In the book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari is your guide to becoming an expert on the whole history of the human race, covering everything from our earliest predecessors to our current dominant position in the globe. Even though our time on Earth has been brief, we have gone a long way. What measures did we take to achieve our current level of dominance over the planet? In his book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari examines each step that led us to this point. You'll learn about every aspect of our past that has shaped who we are, from language to money to science.
After early humans developed the ability to think and talk, agricultural advancements ushered in exponential population rise. Homo sapiens enjoyed several distinct advantages over other human species on the planet. The distinctions in our brains are the most important. This dates back to roughly 70,000 years ago when the Cognitive Revolution occurred. This was a period when brain development accelerated dramatically, distinguishing our forefathers. Homo sapiens may be able to outperform other human species thanks to their improved brains. Creating settlements, improving hunting gear, and establishing rudimentary trading networks made life and survival easier. The population rose in lockstep with the ability to communicate. Language distinguished our species from others by allowing us to freely transmit information. This allowed early people to teach one other about predators and food. Because humans could cooperate and adapt as a community, ideas diffused, allowing for even more advancement.
Money and writing enabled mankind to trade more efficiently, setting the stage for even more development. Humans become more efficient with their time and energy as a result of agriculture. Some people were able to start performing other things, such as weaving or blacksmithing, as a result of this. These individuals would then exchange or barter their commodities for food with farmers. It's easy to understand how possessing writing and money might significantly improve your situation. You can ensure that the farmer maintains his word if he needs to promise you a pig if you have the ability to document your transaction with him. If you don't have anything he needs, you can simply sell your knife for currency to complete the transaction.
Our current culture is the product of rapid technological and scientific advancements that occurred after our forefathers were able to trade and communicate more effectively. Our forefathers could think more now that they had efficient food, trading, and writing methods. This sparked a scientific revolution, with many people looking for methods to better their lives. Experimentation and exploration became commonplace, and huge advances in astronomy, physics, and medicine improved people's lives dramatically. Humans also regarded global expansion as a possibility. Governments that aided explorers and scientists saw their empires grow significantly. The voyages of Christopher Columbus to America and James Cook to the South Pacific are just two instances. Many explorations sparked rapid expansion in these areas, paving the groundwork for today's globalization.