Hello Friends from Yuval Noah Harari’s Book Sapiens today we will learn how Humans after evolving from apes have become dominant species in world 2.5 million years ago in somewhere in East Africa Homosapiens evolved from Australopithecus (apes) Homo sapiens were not only species Many other species of Humans evolved at different places on Earth Like Homo Neanderthals evolved in Colder Regions of Europe Homo Erectus evolved in tropical region of Asia Homo Soloensis evolved in Indonesia and Java Islands and many other species evolved at many different places across globe but today Homo Sapiens (we humans) are only species available on earth our dominance started with advent of Cognitive Revolution Cognitive Revolution i.e Development of our Brains Homo Sapiens who lived in East Africa Use to wander place to place for food and shelter initially Homo Sapiens were only small part of food chain.
They use to hunt weaker animals Lion , Tiger and Sharks were on top of food chain But discovery of fire changed this position before discovery of fire Homo Sapiens use to eat Raw after hunting chewing and digestion of raw food takes more time that is why they had big teeth and large intestines to survive but relatively brain size was small after discovery of fire homo sapiens started cooking cooked food required less chewing and was easy to digest this led to evolutionary changes in homo sapiens their teeth and intestines both became smaller but their brain started growing due to growth of their brain their thinking capabilities also started improving with the use of their brain started cooperating better using sign language also they developed tools which can be used to kill stronger animals using their social abilities, improved brain and sign language sapiens started cooperating and killing stronger animals Cognitive revolution brought homo sapiens on top of food chain when homo sapiens came in contact with other species on earth according to scientist there are only two possibilities first interbreeding theory homo sapiens interbreed with other species and built relations with them or second extinction theory sapiens like any other animal killed them too whatever may be the truth today only one species of humans exist on earth that is homo sapiens i.e we humans increasing population pressure and search of food and with help of fire homo sapiens started migrating to colder regions they started to migrate towards Europe and Russia Mammoth elephants living in colder regions became extinct after some years after arrival of homo sapiens reason for extinction of bigger animals was they take long time to give birth and grow if sapiens killed one animal per week this may have led to extinction of those animals Sapiens migrated from Siberia to Alaska in summer season they migrated from Alaska to Northern plains of America then from North America to South America wherever Sapiens went many animals started becoming extinct after cognitive revolution next big transformation which came in life of Sapiens was Agricultural Revolution Agriculture started around same time in different parts of world wheat, rice and millet were grown near Turkey corn and beans in North America potatoes in South America millets in Africa rice and millets in China why did agriculture started in these regions only ? because domestic animals required for farming were available there like goats, pigs , bovines i.e cow and buffalo after 2000 years of Agriculture Revolution,
Homo Sapiens started agriculture everywhere and stopped hunting Farming requires great effort sow the seeds and water them on time after harvest crop has to be stored properly because of this sapiens started settling and their population also started growing initially when sapiens use to migrate in search of food and shelter bearing child was difficult but after start of agriculture its became easy for women to bear child and food to feed larger population also was now available because of agriculture but agriculture did not improve life of sapiens instead made them dependent and vulnerable before agriculture revolution sapiens use to eat meat, fruits and nuts after agriculture sapiens became dependent on some crops only before they use to work 30 hours per week after they started working 60 hours per week before they were not worried about climate agriculture made them dependent on climate also because of poor diet and contact with domestic animals unknown diseases started spreading among sapiens even though agriculture had so many disadvantages sapiens couldn’t go back to hunting and gathering transformation from hunting to agriculture was gradual and took many years sapiens became use to agriculture and forgot about hunting as means to survive now sapiens started planning for crops and became tensed if crops were destroyed for some reasons Sapiens achieved evolutionary success with increase in population but individual level they faced mostly suffering only before agriculture revolution sapiens had small groups and it was easy to cooperate among them but population increased drastically after agriculture revolution to cooperate among themselves in large numbers sapiens developed imagined reality or myths i.e beveling and following such things which do not exist like religion god, myth, laws and money religion and god had many stories and it became natural and obvious for sapiens to believe in them and it made cooperation among sapiens easy homo sapiens were now living in dual reality objective reality like nature , river , trees or animals imagined reality gods, nations and laws Homo Sapiens started giving more importance to imagined reality increasing population and settlement of humans led to many changes in society humans started fighting for property (land) to resolve and stop such fighting army was developed and someone was appointed as head of army who became ruler or king and since army was only meant for fighting tax collection started to feed army and since population was large so to manage them laws were made laws started increasing and administration became complex which led to development of hierarchy in society as society progressed their imagined myth became complex small cultures became mega cultures Empires developed to sustain mega cultures in order to make empire to built empires mediums are required to unite humans who follow different cultures there are three such mediums which still unite humans following