Sapiens: Complete Summary of Harari’s Grand Narrative of Human History for Understanding Our Past, Present, and Future

Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind offers a breathtaking and provocative journey through the 70,000-year history of Homo sapiens, from our origins as an insignificant African ape to our current status as the planet’s dominant species, on the cusp of becoming god-like beings. Harari, a historian and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, challenges conventional wisdom, exploring how three major revolutions—the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific—have fundamentally reshaped our species, societies, and our relationship with the planet. This book is a profound exploration of what it means to be human, how our collective fictions have enabled unprecedented cooperation, and the potential implications of our accelerating technological and biological advancements.

This comprehensive summary aims to distill every significant insight, theory, and example from Harari’s work, providing a highly organized and actionable guide to the book’s core arguments. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of human nature, the forces that shaped our societies, and the radical possibilities for our future, enabling a more informed perspective on contemporary challenges and opportunities.

Introduction: What This Book Is About

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Dr. Yuval Noah Harari presents a sweeping narrative that re-examines the course of human history. Harari, a renowned historian, offers a unique lens through which to understand our species’ ascent from a minor animal to the planet’s unrivaled master. The book argues that our success is not due to superior physical strength or individual intelligence, but to our unparalleled ability to create and believe in shared fictions, enabling large-scale, flexible cooperation.

Harari guides readers through three pivotal revolutions: the Cognitive Revolution, which sparked our unique linguistic abilities and collective imagination; the Agricultural Revolution, which transformed our way of life but arguably trapped us in a more arduous existence; and the Scientific Revolution, which granted us unprecedented power over nature and ourselves. He meticulously explores the profound impact of these revolutions on human societies, our environment, and even our psychological well-being.

This summary will comprehensively cover Harari’s key arguments, from the biological underpinnings of our early ancestors to the existential questions facing humanity in the age of artificial intelligence and bioengineering. It aims to provide a clear and engaging overview for anyone seeking to grasp the fundamental forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, the human story.

Part One: The Cognitive Revolution

This section delves into the foundational shift in human history, exploring how Homo sapiens evolved unique cognitive abilities that allowed for the creation of complex cultures and the eventual domination of the planet.

An Animal of No Significance

Harari begins by placing Homo sapiens within the vast timeline of the universe and life on Earth. Physics, chemistry, and biology lay the groundwork for understanding the emergence of organisms. Approximately 70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens began to form elaborate structures called cultures, marking the start of history. Before this, for millions of years, early humans were insignificant animals, having no more impact on their environment than other large mammals. Biologically, humans belong to the genus Homo, alongside many extinct species, a fact often overlooked. Our closest living relatives are chimpanzees, sharing a common ancestor from just 6 million years ago.

Our Diverse Human Family

The book highlights that Homo sapiens was not the only human species on Earth for most of history. Other human species like Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals) in Europe and the Middle East, Homo erectus in East Asia, and Homo floresiensis (dwarves) on the island of Flores coexisted. It is a common fallacy to view human evolution as a straight line leading to Sapiens; rather, multiple human species existed simultaneously until about 10,000 years ago. This past diversity makes our current exclusivity peculiar, and potentially incriminating.

The Trade-offs of Our Unique Traits

Humans possess extraordinarily large brains, consuming 25% of the body’s energy at rest despite being only 2-3% of total body weight. This massive energy drain led to humans spending more time searching for food and their muscles atrophying, making them physically weaker than other apes. The evolution of large brains for millions of years before significant technological breakthroughs remains a mystery. Another singular trait is walking upright on two legs, which freed hands for tool-making and signaling, but led to backaches and, for women, narrower hips, making childbirth perilous. This favored earlier births of underdeveloped infants, leading to prolonged dependence on elders and fostering strong social ties, as it takes a tribe to raise a human.

The Ascent to the Top of the Food Chain

For millions of years, humans were mid-level predators, subsisting mainly by gathering plants and scavenging carrion left by larger carnivores. It was only 400,000 years ago that some human species began regularly hunting large game, and only with the rise of Homo sapiens in the last 100,000 years did we jump to the top. This rapid ascent meant the ecosystem did not have time to adjust, and humans themselves failed to adjust, resulting in a species full of fears and anxieties, leading to cruelty and danger evident in historical calamities.

The Domestication of Fire and Its Impact

A significant step was the domestication of fire, with daily usage by 300,000 years ago. Fire provided light, warmth, and a weapon against predators. It also revolutionized diet by allowing cooking, which made previously indigestible foods like wheat and potatoes staples. Cooking killed germs, made food easier to chew and digest, and reduced chewing time from five hours a day for chimpanzees to one hour for cooked food. This energy saving likely contributed to the growth of the human brain and the shortening of the human intestinal tract. Fire also gave humans control over a potentially limitless force, not limited by physical body, as a single woman with a fire stick could burn down an entire forest.

The Mystery of Sapiens’ Global Spread

Around 70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens from East Africa began to spread into the Arabian peninsula and then across Eurasia. The fate of other human species, such as Neanderthals, is debated between two theories: the Interbreeding Theory (Sapiens bred with other human populations, resulting in mixed descendants) and the Replacement Theory (Sapiens replaced other human populations without merging). Recent genetic evidence from 2010 showed that 1-4% of unique modern Eurasian DNA is Neanderthal DNA, and up to 6% of Melanesian and Aboriginal Australian DNA is Denisovan DNA, suggesting some interbreeding, though not a complete merger. This implies that Sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans were almost, but not quite, entirely separate species.

The Vanishing Act of Other Humans

If other human species didn’t fully merge, why did they vanish? One possibility is that Homo sapiens drove them to extinction through competition for resources or direct violence and genocide. Sapiens were more proficient hunters and gatherers due to better technology and superior social skills, allowing them to multiply and spread, outcompeting less resourceful Neanderthals. The last Homo soloensis vanished about 50,000 years ago, Neanderthals about 30,000 years ago, and Homo floresiensis about 12,000 years ago. This suggests that Sapiens’ current exclusivity is a result of their past actions, raising questions about whether we would still see ourselves as apart from animals if Neanderthals had survived.

Chapter 2: The Tree of Knowledge

This chapter explores the Cognitive Revolution, emphasizing the pivotal role of language and fiction in Sapiens’ unprecedented success and ability to cooperate on a massive scale.

The Breakthrough in Cognitive Abilities

Around 70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens began to exhibit unique behaviors that suggest a revolution in their cognitive abilities. This period saw Sapiens bands successfully leave Africa for a second time, overrunning other human species and settling continents like Australia (45,000 years ago), which required crossing open seas. Innovations like boats, oil lamps, bows and arrows, and needles emerged. The first reliable examples of art, such as the Stadel lion-man figurine, along with evidence for religion, commerce, and social stratification, also date from this era. Most researchers believe these accomplishments were due to accidental genetic mutations that rewired Sapiens’ brains, leading to an altogether new type of language.

The Unique Power of Sapiens Language

While other animals have languages, the new Sapiens language was exceptionally supple, allowing the combination of a limited number of sounds into an infinite number of sentences with distinct meanings. This enabled the storage and communication of a prodigious amount of information about the surrounding world, far beyond simple warnings like “Careful! A lion!” It allowed for detailed descriptions of events and locations, facilitating complex planning. A second theory proposes that language evolved primarily for gossiping, enabling the sharing of critical social information about individuals within a group, such as who is trustworthy or who is sleeping with whom. This is vital for social cooperation, as tracking relationships within a group of dozens is staggering, and effective gossip is essential for maintaining large numbers.

The Magic of Shared Fictions

The most unique feature of Sapiens language is the ability to transmit information about things that do not exist at all. This led to the emergence of legends, myths, gods, and religions during the Cognitive Revolution. This capacity for fiction enabled Sapiens to imagine things collectively and weave common myths, such as the biblical creation story or national myths. This unprecedented ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers is what allowed Sapiens to rule the world, unlike ants (rigid cooperation) or chimpanzees (flexible cooperation in small numbers).

Overcoming the 150-Individual Limit

Chimpanzee troops typically consist of twenty to fifty individuals, and their social order destabilizes beyond this due to the need for intimate personal acquaintance. Sociological research indicates that the maximum “natural” size of a group bonded by gossip is about 150 individuals. Modern human organizations, like military units or small businesses, also face a critical threshold around this number, requiring formal ranks and laws beyond it. Homo sapiens managed to cross this threshold by believing in common myths. These shared fictions allowed millions of strangers to cooperate successfully, forming the basis of modern states, churches, and judicial systems.

The Legal Fiction of Corporations

Harari illustrates the power of imagined realities with the example of Peugeot SA, a company that exists as a “legal entity” only in our collective imagination. Unlike physical objects, Peugeot can exist independently of its cars, factories, employees, and shareholders. This concept of a “limited liability company” is one of humanity’s most ingenious inventions, reducing risk for entrepreneurs and fostering economic growth. Armand Peugeot created his company in the same way priests create gods—by telling stories and convincing people to believe them, in this case, by adhering to the rituals and spells of the French legal code.

The Dual Reality of Sapiens

Effective storytelling is crucial for convincing millions to believe in these fictions. Since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have lived in a dual reality: the objective reality of physical things like rivers and lions, and the imagined reality of gods, nations, and corporations. Over time, the imagined reality has become increasingly powerful, with the very survival of objective entities often depending on these fictional constructs. This imagined reality is not a lie (which is known to be false), but something everyone believes in, exerting force in the world as long as communal belief persists.

Bypassing Genetic Evolution

The ability to create and change imagined realities allowed Sapiens to rapidly revise their behavior in accordance with changing needs, opening a fast lane of cultural evolution, bypassing the traffic jams of genetic evolution. While the social behavior of other animals is largely determined by their genes and changes slowly, Sapiens could transform social structures, economic activities, and interpersonal relations within decades. For example, the Catholic priesthood’s celibacy runs counter to natural selection but is sustained by shared myths, not genetic alterations. This adaptability gave Sapiens a crucial advantage over other human species like Neanderthals, who could not adapt their social behavior as rapidly.

Evidence of Sapiens’ Superior Cooperation

Archaeological evidence hints at the cognitive limits of Neanderthals compared to Sapiens. Neanderthal sites lack evidence of long-distance trade, suggesting they manufactured tools from local materials. Sapiens sites, however, contain seashells from distant coasts and obsidian from islands hundreds of kilometers away, indicating extensive trade networks based on trust (often facilitated by shared myths). Sapiens also developed sophisticated hunting techniques requiring cooperation among dozens or even different bands, like driving entire herds into gorges for mass slaughter. This flexible, large-scale cooperation, rooted in shared myths, explains Sapiens’ success in pushing other human species to oblivion.

The Independence of History from Biology

The Cognitive Revolution is the point when history declared its independence from biology. While human abilities are still shaped by DNA, the immense diversity of imagined realities and behavior patterns created by Sapiens are what we call “cultures.” These cultures constantly change and develop, a process we call “history.” The significant differences between humans and chimpanzees only appear when comparing large groups, as the mythical glue binding individuals, families, and groups together allowed Sapiens to create orderly patterns of cooperation on a scale never seen before, making us the masters of creation.

Chapter 3: A Day in the Life of Adam and Eve

This chapter delves into the daily lives of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, exploring what can be known about their societies, diets, and psychological states before the Agricultural Revolution.

