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Man’s quest to know the genesis and journey of Man on earth is quite old. In this quest many anthropologists, philosophers and historians have at various times tried to find the clue of man’s beginning on earth, his purpose and the ultimate end of his journey. Philosophers were more concerned with his ultimate goal and purpose of his short existence; for instance Iqbal, Goethe, Milton and Rumi etc. have given their concepts about the heights to which man can reach, while among biological and anthropological scientists like Charles Darwin, Sir Mortimer Wheeler and John Lawrence Angel have given significant contributions to the time and mode of his evolution.

These days a Jewish historian Yuval Noah Harari has traced the history of mankind in his remarkable book, “Sapiens” which was published in English in 2014. It is a brilliant, thought-provoking odyssey through human history with its massively engaging and interesting detail. The book covers a mind-boggling 13.5 billion years of pre-history and history, and has been widely acclaimed in all the intellectual circles. It has attracted a record readership and viewership on the media which reported his lectures in various universities around the world. With little criticism, the book has been generally liked by the general readers. As against Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” which involves typical scientific theories and is difficult to understand by a common reader, “Sapiens” by Harari on the other hand reads like a story reinforced by substantial facts of life which are in
common observation of general public.

According to Harari, Human history has been shaped by three major revolutions: the Cognitive Revolution (70,000 years ago), the Agricultural Revolution (10,000 years ago), and the Scientific Revolution (500 years ago). These revolutions have empowered humans to do something no other form of life has done, which is to create and connect around ideas that do not physically exist (thinking about religion, capitalism, and politics etc.). These shared “myths” have enabled humans to take over the globe.

Homo Sapiens means “wise man.” Thus according to Harari, the man assumed the status of Homo Sapiens quite late in its evolution. He elaborates that Human cultures began to take shape about 70,000 years ago. Prehistoric humans (2 million years old or so) were no more important and impressive than other mammals. Humans first evolved in Africa about 2.5 million years ago. The author also believes that from the way man’s history is taking shape, it is unlikely that Homo sapiens will survive for another 1,000 years.

Humans have huge brains for their body size. Human brains account for 2-3 percent of his body size, but uses 25 percent of its energy only. Perhaps this is why Homo sapiens wiped out the Neanderthals. Neanderthals are an extinct species who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. They went extinct most likely due to competition with , or extermination by, the modern humans, or due to great climatic change, disease or a combination of these factors.

The Cognitive Revolution occurred between 70,000 to 30,000 years ago. It allowed Homo sapiens to communicate in a language at a level never seen before.

Harari claims that only Homo sapiens could talk about things we have never seen, touched, or smelled. Thinking about religions, myths, legends, and fantasies, were their first mental preoccupations. The telling of myths and stories allowed Homo sapiens to collaborate in large numbers in extremely flexible ways. This separated us from all other animals. Elaborating his point, Harari says that Chimpanzees can't form groups of more than 50 or so. For humans, the group size is usually 150 and sometime much larger. Homo Sapiens needed more members of their own species for gossip and personal communication. So they were successful to get large numbers of people working together. Large numbers of people could collaborate by sharing common myths and beliefs.

Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, humans have been living in a dual reality: the physical reality and the imagined reality. The way people cooperate can be changed by changing the stories as myths we tell. Because Homo sapiens shared myths were not genetically based, they could adapt and change their behavior as soon as they adapted their new belief. They didn't have to wait millions of years for a genetic change. According to Harari, Homo sapiens are the only animals that can conduct trade.

He believes that the humans of 30,000 years ago had the same physical, emotional, and intellectual capabilities that we have today. Evolutionary psychology claims that most of our psychology was developed during the period before the Agricultural Revolution about 10,000 years ago.

Most of our ancient ancestors had much wider and deeper knowledge of their physical surroundings than we do. They were not unintelligent at all. However, at the individual level we are much more specialized today. Harari regards ancient foragers( persons or animals that search wildly for food or provisions) were the most knowledgeable and skillful people in history. Our lack of knowledge about prehistoric religions and beliefs is one of the biggest gaps in our understanding of human history. Homo sapiens first made it to America about 16,000 years ago, and later spread to Australia, and later to vast regions of Eurasia, and other parts of the world. Harari regards it as one of the most rapid and incredible invasions by a single species the world had ever seen.

The Agricultural Revolution actually didn't make the life of the average human better at first. It did, however, allow humans to collect more food and thus the overall population multiplied exponentially. The first few thousand years of the Agricultural Revolution actually made life harder for humans by creating more work, and less leisure. History is moving relentlessly toward unity. The whole planet is moving toward one world culture.

The creation of money in later millenniums vastly effected human civilization which is part of an intellectual revolution. It doesn't exist except in our minds.

Empires have been the world's most common form of political organization for the last 2,500 years. Harari Feels that we are moving fast toward a singe global empire. Global markets, and commonly accepted concepts like human rights make it clear we all need one collective entity, not individual states and countries.

There are some valid criticisms on his book. Harari tends to draw too firm a dividing line between the medieval and modern eras, ignores altogether the impact of religion on shaping man’s destiny. There is only a six line mention on the emergence of monotheism from polytheism, for which he has no explanation.

He skips over the great world-transforming Abrahamic religions which gave a new understanding of the sole Creator God which had deep impact on man’s understanding of this world.