33: An Animal of No Significance: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari – Part I Made You Think

Three important revolutions shaped the course of history: the Cognitive Revolution kick-started history about 70,000 years ago. The Agricultural Revolution sped it up about 12,000 years ago. The Scientific Revolution, which got under way only 500 years ago, may well end history and start something completely different. This book tells the story of how these three revolutions have affected humans and their fellow organisms.
Sapiens by Yuval Harari is one of those books that shapes how we think, as another lenses through which we can look at reality. It’s central theme is the evolution of Human History, and gives special importance to myths and shared ideologies. It explains how shared myths underlie human narrative and everything we find meaningful. There's a lot of power in these shared ideas because they end up regulating how a society and people function.
We cover a wide range of topics, including:
The power of shared myths and their impact in Human History The Cognitive, Agricultural, and Writing Revolutions Why Sam Harris and Jordan B Peterson quarrel each other Why Agriculture counterintuitively f****d us up Self-perpetuating ideas and cultures Ideas to reduce the wealth gap And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari!
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Antifragile by Nassim Taleb, about why hunters are in better shape than gatherers, and The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, another book that explains the influence of shared mythology.
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Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show Cryptocurrency [0:36] (theme episode) Age of Empires [11:55] Why everything might have taken so long [12:14] 23andMe [17:56] Aquatic Ape Theory [27:08] Zoroastrians [28:31] Ubermensch [41:41] Ancient data, modern math and the hunt for 11 lost cities of the Bronze Age [1:02:52] Pareto Distribution [1:25:08] Hardcore History Podcast by Dan Carlin [1:31:29] Books mentioned Sapiens by Yuval Harari (Nat’s Notes) Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennet [1:54] (book episode) Gödel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter [1:54] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Finite and Infinite Games [1:54] (Nat’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) The Selfish Gene [4:10] Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault [4:21] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Rare Earth [7:50] The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell [23:16] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Primitive Mythology by Joseph Campbell [28:41] What Every Body is saying by Joe Navarro [39:23] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) The Denial of Death [59:45] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant [1:25:45] Leverage Points by Donella Meadows [1:26:34] (article episode) The Sovereign Individual [1:30:33] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Emergency [1:30:33] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [1:33:15] People mentioned Yuval Noah Harari (official website) Adil Majid [0:36] (Crypto episode) Sam Harris [34:33] (Guns episode) Jordan B. Peterson [34:33] (on Twitter) (12 Rules episode) Nassim Nicholas Taleb [35:25] (Antifragile episode) Jocko [51:51] Peter Thiel [1:07:34] Stephen Hawking [1:08:58] Show Topics [1:29] The mechanism of shared myths where you end up doing what other people tell and reinforce about you scales very well to micro (relationship disputes) and macro levels (political movements).
[5:48] How meaningless we humans are as a species. Being just like another animal. The path to genetic and technical advantages. The role of fire that helps us consume less energy when digesting food. Energy that can go to our relative big brains.
[11:08] Agriculture seems to have sprung out all around the globe at the same time. The increasing pace of progression between ages. Domestication of wild plants and animals did not increase in the