Understanding Our Forager Ancestors

To understand human nature, history, and psychology, it is crucial to study our hunter-gatherer ancestors, as Homo sapiens lived as foragers for nearly the entire history of our species, until about 12,000 years ago. Evolutionary psychology suggests that our brains and minds are still adapted to this long pre-agricultural era, influencing our eating habits, conflicts, and sexuality. For example, our instinct to gorge on high-calorie foods stems from an ancient savannah environment where such foods were rare, leading to modern obesity in an age of abundance.

Debates on Ancient Social Structures

One contentious theory suggests ancient foraging bands were not nuclear families but communes devoid of private property, monogamous relationships, and even fatherhood. Women might have had sex with multiple partners, and all adults cooperated in parenting, as documented among animals like chimpanzees and even some modern human cultures like the Bari Indians. This theory posits that modern marital infidelities and psychological complexes arise from forcing humans into monogamous, nuclear family structures incompatible with our biological software. Opponents, however, insist that monogamy and nuclear families are core human behaviors, comprising separate cells within ancient societies.

Challenges in Reconstructing Forager Life

Reconstructing ancient hunter-gatherer life is problematic due to limited archaeological evidence, primarily fossilized bones and stone tools. Most artifacts were made of perishable materials like wood, bamboo, or leather, leaving huge gaps in our understanding. Unlike modern humans who own millions of artifacts, foragers had very few, as they moved house frequently, carrying everything on their backs. This suggests that much of their mental, religious, and emotional lives were conducted without material objects, making it difficult for archaeologists to decipher their beliefs and rituals.

Cautions in Extrapolating from Modern Foragers

Extrapolating from modern forager societies to ancient ones requires extreme caution due to several factors. Firstly, all surviving modern forager societies have been influenced by neighboring agricultural and industrial societies. Secondly, they exist mainly in inhospitable terrains (like the Kalahari Desert), which may not accurately represent fertile ancient habitats. Thirdly, the most notable characteristic of hunter-gatherer societies is their immense diversity, varying by region, language, religion, and customs, as seen among the Aborigine peoples of Australia. This suggests that there was no single “natural way of life” for Sapiens after the Cognitive Revolution, only diverse cultural choices.

Generalizations About Pre-Agricultural Life

Despite the challenges, some generalizations can be made. Most people lived in small bands of several dozen to a few hundred individuals, primarily consisting of humans (with the exception of the domesticated dog, the first animal to be domesticated about 15,000 years ago, co-evolving with humans for mutual benefit). Loneliness and privacy were rare, as individuals were constantly surrounded by friends and relatives. Neighboring bands often had both competitive and friendly contacts, exchanging members, hunting, trading rare luxuries, and celebrating festivals. However, relations were sporadic, with the tribe not serving as a permanent political framework. The global human population before the Agricultural Revolution was smaller than today’s Cairo.

Nomadic Lifestyle and Diverse Diet

Most Sapiens bands were nomadic, moving in search of food based on seasons, animal migrations, and plant cycles within a home territory of dozens to hundreds of square kilometers. Occasionally, they explored new lands due to various pressures, driving human worldwide expansion. In particularly rich food areas, or with drying/smoking/freezing techniques, some bands settled in seasonal or even permanent camps, such as the first permanent fishing villages on Indonesian coasts 45,000 years ago. Their feeding strategy was elastic and opportunistic, gathering dozens of different foodstuffs like termites, berries, roots, and hunting small animals, with gathering being the main activity and source of calories.

Superior Knowledge and Skills of Foragers

Ancient foragers possessed a wider, deeper, and more varied knowledge of their immediate surroundings than most modern descendants. Their survival depended on intimate knowledge of thousands of plant and animal species, weather patterns, and how to craft tools like stone knives. Each individual had to master many skills, requiring years of apprenticeship. There is some evidence that the average Sapiens brain size has actually decreased since the age of foraging, possibly because agriculture and industry opened “niches for imbeciles” where survival did not require superb mental abilities from everyone. Foragers also had greater physical dexterity and fitness, moving with minimal effort and noise.

The “Original Affluent Society” Hypothesis

Many experts define pre-agricultural forager societies as “the original affluent societies” due to a comfortable and rewarding lifestyle. Modern hunter-gatherers in inhospitable habitats work only 35-45 hours a week, with ample time for social activities. Their varied diet, based on dozens of different foodstuffs, provided ideal nutrition, ensuring all necessary nutrients and protecting against starvation when one source failed. They also suffered less from infectious diseases, as most originated from domesticated animals and dense settlements. However, this idealization must be tempered with the harsh realities of occasional want, high child mortality, and the potential for severe suffering for those who incurred hostility from their band, including abandonment or infanticide (as seen in the Ache people).

Elusive Spiritual and Sociopolitical Worlds

The spiritual and mental life of ancient hunter-gatherers remains highly speculative due to limited evidence. Most scholars agree on the prevalence of animistic beliefs, where almost every place, animal, plant, and natural phenomenon had awareness and could communicate with humans. These religions were local, emphasizing unique features of specific locations, and saw no strict hierarchy between humans and other beings. Animism encompassed thousands of different religions, cults, and beliefs, whose specifics are largely undecipherable from current archaeological finds. Debates also rage about the sociopolitical world, with no consensus on private property, nuclear families, or monogamous relationships. It is likely that different bands had different structures, from hierarchical and violent to peaceful and egalitarian.

Evidence of Hierarchies and Complex Beliefs

Archaeological discoveries like the Sungir burial site in Russia (30,000 years old) provide evidence of hierarchical societies among mammoth-hunters. The extravagant burials of a fifty-year-old man and two children, adorned with thousands of ivory beads, suggest a social structure beyond simple egalitarianism, possibly indicating inherited rank or ritual sacrifice. This highlights that Sapiens, even in ancient times, could invent sociopolitical codes far beyond biological dictates. The meaning of many ancient artworks, such as the Lascaux Cave paintings, remains elusive, often reflecting modern scholars’ preconceptions rather than ancient beliefs.

Peace or War: An Unresolved Question

The role of war in forager societies is highly contentious. Some view them as peaceful paradises, others as exceptionally cruel and violent. Archaeological evidence is scarce and opaque, making it difficult to distinguish war wounds from accidents, or the impact of environmental factors versus violence in mass deaths. However, findings like the Jabl Sahaba cemetery in Sudan (12,000 years old), where 40% of skeletons showed embedded arrowheads, and the Ofnet Cave in Bavaria, where half the skeletons bore signs of violence, suggest that some ancient forager societies experienced high levels of violence, comparable to or even exceeding modern war and crime rates. This implies wide variation in violence rates across different forager groups and periods.

Chapter 4: The Flood

This chapter details the dramatic impact of Sapiens’ expansion beyond Afro-Asia, particularly the devastating effect on megafauna, marking our species as an ecological serial killer.

The First Global Expansion

Before the Cognitive Revolution, humans were confined to the Afro-Asian landmass, with limited settlement of islands. However, following the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens acquired the technology and organizational skills to break out, leading to the colonization of Australia around 45,000 years ago. This feat required crossing over one hundred kilometers of open sea, suggesting the development of seafaring societies in the Indonesian archipelago, who built and maneuvered ocean-going vessels. This was the first time any large terrestrial mammal crossed from Afro-Asia to Australia.

Sapiens as Ecological Serial Killers

The arrival of humans in Australia marked a pivotal moment: Homo sapiens climbed to the top rung of the food chain on a landmass and became the deadliest species in Earth’s history. Within a few thousand years of Sapiens’ arrival, virtually all of Australia’s giants, including 23 out of 24 animal species weighing fifty kilograms or more, became extinct. Food chains were broken and rearranged. This was the most significant transformation of the Australian ecosystem in millions of years.

The Evidence Against Climate Change

While some scholars blame climate change, three pieces of evidence implicate Homo sapiens in the Australian megafauna extinction. Firstly, the climate upheaval around 45,000 years ago was not unusually severe, and species like the diprotodon had survived at least ten previous ice ages. Secondly, mass extinctions due to climate change typically hit sea creatures as hard as land dwellers, but there’s no evidence of significant oceanic fauna disappearance 45,000 years ago, suggesting terrestrial human impact. Thirdly, similar mass extinctions occurred repeatedly in other parts of the Outer World immediately following human settlement, such as in New Zealand with the Maori arrival 800 years ago, and on Wrangel Island with the mammoths’ disappearance 4,000 years ago coinciding with human arrival.

Explaining the Australian Extinction

Three explanations combine to show how Stone Age Sapiens could cause such an ecological disaster. Firstly, large animals breed slowly, so even a small human hunting pressure could cause deaths to outnumber births. Australian giants, having evolved without human predators, were also totally surprised and easily hunted by the frail-looking apes. Secondly, Sapiens likely practiced fire agriculture, deliberately burning vast areas to create open grasslands for easily hunted game, thereby changing Australia’s ecology significantly. Fossil plant records show a rise in fire-resistant eucalyptus trees after Sapiens’ arrival, indicating widespread burning. Thirdly, the combination of climate change destabilizing the ecosystem and human hunting pushing it over the edge made the situation particularly devastating.

The American Megafauna Catastrophe

An even larger ecological disaster occurred in America, where Homo sapiens arrived about 16,000 years ago via a land bridge from Siberia. This required ingenious solutions for Arctic conditions, like snowshoes and thermal clothing, and new hunting techniques for mammoths. Within a mere millennium or two, by 10,000 BC, humans inhabited the southernmost tip of America. This “blitzkrieg” across America led to the extinction of most of its unique large species within 2,000 years of Sapiens’ arrival. North America lost 34 out of 47 genera of large mammals, and South America lost 50 out of 60. This is further confirmed by the dating of dung balls and animal bones to the period of human arrival, making human culpability irrefutable.

The Legacy of First Wave Extinctions

The First Wave Extinction, accompanying the spread of foragers, saw the demise of about half of the planet’s large terrestrial mammals (weighing over fifty kilograms) even before the invention of the wheel or writing. This tragedy was repeated on islands like Madagascar (elephant birds and giant lemurs vanished 1,500 years ago with human arrival) and throughout the Pacific by Polynesian farmers, who extinguished hundreds of bird, insect, and snail species. This historical record positions Homo sapiens as having the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in biology’s annals, long before the Industrial Revolution. This awareness is critical for addressing the ongoing Third Wave Extinction caused by industrial activity, especially for large ocean animals now on the brink.

Part Two: The Agricultural Revolution

This section explores the profound shift from foraging to farming, arguing that it was a “fraud” that led to a more difficult and less satisfying life for most humans, while allowing for exponential population growth and the rise of complex societies.

History’s Biggest Fraud

Around 10,000 years ago, Homo sapiens began devoting almost all their time and effort to manipulating a few animal and plant species, initiating the Agricultural Revolution. This transition started in the hill country of southeastern Turkey, western Iran, and the Levant, with wheat and goats domesticated by 9000 BC. Contrary to previous beliefs of a single origin, agriculture sprang up independently in multiple parts of the world, such as maize and beans in Central America, and rice and millet in China. Harari argues that this revolution was not a “great leap forward” but rather “history’s biggest fraud.” There is no evidence people became more intelligent; instead, farmers often had harder, less satisfying lives than foragers, leading to population explosions and pampered elites.

