A Triptych - Humanity, Its Future, and Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens, Home Deus, and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
It’s been a pleasure to read Harari’s three works all together. His is an epic roadmap of humanity’s past development, present over-idealization of itself, and our potential future. Though he too is drawn to the dystopic conditions present and future, and the panorama of our evolution or descent, depending on how you look at it, his work is still deeply satisfying.
Though animal-like humans began to appear 2.5 million years ago, it was the formation of cultures representing early society 70 thousand years ago, that precipitated our exit from Eden. Still, we did well together until we developed a taste for farming about 12 thousand years ago. It was then that “wheat, potatoes, and rice domesticated us.” And farming requires land. My land or your land?
A little genocide coupled with certain climate conditions, and Sapiens (2015) may have wiped out our cousins, Neanderthal and Erectus. Just prior to that family reunion, all the cousins participated in the extinction of the large beasts that little expected puny humans to be so aggressive, swift, and imaginative. Humans went from midway up the food chain to top predator - something we still celebrate on social media today.
If fake news takes a toll on our current social structures it’s because gossip, creative or true, helped to form ancient human connections within certain groups. Mean girls and aggressive soldiers were still considered the cool kids and could make or break the tribe. Somewhere in this mix, somebody decided a few gods would keep everyone in line and explain why crops failed and messing around with your neighbor was not part of committed social well-being. Only mankind fell for this - the animals were too rational.
“A monkey will not give you his banana simply because you promise him many bananas in a monkey heaven.” Harari
The ability to trade with far-flung neighbors, our own Cognitive Revolution, an Imagined Reality, and our instinct to form collaborative groups with socio-political codes brought Sapiens to the top of their game. You don’t even want to know about the carnage in early Australia. When man arrives, animals tend to disappear in large numbers, perhaps even completely.
Yes, I said, “man.” Because the need at the time was for strength; in defense, land grabbing, and animal hunting, men became celebrated for their prowess. Women, though able to sustain greater levels of fatigue, illness, and long-term strength, and oh, that Baby Thing, were relegated to second level citizens, unfairly and without change in most societies around the world.
Our greed increased global trade and voila, the specialist and expert was born. No longer was everyone able to skin an animal, create tools, and build boats. Increased trade was good, right? Well, then the Disease Thing followed. Tribes that had been happily tucked away were introduced to new bad habits, spicy food, and different ways of thinking about humanity, inter-group violence, and knowledge.
Are we happier now than the hunter/gatherers? We invented religion to explain things we could not, tortured people because our imaginary friends were a blood thirsty and vengeful lot, and killed anyone who knew more than our tribe did after stealing their technology. Smug is an unhappy, precarious position.
In his book, Homo Deus (2017), Harari holds up a mirror, and it’s not good. Those inner voices and self-talk are making us do things. These things we say: it’s better to pass the course than understand what you studied, books are NOT bits of transient information to be considered and examined, and if we distort reality we gain the home advantage, are unwisely considered good for boundaries. Better still, if we talk about spirituality and our soul as we perpetrate crimes, ethical consideration becomes sanctified nostalgia.
Now, technology wants to know how we feel. How do we feel about those pants we bought online? How do we feel about a war governments wage at home and abroad based on things we barely think about? Okay, but they don’t want to know our real feelings. Real feelings throw off the data. And it’s really our data that is wanted here.
Turns out while we were buying homes and automobiles, others were buying our data. A small community knows everything about one another and a global society wants the exponentially same information and power. When we throw in a few game changers: nationalism, extreme religion, and inhumane cultural practices, the gossip really begins to fly.
Harari says, in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018) that if someone is trying to fool us, we are smarter for knowing that, and for looking deeply into the motivation as much as the message. The statement becomes more about the aggressor/oppressor than us. We do not have to be persuaded to do and feel those things we do not. It’s about clarity, truth, and collective courage.
Please rethink the axiom that all cultures deserve respect, Harari asks. They do not. Many exhibit such malevolence against their own people and others that the importation of some culture’s practices would change the “such and such day” parade in horrible ways. Terrorists may kill on a small scale based on world populations, but their primary purpose is to create fear and drive large numbers of people into hiding or submission.
If you were required to join one of two existing teams, “collective intelligence” or “collective stupidity” where would you find yourself? Find the manipulators but don’t judge everyone too harshly. Fake news is by its very nature, built to last longer and spread further. It’s compelling and easy. Instead, keep reading, keep asking, and always compare. As you’re doing this, Harari, asks us to develop a meditative, contemplative stance in all dealings. Citizen be (calmly) aware!
Harari, Y. (2018). 21 lessons for the 21st century New York, NY: Spiegel & Grau.
Harari, Y. (2017). Homo deus: A brief history of tomorrow. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Harari, Y. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of mankind. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
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