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Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

by Parker · 227 things on Twos

The most important thing to know about prehistoric humans is that they were insignificant animals with no more impact on their environment than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish
Homo sapiens – the species sapiens (wise) of the genus Homo (man)
This is a key to understanding our history and psychology. Genus Homo’s position in the food chain was, until quite recently, solidly in the middle
humankind ascended to the top so quickly that the ecosystem was not given time to adjust. Moreover, humans themselves failed to adjust. we are full of fears and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous
The advent of cooking enabled humans to eat more kinds of food, to devote less time to eating, and to make do with smaller teeth and shorter intestines. Some scholars believe there is a direct link between the advent of cooking, the shortening of the human intestinal track, and the growth of the human brain. Since long intestines and large brains are both massive energy consumers, it’s hard to have both. By shortening the intestines and decreasing their energy consumption, cooking inadvertently opened the way to the jumbo brains of Neanderthals and Sapiens
Homo sapiens conquered the world thanks above all to its unique language
Our language evolved as a way of gossiping. According to this theory Homo sapiens is primarily a social animal. Social cooperation is our key for survival and reproduction. It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat
The alpha male usually wins his position not because he is physically stronger, but because he leads a large and stable coalition
Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths
Sociological research has shown that the maximum ‘natural’ size of a group bonded by gossip is about 150 individuals
There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings
Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens has thus been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations. As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as gods, nations and corporations
Trade cannot exist without trust, and it is very difficult to trust strangers.
The instinct to gorge on high-calorie food was hardwired into our genes
If a Stone Age woman came across a tree groaning with ɹgs, the most sensible thing to do was to eat as many of them as she could on the spot, before the local baboon band picked the tree bare
In such a band, a woman could have sex and form intimate bonds with several men (and women) simultaneously, and all of the band’s adults cooperated in parenting its children
According to the beliefs of such societies, a child is not born from the sperm of a single man, but from the accumulation of sperm in a woman’s womb. A good mother will make a point of having sex with several different men, especially when she is pregnant, so that her child will enjoy the qualities (and paternal care) not merely of the best hunter, but also of the best storyteller, the strongest warrior and the most considerate lover
the frequent inɹdelities that characterise modern marriages, and the high rates of divorce, not to mention the cornucopia of psychological complexes from which both children and adults suʃer, all result from forcing humans to live in nuclear families and monogamous relationships that are incompatible with our biological software
There are only cultural choices, from among a bewildering palette of possibilities
Dogs were used for hunting and ɹghting, and as an alarm system against wild beasts and human intruders
Experts disagree about the exact date, but we have incontrovertible evidence of domesticated dogs from about 15,000 years ago
The peasant’s ancient ancestor, the forager, may have eaten berries and mushrooms for breakfast; fruits, snails and turtle for lunch; and rabbit steak with wild onions for dinner. Tomorrows menu might have been completely diʃerent. This variety ensured that the ancient foragers received all the necessary nutrients. Forager societies were hardly immune to natural disasters, and suʃered from periods of want and hunger, but they were usually able to deal with such calamities more easily. If they lost some of their staple foodstuʃs, they could gather or hunt other species, or move to a less affected area.Ancient foragers also suʃered less from infectious diseases. Most of the infectious diseases that have plagued agricultural and industrial societies (such as smallpox, measles and tuberculosis) originated in domesticated animals and were transferred to humans only after the Agricultural Revolution. Ancient foragers, who had domesticated only dogs, were free of these scourges. Moreover, most people in agricultural and industrial societies lived in dense, unhygienic permanent settlements – ideal hotbeds for disease. Foragers roamed the land in small bands that could not sustain epidemics.
Animism (from ‘anima’, ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ in Latin) is the belief that almost every place, every animal, every plant and every natural phenomenon has awareness and feelings, and can communicate directly with humans
Don’t believe tree-huggers who claim that our ancestors lived in harmony with nature. Long before the Industrial Revolution, Homo sapiens held the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinctions. We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology
Perhaps if more people were aware of the First Wave and Second Wave extinctions, they’d be less nonchalant about the Third Wave they are part of. If we knew how many species we’ve already eradicated, we might be more motivated to protect those that still survive
the Agricultural Revolution left farmers with lives generally more difficult and less satisfying than those of foragers. Hunter-gatherers spent their time in more stimulating and varied ways, and were less in danger of starvation and disease. The Agricultural Revolution certainly enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind, but the extra food did not translate into a better diet or more leisure. Rather, it translated into population explosions and pampered elites. The average farmer worked harder than the average forager, and got a worse diet in return. The Agricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud
The body of Homo sapiens had not evolved for such tasks. It was adapted to climbing apple trees and running after gazelles, not to clearing rocks and carrying water buckets. Human spines, knees, necks and arches paid the price
We did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us
A diet based on cereals is poor in minerals and vitamins, hard to digest, and really bad for your teeth and gums
Many anthropological and archaeological studies indicate that in simple agricultural societies with no political frameworks beyond village and tribe, human violence was responsible for about 15 per cent of deaths, including 25 percent of male deaths
In time, human violence was brought under control through the development of larger social frameworks – cities, kingdoms and states. But it took thousands of years to build such huge and effective political structures