The Domestication of Sapiens by Wheat

Harari provocatively suggests that plants like wheat domesticated Homo sapiens, rather than the reverse. Wheat, originally a wild grass in the Middle East, became globally ubiquitous within a few millennia because humans invested increasing effort in its cultivation. Wheat demanded arduous labor: clearing fields, weeding, guarding against pests, watering, and fertilizing. The human body, adapted for climbing and running, suffered ailments like slipped discs and hernias from these new tasks. The need to stay near wheat fields forced a permanent, settled lifestyle, transforming human existence. Wheat did not offer a better diet (cereals are poor in minerals and vitamins), nor economic security (reliance on single crops led to famine vulnerability), nor security against human violence (farmers had more possessions and less room for compromise, leading to higher rates of violence in early agricultural societies).

The Evolutionary Paradox of Agriculture

From an evolutionary perspective, the Agricultural Revolution was a success for Homo sapiens as a species, as it enabled an exponential multiplication of the population. Wheat cultivation yielded more food per unit of territory, allowing more people to survive, albeit under worse conditions. For individuals, however, it was a trap. Early farmers did not foresee that increased food supply would lead to more children, weakening immune systems with cereal-based diets, and permanent settlements becoming hotbeds for infectious diseases. The “wheat bargain” became more burdensome with time, as each generation made small “improvements” that collectively led to a harder life.

The Luxury Trap

The transition to agriculture was a gradual process, not a sudden shift. As a result, humans didn’t realize they were entering a trap. Small changes, like hoeing fields for a better harvest, made sense individually, promising an easier life. However, they failed to foresee the cumulative effect of population growth wiping out food surpluses, increased dependence on a single food source, and the need for walls and guard duty against thieves. Once adopted, there was no going back; the increased population size meant a return to foraging was impossible. This concept of the luxury trap illustrates how humanity’s search for an easier life released immense forces that transformed the world in unforeseen and often undesirable ways. Modern examples include time-saving devices like emails, which paradoxically make our lives more anxious and agitated.

The Role of Religious and Cultural Aspirations

Beyond simple miscalculation, an alternative theory suggests that Sapiens consciously embraced agriculture for other aspirations, possibly religious or cultural. The discovery of Gobekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey, a monumental pillared structure built by hunter-gatherers around 9500 BC with no obvious utilitarian purpose, supports this idea. This structure required thousands of foragers from different bands to cooperate, likely sustained by a sophisticated religious or ideological system. Its proximity to the origin of domesticated einkorn wheat in the Karacadag Hills suggests a link: foragers might have cultivated wheat intensively to feed the people building and running the temple, implying that the temple may have been built first, and a village grew around it.

The Victims of the Agricultural Revolution: Animals

The Faustian bargain was not just with grains; it also involved animals like sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens. The process of domestication likely began with selective hunting and defense of wild herds, leading to active control and breeding for human needs, producing fatter, more submissive, and less curious animals. From a narrow evolutionary perspective, this was a “wonderful boon” for domesticated animals, as their numbers exploded (billions today, making them the second, third, and fourth most widespread large mammals after Sapiens). However, this evolutionary success came at the cost of individual suffering.

The Brutality of Animal Domestication

The domestication of animals was founded on brutal practices that intensified over centuries. Wild chickens and cattle live for seven to twenty-five years, but domesticated ones are often slaughtered at a few weeks to months old for economic reasons. Others are subjected to lives “completely alien to their urges and desires,” through confinement, bridling, whipping, and mutilation like castration (to control aggression and procreation) or nose-slicing (in New Guinea, to make pigs dependent). The dairy industry forces cows into constant pregnancy, separating calves shortly after birth for milk production. The ethical disregard for animals’ social and psychological needs (as demonstrated by Harlow’s monkey experiments in the 1950s, showing psychological distress in isolated infants) highlights the profound discrepancy between evolutionary success and individual suffering, a central theme of the Agricultural Revolution.

Chapter 6: Building Pyramids

This chapter examines how agricultural surpluses led to the development of larger, more complex social and political systems, but also introduced new forms of imagined order and hierarchies.

The Rise of Settled Life and Artificial Habitats

The Agricultural Revolution drastically increased human populations, making a return to hunting and gathering impossible. By the first century AD, farmers vastly outnumbered foragers. This transition led to most people living in permanent settlements, and their turf shrinking dramatically compared to the vast territories of hunter-gatherers. “Home” became a small, artificial human island carved out of the wilds—forests cut down, canals dug, fields cleared, and houses built in tidy rows. This new, artificial habitat was designed exclusively for humans and their domesticated plants and animals, and families tirelessly worked to keep wild elements out. This transformation had a significant psychological impact, fostering a more self-centered creature attached to “my house.”

The Expanding Time Horizon of Farmers

While physical space shrank, agricultural life demanded an expansion of the time horizon. Unlike foragers who lived hand-to-mouth, farmers constantly worried about the future—next year’s harvest, droughts, floods, and pests. They were obliged to produce surpluses and build reserves to survive lean years, leading to a frenetic, hardworking lifestyle. This stress over the future became a major force in shaping human minds and laid the foundation for large-scale political and social systems. Peasants, despite their diligence, rarely achieved security, as their surpluses were siphoned off by rulers and elites who filled history books.

The Emergence of Imagined Orders

The challenge of coordinating large numbers of strangers in crowded cities and kingdoms, where biological instincts for cooperation were insufficient, was solved by shared myths and imagined orders. These collective fictions provided the necessary social links, enabling unprecedented levels of mass cooperation. Early settlements like Jericho (a few hundred people) grew to cities like Catalhoyuk (5,000-10,000) by 7000 BC, and eventually vast empires like the Akkadian Empire (over a million subjects by 2250 BC) and the Roman Empire (up to 100 million subjects). These large-scale cooperation networks, often geared towards oppression and exploitation, were sustained by belief in these myths.

The Code of Hammurabi and the American Declaration of Independence

Harari contrasts two prominent imagined orders: Hammurabi’s Code (c.1776 BC) and the American Declaration of Independence (1776 AD). Both claim to outline universal and eternal principles of justice, but they present contradictory visions. Hammurabi’s Code established a strict hierarchy of superiors, commoners, and slaves, with different values and punishments for each, and children as property. The American Declaration, conversely, asserted that “all men are created equal” and endowed with “unalienable rights.” Harari argues that both are myths, not objective realities. From a biological perspective, humans are not “created equal” but have “evolved differently.” The existence of rights, like liberty, is a human invention, not a biological fact. These principles exist only in the fertile imagination of Sapiens.

The Fragility and Maintenance of Imagined Orders

Imagined orders are inherently fragile because they depend on belief. To safeguard them, continuous and strenuous efforts are imperative, involving both violence and coercion (armies, police, courts) and the cultivation of true believers. A single priest can do the work of a hundred soldiers more cheaply and effectively, as genuine belief makes people willing to uphold the order even when it offers them little tangible benefit. Cynics, who believe in nothing beyond immediate self-interest, cannot build or sustain empires, as their pursuits (like accumulating wealth for non-productive uses) lack meaning without an imagined framework.

Embedding the Imagined Order

People are made to believe in an imagined order through several mechanisms. Firstly, the order is embedded in the material world. For example, modern individualism is reflected in houses with private rooms and locked doors, while medieval noble hierarchy was reflected in open communal halls. Secondly, the imagined order shapes our desires from birth; even our most personal aspirations, like taking holidays abroad, are often programmed by myths of romantic consumerism, making us want what the system needs us to want. Thirdly, the imagined order is inter-subjective, meaning it exists in the shared imagination of millions. If a single person stops believing, it changes little; but if most stop believing, it mutates or disappears. Changing an imagined order requires convincing millions of strangers to believe in an alternative imagined order.

Chapter 7: Memory Overload

This chapter explores how the growth of complex societies pushed the limits of the human brain’s information processing capabilities, leading to the invention of writing and sophisticated bureaucratic systems.

The Limitations of the Human Brain

Large systems of human cooperation, involving thousands or millions of individuals, require managing and storing vast amounts of information, far more than any single human brain can contain. The human brain, adapted for botanical, zoological, topographical, and social information in small hunter-gatherer bands, is a poor storage device for empire-sized databases due to three main reasons: limited capacity, the fact that humans die (erasing stored information), and its adaptation to process only particular types of information. Crucially, the human brain is not naturally adapted to storing and processing large amounts of numerical data, which became vital for maintaining large kingdoms through taxation and administration.

The Invention of Writing and Its Early Forms

The ancient Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia were the first to overcome this limitation, inventing a system for storing and processing information outside their brains between 3500 BC and 3000 BC. This system, called writing, used material signs (for numbers and objects) pressed into clay tablets, enabling the preservation of far more data than human memory. Early Sumerian writing was a partial script, limited to facts and figures like tax records (“29,086 measures barley 37 months Kushim”), not philosophical insights or poetry. The first recorded name in history, Kushim, belonged to an accountant.

Quipus: A Unique Partial Script

Other cultures developed different partial scripts. The pre-Columbian Andes, for example, used quipus, colorful knotted cords of wool or cotton, to record mathematical data for tax collection and property ownership. The Inca Empire, which ruled millions, relied on quipus to maintain its complex administrative machinery. Quipus were so effective that the Spanish used them initially after conquest, but phased them out due to their inability to read them without local experts. The art of reading quipus is now largely lost, making most undecipherable. This highlights how distinct writing systems could emerge and function without being full scripts.

The Evolution of Full Script and Bureaucracy

Between 3000 BC and 2500 BC, Sumerian writing evolved into a full script called cuneiform, capable of representing spoken language more completely. Simultaneously, Egyptians developed hieroglyphics. Other full scripts emerged in China and Central America later. While full scripts allowed for poetry, history, and letters, writing’s most important task remained the storage of mathematical data, often still through partial scripts. As administrative archives grew, new problems arose: how to efficiently find and retrieve information from thousands of tablets. This required the invention of methods of organization like catalogues, and the development of scribal schools to train clerks and accountants to think in a non-human, compartmentalized fashion, unlike the free-associative nature of the human brain.

The Global Language of Numbers

A critical step in data processing occurred before the ninth century AD with the invention of Arabic numerals (0-9), originally by Hindus. These ten signs, combined with operators like addition and subtraction, formed the basis of modern mathematical notation. This partial script became the world’s dominant language; almost all states and organizations use it to record and process data. Experts translate even abstract ideas like “poverty” into numbers, and fields like physics and engineering rely solely on mathematical script, losing touch with spoken human language. More recently, mathematical script led to computerized binary script (0 and 1), the foundation of modern computing and potentially revolutionary artificial intelligence. Harari warns that writing, once the maidservant of human consciousness, is increasingly becoming its master.

Chapter 8: There is No Justice in History

This chapter unpacks how imagined orders, while enabling mass cooperation, simultaneously created unjust hierarchies that persist through generations.

Imagined Orders and Hierarchies

Mass-cooperation networks were sustained by imagined orders and scripts, which filled the gaps in our biological instincts. However, these orders were not neutral; they divided people into make-believe, hierarchical groups, granting privileges to upper levels and discrimination to lower ones. Hammurabi’s Code, for instance, explicitly established a pecking order for superiors, commoners, and slaves. The American Declaration of Independence, despite proclaiming equality, created hierarchies based on gender (disempowering women) and race (enslaving blacks and marginalizing American Indians), demonstrating that its principles were limited to specific groups of “men.”

