Book Name : Sapiens
Author : Harari Y.N.
What is it about : The history of our species from low-life, run-of-the-mill incognitive organisms with a burgeoning imagination to tax-paying, smartphone-carrying individuals, living in nation states drawn up with self-imagined (Common Delusion would be the term used in the author's volcabulary) boundaries and capable of sending space probes to faraway planets. The book covered the series of revolutions, reformations and -isms which brought us here - cognitive, agriculture, religious, industrial, scientific, information, capitalism, colonialism, socialism, communism, liberalism, to name a few. Towards the end of the book, the author drilled down to the very important and relevant question - have these human achievements and failures in our history, influenced the happiness and sufferings of our species. It is high time that we gain some understanding in this aspect of the history of Sapiens. The book ended with thought-provoking predictions and scenarios of the human species at last playing the role of Intelligent Designers (self-gods) - curing illnesses and maladies affecting us and perhaps anti-aging gene therapy might provide us with the ultimate elixir of eternal life and even turning ourselves into the new Frankenstein's.
Some thoughts after having read the book : The author's mastery of the subject-in-hand proved irresistable reading and he had full command of his briefs. And what a story ! Great credit should go to the author for being the Generalist (with a capital G) as he weaved through tidily and logically thousands of years of human artefacts, behaviour patterns and historical imprints. He then corroborated these findings with the latest anthropology theories with a large dose of deeply provoking and insightful interpretation and philosophical constructs ! The book also sent alarm bells ringing with our experiments with cyborgs, human consciousness and genetics engineering, ending the book with the searching question : Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible self-gods who don't know what they want ?
Would I recommend this book to you : And there you have it, a highest of all highest level summary of the history of our species. Highly enjoyable and informative.
