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Itās a bold move for Yuval Noah Harari to write a synopsis of all sapiens history.Ā He starts with a timeline of all history, even before humans existed. I wouldāve liked to highlight some of those events, but how do you choose important events reaching back to 13,800,000,000 years ago? The timeline begins at the Big Bang, the point at which the Newtonian laws of physics makes its first steps. I knew the age of the universe before reading this book, but itās still awe-inspiring when I consider it. Homo Sapiens is the scientific term for our own species (Iām assuming only Homo Sapiens are reading this), but the author points out that human refers to all species under the genus Homo. Other human species are Homo Erectus, Homo Neanderthalensis, and Homo Australopithecus. Harari focuses on the only species that arenāt extinct, Homo Sapiens.
This isnāt a book summary. Iād want people to try to read it on their own. I feel that doing a summary would stifle that goal. This post is just about the thoughts that this book inspired.
Creatio ex nihilo:
Thereās this Latin phrase we have in Christian circles: Creatio ex nihilo. It means creation out of nothing. It refers to God creating the universe out of void. The idea gets ridiculed a lot, but I think thereās something to it.
The book talks a lot about language. It points out that Homo Sapiens became dominant on earth because of complex language. Many animals have a simple language: apes have calls to warn others of predators, ants use chemicals to direct others to food, and birds sing to find mates during spring. But our complex language allows us to do more; we can share imaginations together. People around the world can unite around common ideas like religion, human rights, nations, and even sports teams. Iād have a hard time having a productive friendship with someone on the other side of the world, but we can work towards a goal if we share a common idea.
I brought up Creatio ex nihilo because, like the Christian God, humans use language to create. God speaks the universe into existence. He says, āLet there be light,ā and there is. Of course, humans create things like religion, economics, and psychology with language, but I think we also create things within ourselves. Thereās an old memory that shows itself in my mind often. My mom is driving us to a Burger King to pick up food. We order and wait in the car. She tells me to go inside to get the food once itās prepared. I do just that, bring the food back into the car, and crumble into tears. She asks me whatās wrong, but I can only express myself through raw emotion. Itās not that I didnāt know why, but I had no words for it.
I was sensitive to the way that my mom spoke to me. Her words felt harsh and took me by surprise. I was fine right before this event. I was comfortable and doing my own thing, and my momās words punched me right in the gut. It hurt me. She didnāt mean for it to, but it did.
Language defogged that memory and made it refined and new. Words helped me to categorize, reason, and discern to create a memory that I could understand so that itās no longer baggage on me. When God speaks, he creates material worlds. When we speak, we create worlds within our own conscience. That childhood memory became a bit more real to me when I used language to explain it. Creatio ex nihilo.
Admitting Ignorance:
Have you ever thought about what maps looked like before anyone had travelled across the world? They were actuallyā¦ full! Before the 1500s, not one person had made a trip across earth, but people still thought they knew what all the earth looked like. The direct surroundings were drawn well, but if any navigator used these world maps for long-distance travel, theyād get lost faster than Gen Zāers would without GPS. One of the most insightful things Harari points out is that the scientific revolution was sparked by an admission of ignorance about the universe. Humans said, āwe donāt know everything,ā and accepted that they could be proven wrong. That admission swung open the door to knowing more.
Welcoming our blindness led to unbelievable leaps in humanity. If a peasant living in 1000 AD time-travelled 500 years into the future to 1500 AD, heād feel the world is still familiar. If he jumped ahead another 500 years to 2000 AD, he might have a heart-attack from seeing metal boxes on wheels, moving lights on a hand-held rectangle, and how needlessly fancy brunch and coffee are. Here are some more examples Harari uses to put our world into perspective of the not-so-distant past:
A single battleship today could eradicate all the navies of the world during Columbusā time.
A small flash drive could hold all the scriptures in every medieval library.
A large bank contains more money than the wealth of all premodern kingdoms put together.
Weāve come a long a way only because we recognized how behind we were. Weāve got to know that weāre dumb to get smarter. Iām sure we could all use a healthy dose of honesty by admitting we donāt know the world as well as we think we do.
How to View Sin
This section might get more flak than the previous ones, but it connects with the Admitting Ignorance theme. People discovered that human knowledge was limited. With that discovery came a yearning to learn of what we didnāt know. If we have an incomplete map, wouldnāt you want to adventure to complete it? The thought reminds me of the Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You start the game with this map:
You eventually want to get to this:
(The red outline marks that map that you start with).
Thereās a desire to dive into the unknown parts of the map. However, the real world is not as black and white as Zeldaās world. Instead of harming goblins and Ganon, people often harmed each other in the process of exploration. Imperialism and conquest. These arenāt fun words today. Theyāre sin in todayās world (which is right to a certain extent). But the results of these sins arenāt all bad.