The Illusion of Naturalness

A key “iron rule of history” is that every imagined hierarchy disavows its fictional origins, claiming to be natural and inevitable. Slaveholders, white supremacists, or proponents of wealth hierarchy often use pseudoscientific, religious, or philosophical arguments to justify their positions as reflecting innate biological differences or cosmic forces. For example, Hindus adhering to the caste system believe their castes were created from different parts of a primeval being (Purusa), making the social divisions as “natural” as the sun and moon. However, these hierarchies are, to our best understanding, products of human imagination, not biological reality.

The Function of Hierarchies

Complex human societies seem to require imagined hierarchies and discrimination to function, as no large society has dispensed with them entirely. These categories (e.g., superiors/commoners, whites/blacks, Brahmins/Shudras) regulate relations between millions of humans, enabling strangers to interact without personal acquaintance. For instance, the way a person is dressed or their skin color helps a florist immediately distinguish a potential large client from a messenger boy. While natural abilities play a role, their development is often mediated by one’s place in the imagined hierarchy (e.g., Harry Potter’s magic remaining latent if not nurtured). Even with equal abilities, people face different rules and opportunities.

The Vicious Circle of Discrimination

Most hierarchies originate from accidental historical circumstances and are then perpetuated through vested interests. The Hindu caste system, for example, is surmised to have formed after Indo-Aryan invaders subjugated the local population, creating a stratified society where they occupied leading positions. Concepts of purity and impurity were harnessed to buttress this social pyramid, with contact between castes seen as polluting. This created a self-reinforcing system of social divisions, determining profession, food, residence, and marriage partners, which persisted long after its origins were forgotten.

Racial Hierarchy in America

A similar vicious circle perpetuated racial hierarchy in modern America. European conquerors imported millions of African slaves primarily due to circumstantial factors: Africa’s proximity, an existing slave trade, and Africans’ partial genetic immunity to malaria and yellow fever prevalent in American plantations. This genetic “superiority” paradoxically translated into social inferiority. To justify this, religious and scientific myths were created, claiming blacks were less intelligent, moral, or spread disease (“pollution”). After slavery was abolished, these racist myths persisted, creating a self-reinforcing cycle: blacks were denied good jobs due to perceived inferiority, and their lack of white-collar jobs was then used as “proof” of their inferiority, leading to “Jim Crow” laws and further discrimination.

The Gender Hierarchy: Patriarchy’s Stubbornness

One hierarchy of supreme importance in all known human societies is that of gender, with men generally holding better positions than women since the Agricultural Revolution. Women were often property, with rape legally classified as property violation. While some disparities reflect biological differences (childbearing), most “masculine” and “feminine” attributes lack a firm biological basis and are cultural constructs. The meaning of “manhood” and “womanhood” varies immensely across cultures, as seen in the changing ideals of masculinity (e.g., King Louis XIV vs. Barack Obama). Harari distinguishes “sex” (biological) from “gender” (cultural). Becoming a “man” or “woman” is a complicated cultural undertaking, involving continuous rites and performances.

Explanations for Patriarchy and Their Shortcomings

The universality and stability of patriarchy are perplexing. Common theories, none fully convincing, attempt to explain it. The “muscle power” theory posits men’s greater strength led to dominance, but women have historically performed hard manual labor and social power doesn’t directly correlate with physical strength (e.g., elders rule over youth, crime bosses use others for violence). The “aggression” theory suggests men’s greater violence made them warriors and thus rulers, but leading wars requires organizational skills, diplomacy, and understanding others, often stereotypically feminine qualities. The “patriarchal genes” theory suggests differing evolutionary strategies: male competitiveness for impregnation vs. female dependence for child-rearing led to men being ambitious and women submissive. However, this is belied by matriarchal societies in animals like bonobos and elephants, where female cooperation leads to dominance over competitive males. Harari concludes we have no good answer for patriarchy’s ubiquity.

The Enduring Legacy of Imagined Hierarchies

Despite revolutions, gender roles have undergone tremendous change in the last century, with increasing legal equality for women and shifting definitions of sexuality. If patriarchy is based on unfounded myths rather than biological facts, its universality is baffling. Ultimately, Harari suggests that most sociopolitical hierarchies lack a biological or logical basis; they are perpetuations of chance events supported by myths. This is why history is important: to understand that these structures are not natural or inevitable, and the world could be arranged differently. Unjust discrimination often worsens over time, trapping groups in vicious circles.

Part Three: The Unification of Humankind

This section describes the long-term historical trend towards global unity, driven by three universal orders: money, empires, and universal religions.

The Inevitable Trend Towards Unity

Human societies grew larger and more complex after the Agricultural Revolution, sustained by increasingly elaborate imagined constructs (myths and fictions) that created artificial instincts for mass cooperation, known as culture. While scholars once believed cultures were complete and unchanging, modern understanding is that they are in constant flux, driven by internal contradictions (cognitive dissonance) and external interactions. From the perspective of a “cosmic spy satellite,” history is moving relentlessly towards unity, with small cultures coalescing into larger, more complex mega-cultures.

From Multiple Worlds to a Single Global Culture

Historically, Earth was a galaxy of isolated human worlds. Around 10,000 BC, there were thousands of separate human worlds. By AD 1450, this dwindled drastically to a single mega-world in Afro-Asia (most of Europe, Asia, and Africa), with four other significant but isolated worlds in Mesoamerica, the Andes, Australia, and Oceania. Over the next 300 years, the Afro-Asian giant consumed all other worlds, with events like the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1521) and the British colonization of Tasmania (1788) bringing the entire globe into a single integrated human society.

The Homogenization of Global Culture

Today, almost all humans share the same geopolitical, economic, and scientific systems. While the single global culture is not homogeneous, its diverse parts are closely connected and mutually influence each other. Even conflicts occur within shared conceptual frameworks (e.g., nation-states, capitalism). The concept of “authentic” cultures, free of external influences, is a myth, as all cultures have been profoundly shaped by global influences. Examples include “ethnic” cuisines (tomatoes, chillies, cocoa from Mexico) and the culture of Plains Indians (horsemen transformed by European horses).

The Rise of Universal Orders

Beginning in the first millennium BC, three potentially universal orders emerged, whose devotees could imagine the entire human race as a single unit governed by a single set of laws: money, imperial order, and universal religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam). Merchants, conquerors, and prophets were the first to transcend the “us vs. them” binary, envisioning a unified humanity as potential customers, subjects, or believers. These ambitious attempts to realize a global vision laid the foundation for the united world of today.

Chapter 10: The Scent of Money

This chapter examines money as a powerful universal unifier, bridging cultural gaps and enabling unprecedented cooperation, while also highlighting its potential for corrosion.

The Evolution of Exchange Systems

Hunter-gatherers operated with an economy of favors and obligations, limited to intimate bands. With the rise of specialization, cities, and kingdoms, this system became insufficient for large numbers of strangers. Barter was too inefficient for complex economies, requiring knowledge of thousands of exchange rates and the rare coincidence of mutual desire (e.g., apples for shoes, or a divorce). Some societies attempted central barter systems (like the failed Soviet model or the more successful Inca one), but most eventually developed money.

Money as a Mental Revolution

Money is not physical coins or banknotes, but rather anything people are willing to use to systematically represent value for exchange. Its development was a purely mental revolution, creating a new inter-subjective reality. Money enables quick value comparison, easy exchange, and convenient wealth storage. Historically, money has taken many forms, from cowry shells (used for 4,000 years in Africa and Asia) to cigarettes in POW camps. Today, over 90% of money exists only on computer servers, demonstrating its abstract nature. Money’s core qualities are that everyone always wants it, making it a universal medium of exchange.

The Foundation of Trust in Money

The value of money (like cowry shells or dollars) is not inherent but exists only in our common imagination. Its function is to convert matter into mind. Money works because it is a system of mutual trust, the most universal and efficient ever devised. This trust is built on a complex web of political, social, and economic relations. We trust money because our neighbors, our king (who demands it in taxes), and our priest (who demands it in tithes) all trust it. The slogan “In God We Trust” on the US dollar highlights the link between financial systems and broader ideological frameworks.

From Barley to Silver to Coins

Early forms of money were based on intrinsic value, such as Sumerian barley money (c.3000 BC), where fixed amounts of barley (e.g., the sila, about one liter) were used for evaluation and exchange. While edible, barley was difficult to store and transport. The breakthrough came with money lacking inherent value, but easier to store and transport, such as the silver shekel in ancient Mesopotamia (mid-third millennium BC). The silver shekel was not a coin but a weight (8.33 grams of silver), its value purely cultural (e.g., used for jewelry). The first coins were struck by King Alyattes of Lydia (c.640 BC), with standardized weights of gold or silver and an imprinted identification mark guaranteeing content and issuer, making counterfeiting a serious crime against the king’s sovereignty.

The Global Spread of Money

The trust in coins, such as the Roman denarius, was so strong that they were accepted even outside empires’ borders (e.g., in India). The name “denarius” even became the generic name for coins, evolving into the Muslim “dinar.” This laid the foundation for the unification of the world into a single economic and political sphere. People from diverse cultures, unable to agree on gods or rulers, could agree on gold and silver. Economists explain this global adoption through supply and demand: if gold was cheap in one region and valued in another, merchants would arbitrage, eventually equalizing its value everywhere. The willingness of Chinese, Indians, Muslims, and Spaniards to share belief in gold, despite cultural differences, enabled global trading networks.

The Dark Side of Money

Money is based on two universal principles: universal convertibility (turning anything into almost anything else) and universal trust (enabling any two people to cooperate on any project). While these facilitated global trade and industry, they have a dark side. Money corrodes local traditions, intimate relations, and human values, replacing them with cold supply and demand. “Priceless” things like honor, loyalty, morality, and love are undermined as money seeks to penetrate all barriers. The trust fostered by money is impersonal, invested in the currency itself rather than in humans or communities. This risks the world becoming a “heartless marketplace,” where human communities are destroyed. However, Harari notes that this is a “delicate dance”; brutal warriors and religious fanatics have repeatedly managed to resist market forces, showing that the market does not always prevail.

Chapter 11: Imperial Visions

This chapter explores empires as a powerful force for unifying humankind, capable of amalgamating diverse cultures and leaving enduring legacies despite their often brutal origins.

The Nature of Empire

Empires are a common form of political organization that ruled most humans for the last 2,500 years. They possess two key characteristics: they rule over a significant number of distinct peoples, each with different cultural identities and territories; and they have flexible borders and a potentially unlimited appetite, capable of swallowing and digesting more nations without altering their basic structure. These traits allowed empires to unite diverse ethnic groups and ecological zones under a single political umbrella, integrating larger segments of humanity and the planet. Empires are defined by cultural diversity and flexible borders, not necessarily by military origin or autocratic rule (e.g., the British Empire was democratic).

The Enduring Legacy of Empires

From a historical perspective, the common critiques of empires—that they don’t work or are inherently evil—are problematic. Empires have been a very stable form of government, often lasting for hundreds of years and successfully putting down rebellions. Conquered peoples rarely freed themselves but were slowly digested until their distinct cultures vanished (e.g., hundreds of peoples disappearing under the Roman Empire). The destruction of one empire often led to the rise of another, not independence (e.g., the Middle East passing from empire to empire for millennia). Empires, despite their often brutal founding through slaughter and oppression, have also left behind rich and enduring legacies, financing philosophy, art, justice, and charity. Most of humanity’s cultural achievements are indebted to the exploitation of conquered populations.

