My Book Review > "Sapiens. A Brief History of Mankind", by Yuval Noah Harari

« Seventy thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was still an insignificant animal minding its own business in a corner of Africa. In the following millennia it transformed itself into the master of the entire planet and the terror of the ecosystem. Today it stands on the verge of becoming a god, poised to acquire not only eternal youth, but also the divine abilities of creation and destruction”.

‘Sapiens: a brief history of humankind’ focuses on the successive revolutions which, from the Cognitive revolution (70000 years ago) to the Agricultural revolution (10000 years ago) and the Industrial and Techno-scientific revolutions changed mankind, its cultures, and its societies. Even more importantly, through the theme of evolution of Homo Sapiens, this book asks whether the process proved to be positive or not; are people really happier than before? What is / what means happiness? Does ‘progress’ means happiness?

Considering that there are only two possible scenario, i.e. total destruction, or continued progress, “the pace of technological development will soon lead to the replacement of Homo Sapiens by completely different beings”; “what we should take seriously is the idea that the next stage of history will include not only technological and organizational transformations, but also fundamental transformations in human consciousness and identity”.

To sum up: “we have advanced from canoes to galleys to steamships to space shuttles – but nobody knows where we’re going. We are more powerful than ever before, but have very little idea what to do with all that power”.

Yes, indeed: Yuval Noah Harari’s ‘Sapiens’ is a very good and interesting book, one of the most thought provoking I have read!