SAPIENS

Human history has been shaped by three major revolutions: the Cognitive Revolution (70,000 years ago),
the Agricultural Revolution (10,000 years ago), and the Scientific Revolution (500 years ago). These
revolutions have empowered humans to do something no other form of life has done, which is to create
and connect around ideas that do not physically exist (think religion, capitalism, and politics). These shared
“myths” have enabled humans to take over the globe and have put humankind on the verge of overcoming
the forces of natural selection.

 Homo Sapiens means “wise man.”

 Human kind was very much in the middle of the food chain until 400,000 years ago and didn’t
leap to the top of the food chain until 100,000 years ago.
 Humans, however, jumped to the top relatively rapidly. This means that the rest of the food chain
wasn’t ready and neither were we. Hence we feel anxious and stressed because we aren’t used
to being at the top.
 There are two theories of how Homo sapiens evolved: Interbreeding theory and Replacement
theory. The reality is probably a combination of both theories.

The Cognitive Revolution occurred between 70,000 to 30,000 years ago. It allowed Homo sapiens to
communicate at a level never seen before in language.

 Myth-Makers. Homo sapiens conquered the world because of its unique language. they use
imagination and language to create and communicate new worlds, alternatives and possibilities.
 As far as we know, only Homo sapiens can talk about things we have never seen, touched, or
smelled. Think religions, myths, legends, and fantasies.
 The telling of myths and stories allow Homo sapiens to collaborate in large numbers in extremely
flexible ways. It was possible to increase the size of our communities exponentially: From villages
to cities; from cities to nation states; and from nation states to the global society of modern times.
 Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, humans have been living in a dual reality: the physical reality
and the imagined reality.

the Agricultural Revolution the second major revolution in Sapiens’ history

agriculture revolution -> invention of money & writing -> society become more difficult to control and
regulate -> they developed laws -> monarchies and empires were built to provide effective bureucracy -
> they create religion so the laws can be accepted by the society -> as the empire spread, the religions
they promoted grew in both scope and power

 Enabled increased food production and massive population growth, but it forced that average
farmer into monotonous hard labour. The fruits of the Agricultural Revolution were enjoyed by a
few pampered elites. It was history’s biggest fraud.
 The evolutionary success of the Agricultural Revolution (greater population) was actually cause
for much suffering on the individual level.
 The myths that surround us and make up our lives dictate so much of what we believe and what
we do.
  In order to change the imagined order, you must first find a group that believes in a current
imagined order. New myths must build upon or evolve from previous myths.
 The invention of money and writing
 Writing has actually changed the way humans think. We can use writing and record keeping to
think far more categorically than ever before.
 The creation of money was purely an intellectual revolution. It doesn’t exist except in our minds.
 Everyone always wants money precisely because everyone else always wants money.
 The emergences of empire and religion
 Empires have been the world’s most common form of political organization for the last 2,500
years.
 In general, empires do not fall because of uprisings. They almost always succumb to outside
invasion or splits from within the empower class.
 Most of what we firmly believe is part of “our culture” was actually forced upon us by other
empires who conquered our ancestors.
 Religion is the third great unifier of humankind, alongside money and empires.
 The Agricultural Revolution was accompanied by a Religious Revolution.
 There are a variety of “natural law religions” that are popular today like communism, capitalism,
and liberalism.

The Scientific Revolution started in Europe around 500 years ago. The last 500 years have witnessed an
unprecedented growth of human impact.

 Scientific Revolution has empowered Sapiens to transform their environment and themselves,
giving them superhuman powers and practically limitless energy.
 One difference between religion and science is that science assumes humankind does not know
the answers to many of life’s biggest questions. Religion, however, assumes that the important
stuff is already known. Science assumes human ignorance.
 Modern capitalism has exploded the growth of humankind. The “religion” of capitalism says
economic growth is the supreme because justice, freedom, and happiness requires economic
growth
 Our view of the past is heavily influenced by recent events.
 Through science and technology they have the power and intelligence to become gods and create
new artificial life and recreate themselves. Sapiens are the new gods of ‘Intelligent Design’ – they
are Homo Deus.
 In the past 1000 years, humans have evolved to take over the world and are on the verge of
overcoming natural selection and becoming gods. Yet, we still seem unhappy in many ways and
we are unsure of what we want. Is there anything more dangerous that dissatisfied and
irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?