The Spread of Imperial Cultures and Languages

Imperial elites often used profits from conquest to fund cultural achievements, and the languages, laws, and customs spread by empires became foundational for many modern cultures. Most people today speak, think, and dream in imperial languages (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, French, English in the Americas; Arabic in Egypt; Han Chinese in China). Even modern nations claiming unique identities often owe more to the empires that ruled them than to ancient traditions (e.g., modern Jews influenced by empires, not just ancient Judaea). Imperial cultures, while often hybrid, aimed to unify and legitimize their rule, often by claiming to spread a superior culture for the benefit of the conquered, even if this was a guise for exploitation.

The “It’s For Your Own Good” Justification

The first empire with definitive information, the Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great (c.2250 BC), saw its leader boast of conquering the entire world. However, it was Cyrus the Great of Persia (c.550 BC) who introduced the startling concept of conquering for “the sake of all people,” aiming to make subjects love him (e.g., allowing Jewish exiles to return and rebuild their temple). This inclusive imperial ideology, contrasting with human xenophobia, recognized the basic unity of the world and mutual responsibilities. This vision passed to Alexander, Romans, Muslims, and eventually modern leaders who claim to bring “benefits” (peace, justice, refinement) to “ignorant” populations. Chinese political theory also shared this universal ambition, with the Mandate of Heaven obliging rulers to spread justice to “All Under Heaven.”

Assimilation and Its Costs

Empires deliberately spread ideas, institutions, and norms to make governance easier (standardization) and gain legitimacy. This often led to hybrid civilizations that absorbed elements from subject peoples, yet the process of cultural assimilation was often painful and traumatic for the vanquished. Generations could remain in a liminal state, having lost their local culture but not fully accepted by the imperial elite (e.g., an Iberian a century after Numantia’s fall, or Mohandas Gandhi being thrown off a train in British South Africa despite his Western education). However, over centuries, these barriers could break down, with conquered peoples eventually granted citizenship and rising to top ranks, becoming part of the “us” (e.g., all Roman subjects gaining citizenship, non-Arab Muslims dominating the Arab Empire, and Han Chinese becoming the vast majority).

The Modern Decolonization Paradox

The decolonization process of the last few decades, seemingly a rejection of empire, is paradoxically a testament to European imperial success. Local groups adopted Western values like self-determination and human rights, then used these very values to demand equality and independence. Just as Egyptians and Iranians adapted the Arab imperial culture, today’s Indians, Africans, and Chinese have accepted much of the Western imperial culture, while molding it to their needs. Harari argues it is tempting to divide history into “good guys” and “bad guys,” but rejecting all imperial legacies means rejecting most of human culture (e.g., Indian democracy, English, railways, cricket, tea from British Raj). Attempting to rescue “authentic” cultures often means sanctifying older, equally brutal imperial legacies.

The Emergence of a New Global Empire

Since 200 BC, most humans have lived in empires, and this trend is likely to continue with a future truly global empire. Nationalism is losing ground as people increasingly believe that all humankind is the legitimate source of political authority, and global problems like melting ice caps necessitate global solutions. The world is politically fragmented but states are fast losing independence, subject to global markets, NGOs, and international law. This emerging global empire is not governed by a single state or ethnic group but by a multi-ethnic elite, held together by a common culture and common interests. This is the Pax Atomica that enforces peace within its borders, covering the entire globe.

Chapter 12: The Law of Religion

This chapter explores religion as a fundamental unifier of humankind, providing superhuman legitimacy to fragile social structures and evolving from local animism to universal, missionary creeds.

Religion as a Unifying Force

Religion is defined as a system of human norms and values founded on a belief in a superhuman order that is not a product of human whims. It establishes binding norms and values. Despite its current perception as a source of disunion, religion has been the third great unifier of humankind, alongside money and empires. It provides superhuman legitimacy to fragile social orders, placing fundamental laws beyond challenge and ensuring social stability. For a religion to unite large territories and disparate groups, it must be universal (true always and everywhere) and missionary (insisting on spreading its belief to everyone). Universal and missionary religions, like Islam and Buddhism, only began to appear in the first millennium BC, contributing vitally to human unification.

From Animism to Polytheism

Early animistic belief systems (common among foragers) considered animals, plants, fairies, and ghosts as equal, communicating beings, with norms reflecting their interests (e.g., taboos on cutting specific trees or hunting certain animals). These religions were local, focused on unique features of specific places. The Agricultural Revolution changed this, turning plants and animals into property, and diminishing their spiritual status. Gods gained importance by mediating between humans and these now “mute” possessions, often demanding sacrifices for fertility or health. The expansion of kingdoms and trade led to polytheistic religions, which saw the world controlled by powerful gods (fertility, rain, war) whose authority encompassed wider territories. Animistic spirits remained but were less important. Polytheism also exalted humankind’s status, viewing the world as a reflection of human-god relationships.

The Tolerance and Contradictions of Polytheism

Polytheism, often stereotyped as ignorant, fundamentally understands a supreme, disinterested power behind all gods (e.g., Fate in Greek mythology, Olodumare in Yoruba, Atman in Hinduism). This supreme power is unconcerned with human desires, leading to the plurality of partial, biased gods who could be appealed to for mundane help. This insight fosters religious tolerance, as devotees of one god easily accept the existence and efficacy of others. Polytheistic empires like the Romans and Aztecs did not force conversion, only respect for their protector gods. In contrast, monotheists have been far more fanatical and missionary, believing they possess the entire truth from the one and only God, leading to violent extermination of competition (e.g., Christians killing millions of fellow Christians in religious wars, vastly outnumbering Roman persecutions of Christians).

The Rise of Monotheism

Monotheism emerged when followers of particular polytheistic patrons began to believe their god was the sole supreme power, yet still possessed interests and biases, leading them to seek mundane help. Early monotheism was “local” (e.g., Judaism’s focus on the Jewish nation). The breakthrough came with Christianity, as Paul of Tarsus argued the universal message of salvation through Christ should be spread to all humans. Christian success in taking over the Roman Empire, and later Islam’s swift expansion from Arabia, cemented monotheism’s central role in world history. By the early sixteenth century, monotheism dominated most of Afro-Asia and began extending its reach globally.

Syncretism: The Blend of Beliefs

Despite monotheistic theology denying other gods, polytheism (and animism) persisted within monotheism through syncretism. Monotheistic religions absorbed dualistic concepts (e.g., Satan in Christianity, a powerful evil force independent of God), and polytheistic practices (e.g., Christian saints mirroring polytheistic gods like Brigid becoming St. Brigit). This created a “kaleidoscope of monotheist, dualist, polytheist and animist legacies,” jumbling under a single divine umbrella. The concept of heaven and hell, for example, is dualist in origin, not present in the Old Testament. Harari suggests syncretism might be the “single great world religion.”

Natural-Law Religions: Beyond Gods

The first millennium BC also saw the rise of new types of religions focused on natural laws rather than divine wills. These include Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and Stoicism. Their gods, if they existed, were subject to these natural laws. Buddhism, a major example, centers on Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) and his discovery that suffering arises from craving, caused by the mind’s constant dissatisfaction with fleeting sensations. True liberation (nirvana) comes from understanding the impermanent nature of feelings and stopping the pursuit of them, through meditation and ethical rules (dharma). Gods are minor in this system, having no influence over the law of suffering.

Modern Ideologies as Religions

The last 300 years, often seen as secular, are actually an age of intense religious fervor with the rise of new natural-law religions like liberalism, Communism, capitalism, nationalism, and Nazism. These are “ideologies” but function as religions, founded on belief in a superhuman (but not supernatural) order of natural and immutable laws (e.g., Marxist laws of history, Darwinian evolution). They have holy scriptures, holidays, theologians, martyrs, and missionary zeal. Many modern ideologies, particularly liberalism, retain roots in monotheistic beliefs (e.g., human rights from the idea of divinely created souls).

Humanist Religions and Their Divisions

Humanist religions worship humanity, or Homo sapiens, believing it has a unique and sacred nature that determines the meaning of everything. The supreme good is the good of Homo sapiens, with the rest of the world existing for its benefit. Humanism has split into three rival sects:

• Liberal humanism: Humanity’s sacred nature is in individual humans, liberty is sacrosanct, and human rights protect the inner voice. Founded on traditional Christian belief in free, eternal souls.
• Socialist humanism: Humanity is collective, seeking equality between all humans, as inequality is blasphemy against the universal essence of humanity. Built on the monotheist idea that all souls are equal before God.
• Evolutionary humanism (e.g., Nazism): Humanity is a mutable species that can evolve or degenerate. The goal is to protect and encourage its progressive evolution (e.g., Aryan race into supermen) and eliminate “degenerate” kinds of Sapiens. This was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution but twisted by racist ideologies, which biologists later debunked.

Harari emphasizes that these modern ideologies, like older religions, are syncretic, with individuals often holding contradictory beliefs from different humanist sects.

Chapter 13: The Secret of Success

This chapter analyzes two crucial characteristics of history that help explain why humankind’s unification took the particular path it did: the hindsight fallacy and the concept of “Blind Clio.”

The Hindsight Fallacy

Harari argues that every point in history is a crossroads, with myriad paths forking into the future, and not all likely ones are taken. What seems inevitable in hindsight was far from obvious at the time. For example, the Roman Empire’s adoption of Christianity under Emperor Constantine (early fourth century AD) was just one of many religious possibilities, with no definitive historical explanation for why this particular choice was realized over others like Manichaeism or Buddhism. Historians can describe “how” events happened, but struggle to explain “why” they occurred to the exclusion of all other possibilities, often falling into “just-so stories” with hindsight.

The Unpredictability of History

The better one knows a historical period, the harder it is to explain inevitable outcomes. Those alive at the time were “the most clueless of all.” History is not deterministic; it is a chaotic system, specifically a “level two” chaotic system. Unlike weather (level one chaos), history reacts to predictions about it, making accurate forecasting impossible. A predictable revolution, for instance, would never erupt, as pre-emptive measures would be taken. This means that events like the 1989 revolutions or the Arab Spring could not have been predicted, because the prediction itself would have altered the outcome.

Why Study History?

Given its unpredictability, the purpose of studying history is not to know the future, but to widen our horizons. History helps us understand that our present situation (e.g., nation-states, capitalism, human rights) is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we have far more possibilities before us than we imagine. For example, understanding how Europeans came to dominate Africans reveals that racial hierarchy is not natural, but a historical construct. It also highlights that seemingly unlikely possibilities often get realized (e.g., Christianity becoming a state religion, Bolsheviks taking power, Arabs conquering a vast empire).

Blind Clio: History’s Lack of Human Benefit

Harari introduces the concept of “Blind Clio”, asserting that history’s choices are not made for the benefit of humans. There is no proof that human well-being inevitably improves, or that cultures beneficial to humans must inexorably succeed. The “good” is subjectively defined by different cultures, and the victors’ definitions are not objectively correct. This leads to the idea of memetics, where cultures are seen as “mental infections” or “parasites” (memes) that replicate and spread irrespective of costs or benefits to their human hosts (e.g., nationalism causing wars, or arms races bankrupting participants without altering military balance).

