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    Sapiens – Summarized for Busy People: A Brief History of Humankind: Based on the Book by Yuval Noah Harari
    Sapiens – Summarized for Busy People: A Brief History of Humankind: Based on the Book by Yuval Noah Harari
    Sapiens – Summarized for Busy People: A Brief History of Humankind: Based on the Book by Yuval Noah Harari
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    Sapiens – Summarized for Busy People: A Brief History of Humankind: Based on the Book by Yuval Noah Harari

    By Goldmine Reads

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    About this ebook

    This book summary is created for individuals who want to flesh out the important contents and are too busy to go through the entire original book. This book is not intended to replace the original book.

    In Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, renowned historian Yuval Noah Harari chronicles both the creation and evolution of humankind. Harari recounts the manner in which both history and biology have defined and enriched our understanding of what truly being "human" means.  

    At least six different human species inhabited Earth 100,000 years ago. Today, only one remains: the Homo sapiens. What had become of the others? What would become of us?

    Unlike most books that either utilize a biological or a historical approach in narrating the history of humankind, Sapiens opens at the dawn of modern cognition approximately 70,000 years ago. From how human evolution has played a part in transforming the world's ecosystem to how empires and civilizations arose, Harari integrates science and history to reexamine generally accepted ideologies, link developments in the past to the matters of the present, and evaluate detailed events in a much wider perspective.

    The laws of natural selection that have governed life and evolution in the past four billion years have been overridden by humankind in only a few decades. Harari's Sapiens compels us to look forward and consider what the future holds for humankind.

    We are entering a new age—an era where humans can not only successfully shape the world but also shape themselves. Where does this lead humankind? More importantly: what do you want to become?

    Wait no more, take action and get this book now!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGoldmine Reads
    Release dateJun 17, 2018
    ISBN9781386983781
    Sapiens – Summarized for Busy People: A Brief History of Humankind: Based on the Book by Yuval Noah Harari

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      Book preview

      Sapiens – Summarized for Busy People - Goldmine Reads

      EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

      Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind maps out the emergence of Homo sapiens from the human evolutionary tree, starting from when they first appeared 2.5 million years ago up to this day. Harari also discusses the important questions pertaining to the uniqueness of our species and the level of happiness we have achieved over the millennia. Harari describes in Part One how our species branched out from our great ape relatives. He points out that humans are no different from fruit flies or chimpanzees—we’re all part of the animal kingdom, and we’re all under the same laws of nature and biology. Harari also draws in Part One the image that humans are hunters and gatherers. He further explains that to understand the ambitions and anxieties present in the 21st century, it is vital to understand the primitive culture of humankind.

      In Part Two, Harari discusses the first episode of prehistoric human life as well as the Agricultural Revolution. He probes the history of empires and writing, and he emphasizes that the brains of humans today are no more complex than the brains of humans 10,000 years ago.

      In Part Three, Harari describes how systems for currency and economy, as well as institutions like religion and the government were developed. He also states that throughout history, culture has proven to be an extremely heavy influence on the laws of evolution.

      In the last section of Sapiens, Harari tackles the Scientific Revolution as well as the 500-year period of unparalleled human progress that has initiated a massive upscale around the world. Harari contends that all of history is flowing towards the rise of a singular global empire and the eventual downfall of the local community and even the basic family unit. Harari also ventures in the final chapter the possibility of artificial intelligence that could change the very fiber of Homo sapiens as a species.

      Sapiens provides refreshing insight and gives opportunities to ponder about what could have been of our species under different circumstances and what the future holds for the entirety of humankind.

      PART ONE: THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION

      Chapter 1: An Animal of No Significance

      The term species in biology signifies animals that mate within their group and produce offspring. The term genus, on the other hand, signifies species that have evolved from one shared ancestor. A donkey and a horse, for example, do not belong to a single species. They do, however, come from a single ancestor, and so they are said to belong in the same genus. Latin names are used for classifying animals. The name of the species comes after the name of the genus. For humans, the Latin name is Homo sapiens—the species sapiens comes from the genus Homo.

      Modern humans or Homo sapiens belong to the family of great apes. Humankind’s closest relatives are the chimpanzees. 6 million years ago, a female ape gave birth to both a chimpanzee and a human. Scientists have concurred that humans, not just the modern ones, have first emerged in East Africa just 2.5 million years ago. Roughly 500,000 years after the evolution of humans from the Southern Ape, a group left East Africa and went on to inhabit North Africa, Asia, and Europe. These geographic locations each have an environmental condition different from the other, so the primitive humans who settled there and in other areas of the world all evolved into different species. All species possess a distinct set of characteristics that suit the environment they inhabit. Humans who migrated to East Asia evolved into the Homo erectus (Upright Man). The others who settled in the western parts of Asia and Europe evolved into the Homo neanderthalensis or the Neanderthals. The ancestors of Homo sapiens did not live through a time line, one consecutively evolving from the other. Rather, our ancestors lived and evolved simultaneously, so the exact number of human species that have existed at a single period is yet to be known. Just like how there are multiple species of dogs and cats existing simultaneously in this modern era, there once had been as many human species.

      There are certain characteristics and

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