https://jamesclear.com/book-summaries/sapiens
https://brandgenetics.com/speed-summary-sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind/

https://junglenotes.wordpress.com/2015/09/25/sapiens/

COLLAPSE
How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, makes clear, Collapse examines why some seemingly flourishing
societies ended up either dramatically imploding or slowly vanishing out of existence
Diamond lays out his methodology – to compare past examples to present circumstances to see what the
parallels can teach us and also clarifies what he means by societal collapse – “A drastic decrease in human
population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended
time.”
Five broad factors for understanding why collapse occurred in the past. Diamond argues that out of the
five possible factors responsible, a society’s inability to adapt in the face of a changing environmental
situation always plays a role.

HUMAN IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT

Environmental damage, refers to the extent of damage that people inflict onto their environment and the
ability of the environment to recover from said damage (i.e. the environment’s fragility and resilience to
damage).

CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is directly impacted by environmental damage. Diamond explains this relationship, “in
many historical cases, a society that was depleting its environmental resources could absorb the losses as
long as the climate was benign, but was then driven over the brink of collapse when the climate became
drier, colder, hotter, wetter, or more variable”

RELATIONS WITH HOSTILE SOCIETIES

Explains that true conflict between hostile societies can be held off for only so long; conflict will eventually
break out between neighboring societies, and will typically occur because one of them is in a weakened
state and unable to defend themselves.

RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBORING FRIENDLY SOCIETIES

The fourth factor examines decreased support from once-friendly neighbors and the impact that this has
on a society in terms of trading. This decreased support does not necessarily need to be due to hostility,
but can also be a result of the weakened state of a neighboring society who is unable to provide their
allies with trade or military support.

SOCIETY'S RESPONSE TO PROBLEMS

a society’s responses depend on its political, economic, and social institutions and on its cultural values.
Those institutions and values affect whether the society solves (or even tries to solve) its problems”

Diamond demonstrates convincingly that societies typically collapse when at the height of their dynamism
and affluence, because that is precisely when resource demand is greatest.
The greatest problem solving skill is the ability to ask the right question. Kaizen is gradual, unending
process improvement, based on asking why. Asking why several times will dig out several causes, one of
which is usually the root cause.”
Question 1: Why do some societies make disastrous decisions?
Question 2: Why does the group decision making process fail?
Question 3: Why does conflict of interest occur?
Question 4: Why do they reason that way?
Question 5: Why does the competitive spiral occur?

“Many of the reasons for such failure fall under the heading of what economists and other social scientist
term ‘rational behavior,’ arising from clashes of interest between people. That is, some people may reason
correctly that they can advance their own interest by behavior harmful to other people.”
The final part of the book summarizes Diamond’s conclusions and voices cautious optimism for our ability
to make appropriate changes before disaster strikes. From his examples of failure, Diamond points that
collapse usually follows very quickly on the heels of a successful “golden age.” He then stresses that what
is needed to avoid collapse is long-term planning for the future and the willingness to be flexible and
adaptable when change is needed.
https://5pointframework.weebly.com/five-point-framework.html
http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=578
https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/collapse-how-societies-choose-to-fail-or-succeed-
20050226-gdznpl.html
http://transitionvoice.com/2011/08/five-bummer-problems-that-make-societies-collapse/

HOMO DEUS
Today, humankind (Homo Sapiens) has dominated the world, and gained control of famine, plague and
war under control. Yuval Noah Harari believes that, in a healthy, prosperous and harmonious world,
mankind will turn our attention to our desire for eternal youth and happiness, and that these pursuits
could ironically bring an end to our species and herald a new age of Homo Deus.
It’s important to understand how we came to where we are, and how we justify our place in the world,
so we can understand our actions and see our possible futures more clearly.
https://brandgenetics.com/speed-summary-homo-deus-a-brief-history-of-tomorrow/
https://readingraphics.com/book-summary-homo-deus/
https://www.the-vital-edge.com/homo-deus/
https://jamesclear.com/book-summaries/sapiens