The Disregard for Individual Happiness

Like evolution, history often disregards the happiness of individual organisms. There is no basis for thinking that the most successful cultures are necessarily the best ones for Homo sapiens. Individual humans are usually too ignorant and weak to influence history to their own advantage. This dynamic suggests that history proceeds from one junction to the next for mysterious reasons, leading to a wide horizon of unrealized possibilities. The Scientific Revolution, which began in Western Europe around AD 1500, was history’s most momentous choice, transforming the fate of all life on Earth, yet its timing and location remain largely unexplained by scholars.

Part Four: The Scientific Revolution

This section details the phenomenal growth of human power in the last 500 years, driven by a new approach to knowledge that embraces ignorance and prioritizes the acquisition of new capabilities.

Unprecedented Growth in Human Power

The last 500 years have seen an unprecedented surge in human power. In 1500, there were about 500 million Homo sapiens; today there are 7 billion. Global production increased 240-fold (from $250 billion to $60 trillion), and energy consumption 115-fold (from 13 trillion to 1,500 trillion calories per day). This growth has given humankind abilities previously unimaginable, such as circumnavigating the globe in 48 hours, landing on the moon, discovering microorganisms, and detonating the first atomic bomb in 1945. This process, known as the Scientific Revolution, is characterized by investing resources in scientific research to obtain new medical, military, and economic powers.

The Scientific Revolution’s Feedback Loop

The Scientific Revolution is a revolution of ignorance. It is based on the Latin injunction ignoramus – “we do not know”. Unlike premodern traditions that assumed all important knowledge was already known (e.g., Bible, Qur’an), modern science openly admits collective ignorance and the possibility of proving existing knowledge wrong. This approach has three critical ways:

• Willingness to admit ignorance: No concept or theory is sacred or beyond challenge.
• Centrality of observation and mathematics: New knowledge is obtained by gathering empirical observations and connecting them into comprehensive theories using mathematical tools (e.g., Newton’s laws, statistics for complex fields).
• Acquisition of new powers: Theories are used to develop new technologies and capabilities, rather than just understanding.

This created a feedback loop: political and economic institutions provide resources for research, and in return, scientific research provides new powers, some of which are reinvested in research.

The Rise of Statistics and the Exact Sciences

Isaac Newton’s The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687) showed that the book of nature is written in mathematics, explaining universal movements with simple laws. For phenomena too complex for Newtonian equations, statistics developed in the last 200 years. The Scottish Widows life-insurance fund, founded in 1744 by two Presbyterian clergymen, exemplifies this. They used probability calculations and demographic data (like Edmond Halley’s Breslau tables) to accurately predict minister deaths and financial needs, proving remarkably precise. This shifted the focus of knowledge from theology to exact sciences, making mathematics central to fields like demography, evolution, economics, and even psychology, reflecting a fundamental change in how humans think and understand the world.

Knowledge as Power: The Alliance with Technology

Francis Bacon’s dictum, “knowledge is power,” emphasizes that the real test of knowledge is its utility and empowering capacity, not just its truth. The Scientific Revolution’s technological tools distinguish it. While science and technology were largely separate before 1500 (technology driven by uneducated craftsmen, not systematic research), their relationship tightened in the nineteenth century. Modern wars, for instance, are scientific productions (e.g., WWI’s chemical gas, tanks; WWII’s V-2 rockets, atom bombs). This military-industrial-scientific complex is a surprisingly recent phenomenon; earlier empires often relied on organizational changes, not technological superiority (e.g., Roman army, Chinese gunpowder used for firecrackers, not military advantage for centuries).

The Ideal of Progress and Its Fruits

Until the Scientific Revolution, most cultures did not believe in progress; they thought the golden age was in the past and humanity’s problems were insoluble. The admission of ignorance, coupled with the idea that science could yield new powers, fostered the belief that real progress was possible. As science solved “unsolvable” problems (e.g., Benjamin Franklin disarming lightning, poverty seen as a technical problem), many became convinced that all problems could be overcome. Biological poverty (lack of food/shelter) has been virtually eliminated in many parts of the world, and there is now a safety net protecting individuals and populations from starvation. The Gilgamesh Project—the quest for immortality—sees death not as destiny but a technical problem to be solved, leading to dramatic increases in life expectancy and decreases in child mortality (e.g., King Edward I and Queen Eleanor losing 10 of 16 children). Some scholars even predict “a-mortality” by 2050 due to bioengineering and nanotechnology.

The Funding of Science: The Sugar Daddy

Scientific research is expensive, requiring billions of dollars in funding from governments, businesses, and foundations. This funding is rarely altruistic; most studies are funded because they promise to help attain political, economic, or religious goals. For example, sixteenth-century kings funded geographical expeditions for conquest and trade, not child psychology. Scientists themselves, often motivated by pure intellectual curiosity, rarely dictate the scientific agenda. Since resources are limited, non-scientific questions like “What is more important?” determine what is funded. Science cannot set its own priorities or determine how its discoveries should be used (e.g., genetics for curing cancer or creating superhumans). Therefore, science flourishes only in alliance with ideologies that justify its costs and influence its agenda. Imperialism and capitalism have been the chief engines of this feedback loop for the past 500 years, funding scientific advancements in exchange for new powers.

Chapter 15: The Marriage of Science and Empire

This chapter highlights the intertwined destinies of modern science and European imperialism, showing how their shared “explore and conquer” mindset fueled unprecedented global expansion and scientific discovery.

Science and Imperialism: An Inseparable Bond

The marriage of science and European empires was crucial to Europe’s rise to global dominance. From 1850 onward, European power was heavily reliant on the military-industrial-scientific complex (e.g., machine guns, steamships, medicines). Before that, the technological gap was small. The key factor was a shared mindset between scientists and conquerors: both began by admitting ignorance (“I don’t know what’s out there”), felt compelled to make new discoveries, and hoped new knowledge would lead to mastery of the world. This contrasted with earlier imperial projects (e.g., Arab, Roman) that assumed they already understood the world and sought only power and wealth.

The “Explore and Conquer” Mentality

European imperialism, unlike previous empires, actively sought new knowledge alongside new territories. Early voyagers like Columbus and Magellan explored and simultaneously claimed sovereignty. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, almost every major military expedition from Europe carried scientists (e.g., Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt with 165 scholars, leading to Egyptology; HMS Beagle’s mapping expedition with Charles Darwin). This entwined conquest of knowledge and territory. The anecdote of Neil Armstrong and the Native American on the moon, whether true or legend, aptly illustrates the inherent tension between scientific exploration and colonial appropriation.

Empty Maps: A Scientific and Imperial Breakthrough

A critical illustration of this modern mentality is the development of world maps with empty spaces. Unlike older maps filled with imaginary monsters, these blank spots represented an admission of ignorance and a call to explore and fill them in. Amerigo Vespucci, in recognizing Columbus’s discovery as an entirely unknown continent (America), became the “first modern man” for his willingness to admit “We don’t know.” The discovery of America became the foundational event of the Scientific Revolution, obliging Europeans to rapidly gather vast amounts of new data about the continent’s geography, flora, fauna, and cultures, as Christian scriptures and old texts were useless.

The Unique European Drive for Conquest

European explore-and-conquer expeditions were extraordinary. Most historical societies were preoccupied with local conflicts. Occasional long-range campaigns (e.g., Alexander the Great) were usually usurpations of existing empires, or limited naval ventures (e.g., Athens, Carthage). Chinese Admiral Zheng He’s massive armadas (1405-1433) explored the Indian Ocean, but unlike Europeans, he did not seek to conquer or colonize, and his expeditions were abruptly terminated by a change in Chinese politics. This demonstrates that Europe did not have an outstanding technological edge; what made them exceptional was their unparalleled and insatiable ambition to explore and conquer, driven by the belief that unknown lands were to be claimed immediately.

Science as Justification for Empire

The British Great Survey of India (1802-62) and the deciphering of cuneiform script by Henry Rawlinson exemplify how European empires systematically studied the lands they conquered, often knowing more about their subjects than the native populations themselves. This knowledge had practical advantages (e.g., allowing a ridiculously small number of Britons to govern hundreds of millions of Indians) and provided ideological justification for imperialism. Modern Europeans believed that acquiring new knowledge was always good, thus branding their empires as “progressive and positive enterprises.” The “White Man’s Burden” ideology claimed that empires brought benefits of “progress” (medicine, education, infrastructure) to “barbarians,” despite often causing immense suffering (e.g., Great Bengal Famine, 1769-73).

The Shifting Face of Discrimination

Scientific disciplines like biology, anthropology, and linguistics were also used to provide “scientific proof” of European racial superiority, justifying their right to rule. Theories about the “Aryan race” emerging from linguistic studies (e.g., William Jones identifying Indo-European languages) were twisted to claim a master race destined to rule. While such racist theories are now anathema, Harari argues that “culturism” has replaced racism in imperial ideology. Assertions about human groups are now framed in terms of cultural differences (e.g., Western culture’s democratic values vs. Muslim culture’s hierarchical politics), still justifying exclusion or intervention. Ultimately, the close cooperation between science and empire enabled Europeans to conquer the world, and in return, empires provided scientists with information, protection, and spread the scientific way of thinking globally. Behind this powerful alliance, lay the force of capitalism.

Chapter 16: The Capitalist Creed

This chapter explores how capitalism, driven by the belief in perpetual growth and reinvestment, became the most influential force in modern history, intertwining with science and empire while also having a dark side.

The Stupendous Growth of the Modern Economy

For most of history, the global economy remained static in per capita terms, with growth primarily due to demographic expansion. This changed dramatically in the modern age. Global production increased 240-fold between 1500 and today (from $250 billion to $60 trillion), and average per capita production rose from $550 to $8,800 annually. This stupendous growth is explained by capitalism, a system built on trust in the future and the willingness to reinvest profits.

The Magic of Credit and Future Trust

The foundation of modern economics, including the banking system where 90% of money exists only on computer servers, is trust in the future. Money can represent imaginary goods—goods that do not exist in the present—through credit. Credit allows us to build the present at the expense of the future, based on the assumption that future resources will be more abundant than present ones. Historically, credit was limited because people believed wealth was static or dwindling, making new enterprises risky zero-sum games where one’s profit came at another’s loss. This limited new business financing and kept economies frozen, with many cultures viewing making large profits as sinful.

Adam Smith and the Gospel of Growth

The Scientific Revolution’s idea of progress (that research can improve things) translated into economic terms: new discoveries and developments can increase total human production. This shifted trust to the future. In 1776, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations argued that when entrepreneurs reinvest their profits to employ more assistants and increase production, it leads to collective wealth and prosperity. This revolutionary idea transformed greed into a positive force, asserting that egoism is altruism and that by getting richer, one benefits everyone, not just oneself, because the “entire global pie can grow.” The first and most sacred commandment of the new capitalist creed became: “The profits of production must be reinvested in increasing production.”

Capital vs. Wealth: A New Ethic

Capitalism distinguishes “capital” (money, goods, resources invested in production) from mere “wealth” (hoarded or wasted on unproductive activities). This new ethic of reinvesting profits for further production was alien to most premodern societies, where nobles spent lavishly on luxuries, tournaments, and palaces, rarely investing in increased output. The modern capitalist elite—board chairmen, stock traders, industrialists—are far richer but less interested in extravagant consumption, dedicating most profits to increasing human production. This investment-driven mindset extends to ordinary people and governments, all striving to invest for future income and growth.