The Indus Valley civilization is one of the earliest human civilizations that we know of. Evidence tells us that it existed from about 3300 BC to 1300 BC (a whopping 2000 years!) and was located around northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. The remnants of these people were first discovered around the 1920s. Will anyone debate that this isnāt a wonderful discovery? Is it not a good thing that we know more about human history from this ancient culture? Of course, itās good! The thing is no one cared much for the Indus Valley ruins until British rule came to India. None of the Indian rulers or sultans of ages past had records of what the Indus Valley civilization was. The people who lived there would pass by the relics regularly but pay them no mind. It was a Brit who took an interest in Indian history and started the Archaeological Survey of India. That led to the research and preservation of the Indus Valley civilization artifacts. In this case, imperialism and conquest partook in the unearthing and conservation of this extinct culture.
Is there right and wrong? Iām certain the world would be worse if there werenāt, but life is complicated. Right and wrong must be clear and defined. At the same time, individual humans arenāt clear and defined. Bad actions can lead to good things, and good actions can lead to bad things. Iām sure we can all think of a bad experience that made us stronger people. Sin is always bad. People are always a combination of good and bad. I donāt think we should accept the bad actions people do. However, I do think we should try to understand why people do them and what results from them.
Conclusion ā 2021
I started working on this essay way before the end of 2020, and I started reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind waaaaay before that. I didnāt intend on writing this at the end of the year, but here we are. All in all, this book made the world seem bigger and my own time feel shorter. For me, that means taking on a humbler position going into 2021. What does it mean for you?
When I was in middle school, my English teachers would give their classes these booklets with lists of novels that students could purchase. My parents bought me lots of books, some that I read and the majority that I ignored (pretty much what happens today when I buy books for myself). One set of stories that never failed to devour my time was Calvin and Hobbes. This comic nourished my personality and sense of humor.
Itād take too much time on my part and attention on your part to cover all the things that I adore about the adventures of these two. Iām condensing my admiration down so that itās a bit more manageable.Ā
Reality vs. Reality
Hobbes is real, but heās real in a different way to Calvin than he is to the rest of the world. For Calvin, Hobbes really is a separate individual whoās his friend. For the rest of the world, Hobbes really is a just a doll. In the strip above, he mangled and stole from Calvin. As much as he would try to explain that to his mom, she would never believe him. Hobbes is just a doll, so Calvinās story isnāt possible. Both are true. This is liberating, but also a bit tragic for the blonde misfit. Itās liberating because he has a friend that he can bicker, laugh, and experience life with. Hobbes is enough, and no one can blemish that friendship. Itās tragic because he locks the door for understanding between him and others. No one can convince him that heās just an inanimate toy. Since no one can blemish his friendship with Hobbes, no one will truly be able to understand him.
Being
Some of my favorite strips are when Calvin is just himself. When heās hammering nails into the coffee table, heās the most Calvin he can be. Heās not performing for or trying to impress anyone. Heās not limited by social norms or politeness. He just sees what he wants to do and goes for it. Social norms are the backbone of any relationship, but, you gotta admit, the blatant honesty of this kidās actions are refreshing.
The Ordinary is Extraordinary
Much of life is mundane, but thatās the exact reason he builds his own worlds within it. Like lots of kids, Calvin hates school because it cages him from all the other things heād rather be doing. That doesnāt change the fact that heās gotta get through it somehow. So, he gets through it by creating his own fun. His imagination thrives and makes any situation special. He doesnāt need anything fancy to have fun. I like that a lot because materialism (attaining happiness through external objects) is big these days. Thereās some truth to that, of course. Thereās no replacement for food that melts your brain or jumping out of a plane for fun. But thereās something to respect about a person whoās able to be rich or poor and still be happy.
I like words and language. Like a lot. I didnāt know how to express myself when I was younger, but words gave me that ability. The way I feel about words is the way I think many people feel about music: it inspires within them what they didnāt know was there; it spiritualizes their life experiences; it unifies them with others by bringing an understanding of feelings.
The world started to make sense when I wrote about it. My emotions were no longer a mystery. Peopleās actions had causes and motivations. Wisdom from ages past had good reason for lasting so long.
Thereās two main reasons Iām starting this blog: Keep track of my reading and meet a new community. I want to read, but I have a hard time starting to read. I get distracted, so Iām hoping this is a good way to store my thoughts about nuggets of knowledge I find. Iām also interested in whoās out there. The internet is a bizarre phenomenon thatās allowed everyone to connect with nearly everyone else. Iād like to take advantage of that opportunity.
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