Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari quotes
P 6 Just fascinating facts regarding different speciesthe human genome. We, the sapiens, weren't always that special.
" The more eastern regions of Asia were populated by Homo erectus, "upright man", who survived there for close to 2 million years, making it the most durable human species ever."
P 14-15 Harari presents the two opposing theories as to what happened when the Sapiens encountered other human theories. The first theory could potentially lead to some explosive racial theories, and the second will make people wonder if violent tribalism is inextirpable from Sapiens nature.
" according to the interbreeding theory, when sapiens spread into Neanderthal lands, sapiens bred with Neanderthals until the two populations merged. If this is the case, then today's Eurasians are not pure sapiens. They are a mixture of sapiens and Neanderthals. Similarly, when sapiens reached east Asia, they interbred with the local erectus, so the Chinese and Korean or a mixture of sapiens and erectus. The opposing view, called the "replacement theory" tells a very different story - one of incompatibility, revulsion, and perhaps even genocide. According to this theory, sapiens and other humans had different anatomies, and most likely different meeting habits and even body odors. They would've had little sexual interest in one another. And even if a Neanderthal Romeo and a sapiens Juliet fell in love, they could not produce fertile children, because the genetic gulf separating the two populations was already unbridgeable. The two populations remain completely distinct, and when the Neanderthals died out, or were killed off, their genes died with them. According to this view, sapiens replaced all the previous human populations without merging with them. If that is the case, the lineages of all contemporary humans can be traced back, exclusively, to East Africa, 70,000 years ago. We are all "pure sapiens"." P 14-15
P 32 Harari speaks of "imagined reality." This relates to a lot of things— religion, historical pride, social narratives— many things that are so strongly permeated throughout society that they nearly convert into axioms. Is it good to uphold truth at all costs? Should someone always point out the that The emperor is naked? Also, it is important to assess the effects of diffusing such myths. Do they lead to the prosperity of society, or do they perpetuate division and animosity? Not all myths are the same. That being said, as Batman says, "sometimes truth isn't good enough; sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded."
" unlike lying, an imagined reality is something that everyone believes in, and as long as this communal belief persists, the imagined reality exerts force in the world." P 32
P 25 Harari explains Sapien dominance, the power of myths, the power that Sapiens wield in their ability to cooperate and work collectively within society, forming institutions, companies, and other social constructs.
"However, fiction has enabled us to not merely imagine things, but to do so collectively. We can weave common myths such as the biblical creation story, the dream time myths of aboriginal Australians, and the nationalist myths of modern states. Such myths give sapiens the unprecedented ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers. Ants and bees can also work together in huge numbers, but they do so in a very rigid manner and only with close relatives. Wolves and chimpanzees cooperate far more flexibly than ants, but they can only do so with small numbers of other individuals that they know intimately. Sapiens can cooperate in extremely flexible ways with countless numbers of strangers. That's why sapiens rule the world, whereas ants eat our leftovers and chips are locked up in zoos and research laboratories." P 25
P 9 Harari explains how for hundreds of millennia, Homo sapiens were a mediocre species, whose brains served them very little in an environment that demanded strength, speed, deftness, and other physical advantages. They paid a high cost to be smart in a milieu where being smart didn't get you very far.
"In Homo sapiens, the brain accounts for about 2 to 3% of total body weight, but it consumes 25% of the body's energy when the body is at rest. By comparison, the brains of other apes require only 8% of rest time energy. Archaic humans paid for their large brains in two ways. Firstly, they spent more time in search of food. Secondly, their muscles atrophied. Like a government diverting money from defense to education, humans diverted energy from biceps two neurons. It's hardly a foregone conclusion that this is a good strategy for survival on the Savannah. A chimpanzee can't win an argument with a Homo sapiens, but the eighth can rip the man apart like a ragdoll." P 9
P 16. Harari cites a 2010 study that mapped the Neanderthal genome, which demonstrates that indeed both the interbreeding and replacement theory have grains of truth. My own personal note: race must be distinguished from genes. Neanderthals varied from dark brown to olive skinned to white, but none were Sapiens.
"It turned out that 1 to 4% of the unique human DNA of modern populations in the Middle East and Europe is Neanderthal DNA. That's not a huge amount, but it's significant. A second shock came several months later, when DNA extracted from the fossilized finger from Denisova was mapped. The results proved that up to 6% of the unique human DNA of modern Melanesians and aboriginal Australians is Denisovan DNA." P 16
P 22-23 Harari relays an interest theory which explains the cognitive revolution of Homo sapiens, witnessing innovations such as boats, oil lamps, bows and arrows and needles (essential for sewing warm clothing) as well as mythical creatures. This all occurred in the relatively short period of 40,000 years. The sophistication of their language had skyrocketed.
"Our language evolved as a way of gossiping,. According to this theory, Homo sapiens is primarily a social animal. Social cooperation is our key for survival and reproduction. It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of Lions and Bison. it's much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." P 22-23
P 10 Harari describes the consequences of walking upright, including supporting that hefty cranium, which induces back and head aches, and for women, the difficulty of being agile (with narrow hips) and at the same time giving birth (tighter birth canal).
"Women paid extra. An upright gait required narrower hips, constricting the birth canal - and this just when the babies' heads were getting bigger and bigger. Death in childbirth became a major hazard for human females. Women who gave birth earlier, when the infants brain and head were still relatively small and supple, fared better and lived to have more children. Natural selection consequently favorite earlier births." P 10