Capitalism as a Dominant Religion

Capitalism evolved beyond an economic doctrine to encompass an ethic, teaching that economic growth is the supreme good, or at least essential for justice, freedom, and happiness. This belief shapes modern science; capitalist governments and businesses prioritize scientific projects that promise to increase production and profits. The exponential growth of the human economy in the modern era relies on scientists continually producing new discoveries and gadgets (e.g., America, internal combustion engine, genetically engineered sheep) to “foot the bill” for printed money and credit. Harari warns that if labs don’t fulfill these expectations before bubbles burst, we face “very rough times.”

The Financing of European Imperialism

Capitalism played a decisive role in European imperialism. Unlike non-European empires that relied on taxes and plunder, European conquest was increasingly financed through credit and driven by capitalists seeking maximum returns. The magic circle of imperial capitalism worked: credit financed discoveries, discoveries led to colonies, colonies provided profits, profits built trust, and trust translated into more credit. The Dutch, for example, secured trust by repaying loans and upholding private property rights, enabling them to build a global empire and become the richest state in Europe, even while fighting the mighty Spanish.

Joint-Stock Companies and Global Control

To reduce risk for investors, Europeans invented limited liability joint-stock companies (e.g., Dutch VOC, British East India Company), collecting small investments from many people. The VOC (chartered 1602) used raised funds to build ships, trade in Asia, and finance military actions, eventually conquering and ruling much of Indonesia for 200 years. The British East India Company ruled a mighty Indian empire with a massive private army. These private companies often established empires, demonstrating how unchecked business interests could lead to vast political power. The Mississippi Bubble (1717), a spectacular financial crash in France, stemmed from manipulating share prices and the French crown’s reckless financial management, leading to a loss of public trust in the French banking system and contributing to the French Revolution and the British ascendancy.

The Dark Side of Capitalism: Unrestrained Greed

In the nineteenth century, Western governments increasingly acted as “capitalist trade unions,” using state power to protect investors’ interests. The First Opium War (1840-42), where Britain declared war on China to protect its drug merchants, and the British occupation of Egypt (1882) to secure loans, exemplify this. Capitalism’s “fly in the ointment” is its inability to ensure fair profit gains or distribution. Unrestrained markets can lead to monopolies and collusion against workers. The rise of European capitalism coincided with the Atlantic slave trade, a purely economic enterprise driven by market forces and the demand for cheap labor on sugar plantations. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, 10 million African slaves were imported, suffering abominable conditions. The Congo Free State (1885-1908), run by King Leopold II as a “humanitarian organization” turned business, cost 6-10 million lives in the pursuit of rubber profits. These historical examples show that capitalism, driven by cold indifference and greed, has caused immense suffering.

The Capitalist Promise of Paradise

Capitalism offers two responses to criticism: first, it has created a world only capitalists can run, with the failure of Communism as proof. Second, it promises paradise “right around the corner” if we have patience and allow the “pie to grow a little bigger.” While material living standards have improved for the average human since 1914 despite population growth, the distribution is uneven, and many still live in hunger. The capitalist-consumerist ethic, a merger of “Invest!” for the rich and “Buy!” for the masses, is revolutionary because its followers actually do what they’re asked, promising paradise through ever-increasing consumption. However, this raises the question of whether indefinite economic growth is possible given finite resources, a concern addressed in the next chapter.

Chapter 17: The Wheels of Industry

This chapter delves into the Industrial Revolution, emphasizing its fundamental shift in energy conversion and the resultant explosion in human productivity, which dramatically reshaped agriculture, industry, and our relationship with other species.

The Revolution in Energy Conversion

The Industrial Revolution fundamentally changed humanity’s relationship with energy and raw materials, leading to exponential economic growth. While prophets of doom warn of finite resources, Harari argues that historically, available resources have increased due to scientific and technological research yielding more efficient exploitation methods and completely new types of energy and materials. For millennia, human activity relied on muscle power, fueled by plants capturing solar energy through photosynthesis, leading to economies dominated by plant growth and solar cycles.

The Discovery of Steam Power

The crucial breakthrough came with the realization that heat could be converted into movement. This seemingly obvious observation (e.g., a boiling kettle lid) was long overlooked. After gunpowder’s invention in China, it took centuries to develop effective artillery. The next heat-to-movement machine, the steam engine, emerged around 1700 in British coal mines. Initially inefficient (burning vast coal to pump water), it broke a psychological barrier: if coal could move pumps, it could move textile looms (revolutionizing textile production, making Britain the “workshop of the world”), and then vehicles. The first steam locomotive in 1825, and the Liverpool-Manchester commercial railway in 1830, rapidly transformed transportation.

Unlocking an Ocean of Energy

The Industrial Revolution became a revolution in energy conversion, demonstrating there is no limit to available energy beyond our ignorance. Every few decades, new energy sources are discovered, with the sun alone providing billions of exajoules daily, far exceeding human consumption. This solved the scarcity of raw materials too: cheap, abundant energy allowed exploitation of inaccessible deposits (e.g., Siberian iron) and long-distance transport (e.g., Australian wool for British mills). Simultaneously, scientific breakthroughs led to new raw materials like plastic and discovered natural ones like silicon and aluminium (once more expensive than gold, now produced at 30 million tons/year). Fritz Haber’s 1908 discovery of producing ammonia from thin air (crucial for explosives in WWI) further illustrates this.

Industrializing Life: The Assembly Line and Farm Animals

The Industrial Revolution brought an unprecedented combination of cheap, abundant energy and raw materials, leading to an explosion in human productivity. This was felt first in agriculture, transforming it into the Second Agricultural Revolution. Industrial methods (tractors, artificial fertilizers, pesticides, hormones, medications) vastly increased yields. This also led to the mechanization of plants and animals. Farm animals ceased to be viewed as living creatures and became “machines,” mass-produced in factory-like facilities, their lives shaped by corporate profits and losses, often ignoring their complex social and psychological needs.

The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture

Industrial livestock practices cause immense suffering. Egg-laying hens are confined to tiny cages with only 25×22 cm of space per bird, unable to flap wings or stand fully erect, despite complex behavioral needs. Nursing sows are kept in crates so small they cannot turn around. Dairy cows spend most of their lives in small enclosures, treated as “a mouth that takes in raw materials and an udder that produces a commodity.” This approach ignores animals’ subjective needs for bonding, play, and natural behaviors, which, as shown by Harry Harlow’s 1950s monkey experiments, are crucial for their psychological well-being. Tens of billions of farm animals live in these conditions, slaughtered annually, driving a sharp increase in human food reserves. This industrialization of agriculture freed up billions of hands and brains for urban factories and offices, enabling the urban Industrial Revolution, leading to an unprecedented avalanche of products.

The Age of Shopping and Perpetual Demand

The new problem was: who would buy all this stuff? The solution was consumerism, a new ethic that sees constant consumption as a positive good, curing the “disease” of frugality. Through popular psychology and advertising, indulgence is promoted as beneficial. Shopping became a pastime, goods mediators in relationships, and religious holidays shopping festivals. Obesity is a “double victory” for consumerism, as people eat too much then buy diet products. This is a division of labor: the rich invest, the masses buy. This new ethic is revolutionary because, unlike previous ethical systems that promised paradise for difficult virtues, capitalism-consumerism promises it for easy vices (greed, indulgence), and its followers actually do what they’re asked. The question remains: can this growth continue indefinitely, given ecological degradation?

Chapter 18: A Permanent Revolution

This chapter examines the profound social and environmental consequences of the Industrial Revolution, highlighting its role in reshaping human society, accelerating change, and establishing a new era of unprecedented peace and instability.

The Anthropocene Era: Humanity’s Global Takeover

The Industrial Revolution enabled humankind to largely free itself from dependence on the surrounding ecosystem. Humans have reshaped the world to fit their needs, leading to massive ecological degradation, destruction of habitats, and species extinctions. With almost 7 billion Sapiens today, our combined mass (300 million tons) and that of our domesticated animals (700 million tons) utterly dwarfs the mass of all large wild animals (less than 100 million tons). This signifies humanity’s complete takeover of the world. While resource scarcity prophecies might be misplaced (due to continuous discovery of new energy/materials), the fear of ecological degradation is well-founded, risking a “spiraling race between human power and human-induced natural disasters” that could endanger Sapiens itself.

The Imposition of Modern Time

The Industrial Revolution led to profound social engineering and mental shifts, including the replacement of traditional agricultural rhythms with a uniform and precise industrial schedule. Premodern societies cared little for exact time; their routines followed natural cycles. Modern industry, with its assembly lines, demanded precision and uniformity. This industrial timetable was then imposed on schools, hospitals, government offices, and even social life. Public transportation became a crucial link, requiring synchronized national timetables (e.g., Britain’s adoption of Greenwich Mean Time in 1880). This led to the ubiquitous presence of cheap, precise clocks, making it nearly impossible not to know the exact time, and dictating almost every human activity to the minute.

The Collapse of Family and Community

The most momentous social revolution of the last two centuries was the collapse of the nuclear family and local community and their replacement by the state and the market. For millennia, families and intimate communities were the basic building blocks of human society, providing welfare, health, education, employment, and protection. Kings and empires rarely intervened in daily family/community affairs, lacking the means to do so. The Industrial Revolution, however, gave the market and state immense new powers and means of intervention.

The State-Market-Individual Pact

States and markets actively worked to weaken traditional family and community bonds, often facing resistance from parents. They made an “offer that could not be refused”: individuals were liberated from dependence on family/community and promised that the state and market would provide for all needs (food, shelter, education, health, welfare, employment, pensions, insurance, protection). Romantic literature’s portrayal of individuals struggling against the state/market is ironic, as the state and market are “the mother and father of the individual.” This liberation came at the cost of alienation and increased state/market power over individuals. While the nuclear family retains emotional functions, it faces increasing market influence (e.g., match-making, beauty standards) and state intervention (e.g., child protection, parental authority retreat).

Imagined Communities: Nations and Consumer Tribes

The emotional vacuum left by the collapse of intimate communities was filled by “imagined communities”: the nation (the imagined community of the state) and the consumer tribe (the imagined community of the market). Millions of strangers imagine belonging to the same community, sharing common pasts, interests, and futures. Nations, though often claiming natural and eternal origins, are largely modern constructs that became important only after the Industrial Revolution (e.g., arbitrarily drawn Middle Eastern nations). Consumer tribes (e.g., Madonna fans, vegetarians) are defined by shared consumption habits and interests, forming a core identity. These imagined communities, though existing only in collective imagination, wield immense power, fostering loyalty and willingness to sacrifice.

A Permanent State of Revolution

The revolutions of the last two centuries have created a social order in a state of permanent flux, with constant change being its only certainty. Every year is revolutionary, unlike premodern times when social structures were considered eternal. Modern politics promises to build a better world, constantly advocating reform. Despite this frantic pace of change, the late modern era has seen unprecedented levels of peace and tranquility, particularly in the seven decades since WWII. Violence has dramatically declined due to the rise of the state (reducing local feuds), the dramatically increased cost of war (nuclear weapons making superpower conflict suicidal), the decline in war’s profitability (wealth now human capital, not easily looted), and a global shift towards a peace-loving elite.