different cultures humans follow money irrespective of their religion or culture initially barter system was used as medium of exchange that means if someone has apples other person has bread they both can exchange apple and bread but if society is large and number of goods is more barter system becomes more complex money was developed to solve this problem money became universal medium of exachange initially metal pieces were used as money then came gold and silver coins then coins with authority of king over it today authority of government in piece of paper is used as money rulers of empire and his/her army ruled over humans following different cultures and forced them to follow common law empires destroyed small cultures and developed mega cultures and many generations thereafter nobody remembered their original culture and they kept on following same mega culture even after empires disintegrated before arab muslim empire egypt , syria and iran had different local cultures,
17th century arab muslim rule started all local population started following arab muslim culture after disintegration of empire people continued to follow same till today second example India was ruled by Britishers for log time they forced their laws and systems on Indians even after their ruled ended in 1947 Indians use English language and follow administration set up by Britishers third religion after agriculture revolution when humans setelled they became dependent on climate for survival that is why if any disaster or disease came humans started praying to imagined gods initially these gods were local and related to nature like rain god , fertility god as society progressed number of gods increased which led to development of polytheism in society monotheism i.e believe in one god developed from polytheism Christianity and Islam both are monotheistic religion both are missionary in nature i.e their followers like to spread and propagate their religion earlier developed religions around 5th century BC based on natural laws rather than gods like Buddhism and Jainism question arises if religion is imagined entity they why people believe in it there are two main reasons first religion derives authority from super human powers and second humans find it easy to believe to cooperate together today’s global world ideologies are formed instead of religion which helps humans cooperate together like capitalism, communism and nationalism if you go to watch cricket or football match you don’t know everybody there but when goal is scored you celebrate along with them because you all belong to same nation form many years humans thought whatever is their in religion is right and they don’t need anything more to learn but this changed after 16/17 th century Europe became centre of scientific revolution that is because of two main reasons Europeans accepted their ignorance and they need to explore more capitalist started sponsoring their quest for knowledge simple methodology was adopted for research first observe then use observations to form conclusions and equations Newton used this method to derive Laws of Motion the thing which cannot be calculated exactly was expressed in terms of probability acturial science used in insurance industry is based on statistics and probability Europe’s quest for unknown was so strong that sailors started looking for sponsors for expeditions Columbus who was small time sailor demanded support to search for new continent finally rulers of Spain decided to sponsor his expeditions Columbus found American continent in his expedition and Spain became rich using raw materials of America thereafter expedition and sailing idea became a hit along with kings even common man started sponsoring such expeditions through joint stock exchanges these expeditions made Europeans rulers of the world it was not that rulers of Asia or China did not have technology for expeditions but Asian rulers were not interested in learning about other areas they did not had quest for knowledge like Europeans that is why they were left behind in exploring and ruling world before Industrial Revolution humans used wood for energy and heat after some time coal was being used as fuel major change came after discovery of steam engine when heat energy could be converted into motion mechanized production of goods started using this technology today’s society in which we are living its time table was set by Industrial Revolution many factories were setup during IR lakhs of people started working in those factories concept of 9 to 5 job was created during Industrial Revolution public transport was developed to transport people daily to job for unity in production and trade national time was established due to increase in number of goods a new problem came that was who will buy so many goods ? large number of population were workers having low salary humans developed yet another imagined order to solve this problem that was concept of credit that means even if you don’t have money today you can pay in future to convince people to buy product in credit philosophy of consumerism was developed innovative marketing campaigns were run people’s psychology was influenced in name of fashion Joint family structure was against philosophy of consumerism things are shared in joint families also people use to take opinion from family members before buying anything role of joint family was taken over by state earlier local community use to take care of health, security and education of humans state developed public schools developed hospitals for their health and police for their protection as a result people can survive anywhere leaving their joint family emotional campaigns like such campaigns started influencing humans which broke down family structure to nuclear family after achieving so many progress are humans happy ? today we have advanced communication tools but we are emotionally alone humans basic nature is of wanderer we are bonded to system against our basic nature till today our evolution was natural but technologies in future like all such technologies can change our evolution process can turn humans into super humans but yet again humans have to think will such technologies give humans happiness evolving from Africa today we are watching videos in our mobiles and laptops but question which has to be answered is are homo sapiens happy ?
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