5 Lessons from Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (in progress)

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a book that I personally admire and become one of my favorite books in my library. This book provides good explanations of the complex issues of human life which are usually very difficult for common people to understand. The word Brief History explains from cosmological perspective which discusses the beginning of the universe and the creation of the concept of "Physics", then the process of earth formation which gave rise to the concept of "Chemistry" and the origin of life which was the beginning of the concept of "Biology". While the words Sapiens and Humankind give us the story of our ancestors' journey in terms of cognitive evolution, cultural development and the future of mankind. Although this book is famous for being very controversial, especially among conservatives, it does not cover the fact that this book also contains many lessons.

Lesson 1: Human thinking always results in inter-subjectivity and shared fictions

Before humans reach the Cognitive Revolution, humans are earth explorers who always walk together and no bigger than 150 people. Humans are actually creatures that are weak when alone, and very strong and invincible when together. But togetherness requires trust, then the human cognitive revolution provides a solution that is in the form of shared fictions - which are inter-subjectivity that will always be there as long as it is trusted.

The beginning of human being able to interact and organize regularly is to have confidence in fictional entities that are believed to have strength and value. The entity must not be God or religion, for example, trust in money. Money is believed to have unlimited value and strength by most humans. Whereas in fact money is just ordinary paper that is given a stamp and a picture that does not have the slightest value, but because this money is equally trusted and agreed upon by all human groups, then money rises to become a force or even becomes an entity that is worshiped by humans.

“Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations. As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as the United States and Google.” 

The author describes the subjectivity with a company. A company may fire all its employees or destroy its buildings, but the entity from the company will still be there, because the company is not the employee, the building or the boss - the company can move buildings, replace its boss or recruit new workers. So, as long as everyone believes the company exists and is written on paper, then the company will still exist.

Lesson 2: When luxury becomes necessity

With humans looking for ways to survive, every thing that was originally a luxury turned into a need that could not be abandoned.

"Wheat domesticated humans as humans domesticated wheat."