Pax Atomica: The Implausibility of War

The most significant change is the implausibility of full-scale international war. Since 1945, no UN-recognized independent country has been conquered and wiped off the map. While limited wars and civil conflicts persist, full-scale international wars between major powers are almost unimaginable (e.g., Germany vs. France). This “real peace” is maintained by the prohibitive cost of nuclear war, the shifting nature of wealth (human capital is not conquerable), and the increased profits of peace through global trade. The tightening web of international connections, leading to a global empire, further erodes national independence, enforcing world peace within its borders. Harari concludes that we are “on the threshold of both heaven and hell,” with history’s direction still undecided, but moving towards a future shaped by fundamental transformations in human consciousness and identity.

Chapter 19: And They Lived Happily Ever After

This chapter critically examines the elusive question of human happiness throughout history, challenging the assumption that increased power and material conditions necessarily lead to greater contentment.

The Elusive Quest for Happiness

Harari poses the fundamental question: Are we happier now? Have the breathtaking revolutions of the last 500 years translated into greater contentment for Homo sapiens, or did the 70,000 turbulent millennia since the Cognitive Revolution make the world a better place to live? Historians rarely ask these crucial questions, though most ideologies (nationalism, communism, capitalism) are based on implicit claims about human happiness.

Challenging the Progress-Happiness Link

The common progressive account that increased human capabilities lead to greater happiness is unconvincing. The Agricultural Revolution increased collective power but made individual lives harsher, with peasants working harder for less varied food, and facing more disease and exploitation. Similarly, European empires increased humankind’s collective power but caused immense misery for millions of Africans and Native Americans. Given humanity’s propensity for misusing power, it is naive to assume more clout equals more happiness. Conversely, the romantic view that technology isolates us from an inner hunter-gatherer joy is also dogmatic. Modern medicine’s drastic reduction in child mortality (from 33% to under 5%) has undeniably contributed to happiness.

The Nuanced View and Its Limitations

A more nuanced view suggests that before the Scientific Revolution, there was no clear link between power and happiness, but in the last few centuries, humans learned to use capacities more wisely, leading to achievements like the drop in violence and near elimination of famines. However, this is an oversimplification. The “golden age” is a very recent phenomenon (post-1850 for medicine, post-WWII for peace), based on a small sample of years. Also, these improvements may have sown seeds of future catastrophe, as we disturb ecological equilibrium through reckless consumption. Furthermore, this assessment often ignores the immense suffering inflicted on tens of billions of other animals by modern industrial agriculture, making it “the greatest crime in history” if animal-rights claims are even partly true.

Scientifically Measuring Happiness

In recent decades, psychologists and biologists have scientifically studied happiness, defining it as “subjective well-being” (a sense of immediate pleasure or long-term contentment). They use questionnaires to correlate happiness with objective factors like wealth, health, and social relations. Findings include:

• Money brings happiness only up to a point; for the poor, more money significantly increases happiness, but for the rich, a large increase has little long-term impact as expectations quickly balloon.
• Illness decreases short-term happiness but causes long-term distress only if constantly deteriorating or involving debilitating pain. People adapt to chronic illness if it doesn’t worsen.
• Family and community have more impact on happiness than money or health. Strong families and supportive communities significantly increase happiness, with marriage being particularly important. This suggests the collapse of family/community due to industrialization might offset material gains, leading to current alienation.

The Biological Perspective on Happiness

Biologists argue that happiness is primarily determined by a complex biochemical system (nerves, neurons, serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin), shaped by evolution to keep happiness levels relatively constant. Evolution does not select for happiness itself, only for behaviors that aid survival and reproduction (e.g., pleasure from sex is fleeting to encourage continued pursuit of mates). The human biochemical system is like an air-conditioning system set at a particular “set point” (e.g., level eight for cheerful people, level five for gloomy people), to which it always returns, despite external events like winning the lottery or severe illness.

Implications for History and the Pursuit of Happiness

From a biological perspective, history’s impact on happiness is minor, as most historical events do not change our biochemistry. The French Revolution, for instance, did not change French biochemistry, thus having little long-term impact on French happiness. This suggests that the “keys to happiness are in the hands of our biochemical system,” implying that manipulating our biochemistry (e.g., with drugs like Prozac) could make people happier than any political or social reform. This aligns with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, where happiness is the supreme value, and psychiatric drugs like “soma” ensure constant contentment.

Happiness as Meaning and Delusion

However, some scholars, like Daniel Kahneman, argue that happiness is not just a surplus of pleasant over unpleasant moments. Instead, it is seeing one’s life as meaningful and worthwhile, involving a cognitive and ethical component. This implies that medieval people, who believed in everlasting bliss in the afterlife, might have viewed their lives as more meaningful and therefore been happier than modern secular people facing “complete and meaningless oblivion.” Harari provocatively suggests that any meaning humans ascribe to their lives is a delusion, as human life has no inherent meaning from a purely scientific viewpoint. Thus, happiness might be “synchronising one’s personal delusions of meaning with the prevailing collective delusions.”

Knowing Thyself: Feelings vs. Truth

Modern liberal culture, which sanctifies individual subjective feelings, assumes individuals know best if they are happy. However, most religions and philosophies (e.g., temple of Apollo’s “Know thyself!”, Christian theologians) distrust feelings, viewing them as misleading (like heroin addiction). Buddhism, in particular, argues that the pursuit of fleeting pleasant feelings is the root of suffering. True happiness comes from understanding the impermanent nature of all feelings and stopping the craving for them. When this pursuit stops, the mind becomes relaxed and satisfied, experiencing profound serenity. This means happiness is not dependent on external conditions or even inner feelings, but on knowing the truth about oneself and the impermanence of all sensations. The biggest lacuna in understanding history is its failure to account for how all its events influenced individual happiness and suffering.

Chapter 20: The End of Homo Sapiens

This final chapter contemplates humanity’s future, suggesting that Homo sapiens is on the verge of transcending its biologically determined limits, replacing natural selection with intelligent design, and potentially transforming into something entirely new.

Transcending Biological Limits: Intelligent Design

Harari opens by asserting that Homo sapiens is now beginning to break the laws of natural selection, replacing them with the laws of intelligent design. For billions of years, all organisms evolved subject to natural selection, without conscious design (e.g., giraffe’s long neck). The first “crack” appeared with the Agricultural Revolution, when humans used selective breeding to design fatter, slower chickens. Today, in laboratories, scientists are engineering living beings, introducing completely new characteristics not present in wild genetic pools. An example is Eduardo Kac’s fluorescent green rabbit, Alba, created by implanting a jellyfish gene. This marks the dawn of a new cosmic era where life will be ruled by intelligent design, potentially reinterpreting human history as an apprenticeship for this transformation.

Three Paths to Engineered Life

The replacement of natural selection by intelligent design could happen in three ways:

1. Biological engineering: Deliberate human intervention to modify an organism’s shape, capabilities, needs, or desires (e.g., castration, sex change operations). Recent advances allow for unprecedented possibilities, like growing an “ear” of cattle cartilage cells on a mouse (1996), aiming for artificial organs for humans. Genetic engineering is creating frost-resistant potatoes (with Arctic fish genes), dairy cows with mastitis-resistant milk, and pigs with healthier fats (from worm genes). More controversially, geneticists have extended the life expectancy of worms sixfold and engineered “genius mice” with improved memory and learning.
2. Cyborg engineering: Combining organic and inorganic parts (e.g., humans with bionic hands, pacemakers, eyeglasses). We are on the brink of becoming true cyborgs, with inorganic features inseparable from our bodies, modifying our abilities, desires, personalities, and identities. Examples include DARPA developing cyborg insects for espionage, and the US Naval Undersea Warfare Center planning cyborg sharks for submarine detection. Humans are already being turned into cyborgs with bionic ears (cochlear implants), retinal prostheses for partial vision, and thought-operated bionic arms (like Jesse Sullivan’s), with the potential for vastly more powerful and detachable limbs.
3. Engineering of inorganic life: Creating completely inorganic beings, most notably through computer programs and viruses that undergo independent evolution (genetic programming). The Human Brain Project, funded by the EU, aims to recreate a complete human brain inside a computer, potentially leading to artificial human brains that can talk and behave like humans. This could mean life breaking out into the vastness of the inorganic realm, taking shapes beyond our wildest dreams.

The Singularity and Its Implications

Harari notes that while science fiction often portrays a future with Sapiens using advanced tech, the real potential of future technologies is to change Homo sapiens itself, including our emotions and desires. This could lead to a “new singularity”, a point where all concepts that give meaning to our world—me, you, men, women, love, hate—become irrelevant, and anything beyond that point is incomprehensible to us. This could result in future masters of the world being more different from us than we are from Neanderthals, potentially “godlike.”

The Frankenstein Prophecy

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) is seen as a prophetic myth: if not for catastrophe, technological development will lead to the replacement of Homo sapiens by completely different beings. This is disconcerting, as we prefer to imagine a future where humans like us travel in spaceships, not one where our species is replaced by alien life forms whose abilities dwarf our own. We find comfort in the idea that Dr. Frankenstein created a “monster” we had to destroy, implying humanity is the best of all beings and cannot be fundamentally improved. However, the future may involve engineers creating something truly superior to us.

What Do We Want to Become?

The precise future is unknown, but the idea of fundamental transformations in human consciousness and identity is what we should take seriously. The ethical and political implications are immense. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and modern medical programs, built on the equality of all humans, face new dilemmas if medicine shifts to enhancing human abilities. This could create the most unequal of all societies, where the pretensions of upper classes to be superior become an “objective reality” through bioengineering. Harari concludes that the question facing us is not “What do we want to become?”, but “What do we want to want?”—as we might soon be able to engineer our desires. The Gilgamesh Project (curing disease, prolonging life) serves as a justification for all scientific endeavors, making it impossible to stop Dr. Frankenstein’s transformative work.

Afterword: The Animal that Became a God

Harari concludes by reflecting on humanity’s journey from insignificant ape to potential god, and the paradox of our immense power alongside our persistent discontent and irresponsibility.

The Unfulfilled Promise of Progress

Seventy thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was an insignificant animal. Today, it stands on the verge of becoming a god, acquiring eternal youth and divine abilities of creation and destruction. However, Harari argues that the Sapiens regime on Earth has produced little to be proud of. Despite mastering our surroundings, increasing food production, building cities, empires, and trade networks, we have not necessarily decreased suffering in the world. Instead, massive increases in human power often caused immense misery to other animals and did not consistently improve the well-being of individual Sapiens.

The Precarious Present and Unknown Future

While the last few decades have seen real progress in the human condition (reduction of famine, plague, war), the situation of other animals is deteriorating rapidly, and humanity’s improvement is recent and fragile. Moreover, despite our astonishing capabilities, we remain unsure of our goals and discontented as ever. We have advanced technologically without knowing where we are going. We are more powerful than ever but have “very little idea what to do with all that power.”

Irresponsible Gods

Harari’s final, chilling thought is that humans seem to be more irresponsible than ever. As “self-made gods with only the laws of physics to keep us company,” we are accountable to no one. Consequently, we are “wreaking havoc on our fellow animals and on the surrounding ecosystem, seeking little more than our own comfort and amusement, yet never finding satisfaction.” The core danger lies in “dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want.” This serves as a potent warning about the profound implications of our trajectory.