[마이리뷰] Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Paperback)
Yuval Noah Harari / Perennial / 2018년 5월

That‘s why capitalism is called ‘capitalism‘. Capitalism distin-guishes ‘capital from mere ‘wealth’. Capital consists of money, goodsand resources that are invested in production. Wealth, on the otherhand, is buried in the ground or wasted on unproductive activities.
A pharaoh who pours resources into a non-productive pyramid isnot a capitalist. A pirate who loots a Spanish treasure fleet and buriesa chest full of glittering coins on the beach of some Caribbean islandis not a capitalist. But a hard-working factory hand who reinvestspartof his income in the stock market is. - P312

Over the last few years, banks and governments have been fren-ziedly printing money. Everybody is terrified that the currenteconomic crisis may stop the growth of the economy. So they are cre-ating trillions of dollars, euros and yen out of thin air, pumping cheapcredit into the system, and hoping that the scientists, technicians andengineers will manage to come up with something really big, beforethe bubble bursts. Everything depends on the people in the labs. Newdiscoveries in fields such as biotechnology andartificial intelligencecould create entire new industries, whose profits could back the tril-lions of make-believe money that the banks and governments havecreated since 2008. If the labs do not fulfil these expectations beforethe bubble bursts, we are heading towards very rough times. - P315

[마이리뷰] Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Paperback)
Yuval Noah Harari / Perennial / 2018년 5월

What potential did Europe develop in the early modern periodthat enabled it to dominate the late modern world? There are twocomplementary answers to this question: modern science andcapitalism. - P282

[마이리뷰] Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Paperback)
Yuval Noah Harari / Perennial / 2018년 5월

So why study history? Unlike physics or economics, history is nota means for making accurate predictions. We study history not toknow the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that ourpresentsituation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we con-sequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine.
For example, studying how Europeans came to dominate Africans en-ables us to realise that there is nothing natural or inevitable about theracial hierarchy, and that the world might well be arranged differently. - P241

Why did modern humans develop a growing belief in their abil-ity to obtain new powers through research? What forged the bondbetween science, politics and economics? This chapter looks at theunique nature of modern science in order to provide part of the answer.
The next two chapters examine the formation of the alliance betweenscience, the European empires and the economics of capitalism. - P250

The Scientific Revolution has not been a revolution of knowledge. Ithas been above all a revolution of ignorance. The great discovery thatthat humanslaunched the Scientific Revolution was the discoverydo not know the answers to their most important questions. - P252

[마이리뷰] Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Paperback)
Yuval Noah Harari / Perennial / 2018년 5월

Theist religions sanctify the gods. Humanist religions sanctifyhumanity, or more correctly, Homo sapiens. Humanism is a beliefthat Homo sapiens has a unique and sacred nature, which is funda-mentally different from the nature of all other animals and of allother phenomena. Humanists believe that the unique nature ofHomo sapiens is the most important thing in the world, and it deter-mines the meaning of everything that happens in the universe. Thesupreme good is the good of Homo sapiens. The rest of the world andall other beings exist solely for the benefit of this species. - P230

The main ambition of the Nazis was to protect humankind fromdegeneration and encourage its progressive evolution. This is why theNazis said that the Aryan race, the most advanced form of humanity,
had to be protected and fostered, while degenerate kinds of Homosapiens like Jews, Roma, homosexuals and the mentally ill had to bequarantined and even exterminated. The Nazis explained that Homosapiens itself appeared when one ‘superior population of ancienthumans evolved, whereas ‘inferior populations such as the Neander-thals became extinct. These different populations were at first nomore than different races, but developed independently along theirown evolutionary paths. This might well happen again. Accordingto the Nazis, Homo sapiens had already divided into several distinctraces, each with its own unique qualities. One of these races, theAryan race, had the finest qualities – rationalism, beauty, integrity,
diligence. The Aryan race therefore had the potential to turn maninto superman. Other races, such as Jews and blacks, were today‘sNeanderthals, possessing inferior qualities. If allowed to breed, andin particular to intermarry with Aryans, they would adulterate allhuman populations and doom Homo sapiens to extinction. - P232

[마이리뷰] Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Paperback)
Yuval Noah Harari / Perennial / 2018년 5월

Weare all responsible for each other, but not responsible for them.
We were always distinct from them, and owe them nothing. We don‘twant to see any of them in our territory, and we don‘t care an iotawhat happens in their territory. - P196

We can understand the decolonisation process of the last fewdecades in a similar way. During the modern era Europeans con-quered much of the globe under the guise of spreading a superiorWestern culture. They were so successful that billions of peoplegradually adopted significant parts of that culture. Indians, Africans,
Arabs, Chinese and Maoris learned French, English and Spanish. - P201

Cultural trends also spread with lightning speed. Almost every-where you go, you can eat Indian curry, watch Hollywood movies,
play English-style association football or listen to the latest K-pophit. A multi-ethnic global society is forming over and above theindividual states. Entrepreneurs, engineers, bankers and scholarsthroughout the world speak the same language and share similarviews and interests. - P207

1. Religion is an entire system of norms and values, rather thanan isolated custom or belief. Knocking on wood for good luck isn‘t areligion. Even a belief in reincarnation does not constitute a religion,
as long as it does not validate certain behavioral standards.
2. To be considered a religion, the system of norms and valuesmust claim to be based on superhuman laws rather than on humandecisions. Professional soccer is not a religion, because despite itsmany rules, rites and often bizarre rituals, everyone knows thathuman beings invented soccer themselves, and FIFA may at anymoment enlarge the size of the goal or cancel the offside rule. - P210