9: The Arrow of History
From Harari — Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
This chapter starts a new part in the book that describes how humankind started a progression of unification. The author says that the shared myths explained at length in previous chapters leads to unification of groups of peoples, and ultimately to the entire human species.
The author charts an interesting course throughout human history. He explains that in the past, there were many isolated people groups throughout the world. This was due to a variety of factors, including plainly, human transportation technology (or lack thereof), and geography. So for example, people groups on an island were isolated from other groups. But as history unfolded, people groups came in contact with each other, and cultures started to blend. He argues that there really isn’t any “authentic” culture and he cites the example of food culture. He illustrates that many cuisines in the world actually borrow from ingredients that were not native to that people group.
The author observes that no others species is as social as humans. No individual chimpanzee cares about the entire species of all chimpanzees.
The author concludes the chapter saying he will dig into three specific concepts that contribute to this unification. They are money, religion, and politics (conquering empires).
It’s interesting to note that in our information-rich world today, it seems that we are super divided and that there is a lot of animosity and antagonism in the world. But perhaps, as the author argues, these are small in comparison to the arc of human history. In one version of the future, these are all just temporary blips. Eventually humanity will be united in a common culture and a way of life, and a political entity (a world government). In another version of the future, a more dystopian version, there will be failed nation states, and a lot of political strife. Perhaps the current feelings are just intensely magnified because it’s the first time in human history we are able to experience and observe much of the world due to communications technology.
