Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As the book’s title states, this is a history of humankind that starts from the beginning 70,000 years ago, and ends with his pessimistic view on our future. Some may dispute that it is “brief” as it is 469 pages, and even with this length, there are many missing parts. When I started reading this book, I did learn a few things about the early evolution of Homo sapiens, and about some of the unknown truths of if and how Homo sapiens interacted with other human like animals such as the Neanderthals. But, as I read on, this book became a ramble of pessimistic opinions that were not backed with empirical support. There were also many important human milestones that were missing. His book is not well argued, poorly researched and is not thorough. In this review, I give one example of his poorly argued opinions. Dr. Harari writes, “At the same time, a huge gulf is opening between the tenets of liberal humanism and the latest findings of the life sciences, a gulf we cannot ignore much longer. Our liberal political and judicial systems are founded on the belief that every individual has a sacred inner nature, indivisible and immutable, which gives meaning to the world, and which is the source of all ethical and political authority. This is a reincarnation of the traditional Christian belief in a free and eternal soul that resides within each individual. Yet over the last 200 years, the life sciences have thoroughly undermined this belief. Scientists studying the inner workings of the human organism have found no soul there. They increasingly argue that human behaviour is determined by hormones, genes and synapses, rather than by free will – the same forces that determine the behaviour of chimpanzees, wolves, and ants. Our judicial and political systems largely try to sweep such inconvenient discoveries under the carpet. But in all frankness, how long can we maintain the wall separating the department of biology from the departments of law and political science?” If Dr. Harari is correct that all of human behavior is completely governed by “hormones, genes and synapses, rather than by free will”, then any political system that requires us to live by a set of rules or laws is bound to fail including liberal democracies. However, modern liberal democracies have generally been successful if not perfect. Dr. Harari provides no explanation of why this empirical evidence runs contrary to his opinion. The “nature versus nurture” debate has been argued for centuries, and unfortunately Dr. Harari makes no contribution as he come down dogmatically on the side of “nature.” There are many examples of human lives where biological shortcomings did not rule the day. Look at Helen Keller, Susan Anthony, Mahatma Gandi, and Martin Luther King. His idea that we are nothing more than our “hormones, genes and synapses” provides sustenance to a Nazi like ideology where those with “superior” biological system should rule over us all. Like Nietzsche, Dr. Harari believes that humans were best off when they were foragers. However, he does not explain the reasons that we have not returned to the forager life even though it is a higher quality life as Dr. Harari says it was. Dr. Harari misses key milestones that greatly affected humankind view of itself such as the development of the printing press, the Magna Carter and Socrates’ death sentence and he does not even cover the quest for human dignity that millions have given their lives to protect. The concept of human dignity is too important to ignore when writing about the history of human kind. His biggest failing is that he does not understand the heterogeneity of human kind, particularly when he discusses happiness. He does not realize that because humans have different characteristics, they will find happiness in different ways. It is this differentiation that makes human kind so strong. Like the doomsayer, Malthus who also predicted human kind, Dr. Harari does not realize that we achieve happiness through different strengths. This has been the root of our survival. We do have a community where we can choose to help others with our strengths and have others help us where we are weak. And, yes, humans do have the free will to find happiness in an Aristotelian sense where we realize our life’s purpose. Many have predicted our demise, but we muddle on and prove them wrong. We will also prove that Dr. Harari is wrong.