Since the last few days I have been thumbing through an unusual book: "Sapiens: A brief history of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari. 'Thumbing through' as this book requires readers to devote considerable serious time to it- some thing which I have not been able to devote.
The writer, Yuval Noah Hariri has a PhD in History from the University of Oxford and now lectures at the Hebrew University of Jarusalem, specialising in World History.
Page two of the book (inner cover) summarises this historical journey of the Sapiens in a remarkably pithy manner. He says:
FIRE; gave us power;
GOSSIP: helped us co-operate;
AGRICULTURE: made us hungry for more;
MYTHOLOGY: maintaineed Law & Order:
MONEY: gave us something we can really trust;
CONTRADICTIONS: created culture, and
SCIENCE: made us deadly.
One may not agree with all these formulations, but still it is a wonderful book to start the new year with. .......
