"Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" Reading Notes#
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Reading Duration: 0 hours
These are the notes and excerpts I recorded while reading "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" on WeChat Reading.
Preface: 10th Anniversary of "Sapiens"#
Thousands of years ago, the Buddha said that the world is a dream and an illusion. Indeed, nations, deities, companies, money, ideologies—all are collective illusions that we create and believe in, and human history is ruled by them. In the age of artificial intelligence, the stories we believe in are more important than ever because we have more powerful technologies to pursue fantasies.
We live in a prison of thought invented by people very different from us long before we were born.
Thousands of years ago, the Buddha said that the world is a dream and an illusion. Indeed, nations, deities, companies, money, ideologies—all are collective illusions that we create and believe in, and human history is ruled by them. In the age of artificial intelligence, the stories we believe in are more important than ever because we have more powerful technologies to pursue fantasies.
We live in a prison of thought invented by people very different from us long before we were born.
Recommended Preface#
Because once people discover that history can prove that happiness is not a constant state and that contentment leads to true joy, realize that our past understanding of happiness may have been wrong, and that the obsessive pursuit of pleasure may only lead to pain, we may then move towards a true understanding of ourselves and know what we truly want.
Because once people discover that history can prove that happiness is not a constant state and that contentment leads to true joy, realize that our past understanding of happiness may have been wrong, and that the obsessive pursuit of pleasure may only lead to pain, we may then move towards a true understanding of ourselves and know what we truly want.
Chapter Two: The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil#
However, all of the above actually only exists in the stories that humans invent and tell each other. Apart from existing in the shared imagination of humanity, there are no gods, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice in this universe.
When discussing the relationship between biology and history after the cognitive revolution, we can summarize it into three points: 1. Essentially, biology sets basic limits on the behavior and abilities of Homo sapiens, such as defining a range of activities, and all history occurs within this range. 2. However, this range is very large, allowing Homo sapiens to have various astonishing spaces for expression. Because they have the ability to create fictional stories, they can create more and more complex games, which are passed down and continuously developed over generations. 3. Therefore, to understand the behavior of Homo sapiens, one must describe the historical evolution of human behavior. Just considering the biological limitations of humans is like reporting on a World Cup football match today while only continuously reporting information about the venue and saying nothing about what the players actually did.
However, all of the above actually only exists in the stories that humans invent and tell each other. Apart from existing in the shared imagination of humanity, there are no gods, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice in this universe.
When discussing the relationship between biology and history after the cognitive revolution, we can summarize it into three points: 1. Essentially, biology sets basic limits on the behavior and abilities of Homo sapiens, such as defining a range of activities, and all history occurs within this range. 2. However, this range is very large, allowing Homo sapiens to have various astonishing spaces for expression. Because they have the ability to create fictional stories, they can create more and more complex games, which are passed down and continuously developed over generations. 3. Therefore, to understand the behavior of Homo sapiens, one must describe the historical evolution of human behavior. Just considering the biological limitations of humans is like reporting on a World Cup football match today while only continuously reporting information about the venue and saying nothing about what the players actually did.
This article was automatically generated by the WeRead-xLog synchronization tool.