But that Cognitive Revolution. Suddenly, 70,000 years ago, humans became “as intelligent, creative, and sensitive as we are”. Suddenly, people could have understood quantum physics.pic.twitter.com/xitoUkqAlL
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But that Cognitive Revolution. Suddenly, 70,000 years ago, humans became “as intelligent, creative, and sensitive as we are”. Suddenly, people could have understood quantum physics.pic.twitter.com/xitoUkqAlL
Not very likely. Many forager peoples have numbering systems consisting of "one, two, many". Paul Dirac is going to be able to lecture to them on quantum physics?
In any case, his 70,000 date is based on when he thinks modern humans began leaving Africa. There's now evidence modern humans were in Asia long before that. Human cognitive evolution is a lot more complicated than one Revolution that suddenly turned everyone from dumb to smart.
Thanks to the big brain everyone suddenly acquired in the Cognitive Revolution, humankind escaped from the realm of biology into the realm of culture. Maybe it would be better to say that BOTH culture AND biology have been important, both before and after this event?pic.twitter.com/1is6A5Q3EA
Harari's understanding of culture is questionable. He thinks of it as fictions or myths (not eg as norms). Why do people cooperate? Harari thinks it is because of fictions/mythspic.twitter.com/uivLf0opuE
According to Harari, fictions and myths are what allow humans to rule the earth. He seems to discount such parts of culture as knowledge or norms/rules/laws. Everything is fictional.pic.twitter.com/1r133U9FVe
Next comes the Agricultural Revolution. Harari echoes Jared Diamond, who has called it mankind's biggest mistake, by claiming it was history's biggest fraud. (I will say he does not idealize hunter-gatherers.)pic.twitter.com/6PXH6cYOYV
To say that "plants domesticated Homo sapiens" is a funny comment on how their genes have spread, but it is not an explanation of the origins of farming
Was agriculture such a big fraud or mistake? This thread has already gotten longer than I intended, so I will pause and return tomorrow.
The main gain from farming was permanent settlement (some lucky foragers along salmon rivers already had it). With settlement you can build a religious site, develop craft manufacturing, build a defensive palisade. So it is not all fraud or error.
Harari claims that scholars used to think of cultures as completely unchanging (strawman alert!). He asserts they are constantly in flux (is this a new orthodoxy?). Wouldn't it be more reasonable to say that there is both continuity and change?pic.twitter.com/Eart9QotZl
Harari has a lengthy section arguing that the trend of history is towards ever-greater unity, and he cites things like inter-connection, globalization, mixing of cuisines. Here again he is one-sided and exaggerated. There are also many kinds of division and disconnection.pic.twitter.com/3k0YAd6pt3
In Sapiens, Harari does not give a role to geniuses or mega-agents, individuals who had a large impact on history. Constantine, without whom there would probably have been no spread of Christianity, is unmentioned. So is Ashoka, who ensured the spread of Buddhism.
*Correction: Constantine is mentioned briefly. But the general importance of major agents is not at all a theme of the book.
Next: Harari's third big leap, the Scientific Revolution.
Apparently Europe is a mere peninsula of "Afro-Asia" (
no, "Afro-Asia" is not a thing) and had "played no important role in history" (
fashionable denigration of Europe)pic.twitter.com/1ra7d1e4HT
"No important role"
-secular legal systems;
-exploring the world;
-massive printing/publishing; -
-individual rights, rule of law, and political representation;
-artistic experimentation; ...
He may be right to regard the Scientific Revolution, not the Industrial Revolution, as the key event. David Wootton found a link from Denis Papin (scientist) to Thomas Newcomen (steam engine inventor), via Papin's obscure book on pressure. Wootton: https://logarithmichistory.wordpress.com/2019/11/10/steam-engine-time-4/ …pic.twitter.com/S7mV3UAzSq
The book is David Wootton, The Invention of Science. It has some good info, but I cannot recommend: it is very long (800 pages), repetitive, and digressive. Also, zero comparative content on why science arose in Europe as opposed to elsewhere.
In the book's final sentences, Harari starts finger-wagging, chiding us for:
--being discontented, irresponsible, and unsatisfied
;
--not knowing our goals or direction or "what we want" (= "you ignorant people don't want what you should want"
)pic.twitter.com/064gLukAMI
End of thread! If there's a better short, popular guide to history, I'm not aware of it. Eventually I hope @razibkhan will write one 
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