself, I found the summary version somewhat boring and unenlightening compared to the collective works of Richard Dawkns, which are more grounded in scientific fact.... although the same conclusions are reached about humanity's development. I am told that HOMO DEUS is a spectacular read, given its projected vision for mankind's future based on its past. This would predictably fall more into the purview of a philosopher than a pure scientist anyway, so I look forward to receiving my copy, and will present my review in great detail after reading it.

I read "Sapiens" and found it so rich with ideas and thoughts that I plan to reread it soon. In the meantime, I read this summary which was very helpful in reinforcing many of the most important ideas. However, if you read only this summary, you will be missing out on many of the unique and provocative concepts presented in the complete book. I would like to point out what I believe to be an error in Chapter 12 The Law of Religion, paragraph 3, it reads" "Polythiest religions believe in a single supreme power ....". I believe that is the definition of a monotheist religion. Otherwise, this is an excellent and well written summary.

I read both the book Sapiens, as well as two summaries. This summary covered the most material from the book. I knocked a star off as the resulting style was a bit dry. But if you do read this, you will cover the gist of Sapiens. Feel free to join in on any discussions on the book.

Having the read the book Sapiens, I'd say this is a great supplementary guide to review, but not a substitute for reading the book. I read lots of books and many book's points don't stick with me long-term. This summary helps refresh my memory on key points, underscores takeaways and reveals missed insights in my initial reading.

This summary is extremely superficial. I should have known better than trying to extract the essence of the book of this subject is not possible unless written by the original writer. The only good parts are the verbatim excerpts which are far and few in between. Reading the full length book is the only way to understand the gravity of the subjects Harari is trying to tackle, not that the original book's grasp of the subjects are sound all the time. But at least you would understand Harari's intent.

Ok read

Harari's views are refreshingly different. This summary gave me a good general look at his book, very convenient for busy me. But I'm left wondering how Harari himself writes, in term of style.