Cultivating wheat provided much more food per unit of territory, and thereby enabled Homo sapiens to multiply exponentially
The currency of evolution is neither hunger nor pain, but rather copies of DNA helixes. Just as the economic success of a company is measured only by the number of dollars in its bank account, not by the happiness of its employees, so the evolutionary success of a species is measured by the number of copies of its DNA. If no more DNA copies remain, the species is extinct, just as a company without money is bankrupt. If a species boasts many DNA copies, it is a success, and the species flourishes. From such a perspective, 1,000 copies are always better than a hundred copies. This is the essence of the Agricultural Revolution: the ability to keep more people alive under worse conditions
Humans, like many mammals, have hormonal and genetic mechanisms that help control procreation. In good times females reach puberty earlier, and their chances of getting pregnant are a bit higher. In bad times puberty is late and fertility decreases
People were unable to fathom the full consequences of their decisions
it took generations for the small changes to accumulate and transform society and, by then, nobody remembered that they had ever lived differently
One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations
Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally they reach a point where they can’t live without it
Rather than writing the first thing that came into their heads, they considered carefully what they wanted to say and how to phrase it
Humanity’s search for an easier life released immense forces of change that transformed the world in ways nobody envisioned or wanted
Shepherds are not fond of sheep whose curiosity takes them far from the herd
Domesticated chickens and cattle may well be an evolutionary success story, but they are also among the most miserable creatures that ever lived. The domestication of animals was founded on a series of brutal practices that only became crueller with the passing of the centuries
This discrepancy between evolutionary success and individual suffering is perhaps the most important lesson we can draw from the Agricultural Revolution
Settling down caused most peoples turf to shrink dramatically. Ancient hunter-gatherers usually lived in territories covering many dozens and even hundreds of square kilometres. ‘Home’ was the entire territory, with its hills, streams, woods and open sky. Peasants, on the other hand, spent most of their days working a small ɹeld or orchard, and their domestic lives centred on a cramped structure of wood, stone or mud, measuring no more than a few dozen metres – the house. The typical peasant developed a very strong attachment to this structure. This was a far-reaching revolution, whose impact was psychological as much as architectural. Henceforth, attachment to ‘my house’ and separation from the neighbours became the psychological hallmark of a much more self-centred creature
in the subsistence economy of hunting and gathering, there was an obvious limit to such long-term planning. Paradoxically, it saved foragers a lot of anxieties. There was no sense in worrying about things that they could not influence
Concern about the future was rooted not only in seasonal cycles of production, but also in the fundamental uncertainty of agriculture
Peasants were worried about the future not just because they had more cause for worry, but also because they could do something about it. They could clear another ɹeld, dig another irrigation canal, sow more crops
The stress of farming had far-reaching consequences. It was the foundation of large-scale political and social systems. Sadly, the diligent peasants almost never achieved the future economic security they so craved through their hard work in the present. Everywhere, rulers and elites sprang up, living oʃ the peasants’ surplus food and leaving them with only a bare subsistence
These forfeited food surpluses fuelled politics, wars, art and philosophy. They built palaces, forts, monuments and temples
History is something that very few people have been doing while everyone else was ploughing fields and carrying water buckets
The food surpluses produced by peasants, coupled with new transportation technology, eventually enabled more and more people to cram together ɹrst into large villages, then into towns, and ɹnally into cities, all of them joined together by new kingdoms and commercial networks
humans evolved for millions of years in small bands of a few dozen individuals. The handful of millennia separating the Agricultural Revolution from the appearance of cities, kingdoms and empires was not enough time to allow an instinct for mass cooperation to evolve
We believe in a particular order not because it is objectively true, but because believing in it enables us to cooperate eʃectively and forge a better society
an imagined order is always in danger of collapse, because it depends upon myths, and myths vanish once people stop believing in them
what maintains the military order? It is impossible to organise an army solely by coercion. At least some of the commanders and soldiers must truly believe in something, be it God, honour, motherland, manhood or money
How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined. You always insist that the order sustaining society is an objective reality created by the great gods or by the laws of nature
You also educate people thoroughly. From the moment they are born, you constantly remind them of the principles of the imagined order, which are incorporated into anything and everything
Most Westerners today believe in individualism. They believe that every human is an individual, whose worth does not depend on what other people think of him or her. Each of us has within ourselves a brilliant ray of light that gives value and meaning to our lives. In modern Western schools teachers and parents tell children that if their classmates make fun of them, they should ignore it. Only they themselves, not others, know their true worth
Medieval noblemen did not believe in individualism. Someone’s worth was determined by their place in the social hierarchy, and by what other people said about them
Most people do not wish to accept that the order governing their lives is imaginary, but in fact every person is born into a pre-existing imagined order, and his or her desires are shaped from birth by its dominant myths
People today spend a great deal of money on holidays abroad because they are true believers in the myths of romantic consumerism
Romanticism tells us that in order to make the most of our human potential we must have as many diʃerent experiences as we can. We must open ourselves to a wide spectrum of emotions; we must sample various kinds of relationships; we must try diʃerent cuisines; we must learn to appreciate diʃerent styles of music. One of the best ways to do all that is to break free from our daily routine, leave behind our familiar setting, and go travelling in distant lands, where we can ‘experience’ the culture, the smells, the tastes and the norms of other people. We hear again and again the romantic myths about ‘how a new experience opened my eyes and changed my life’
Consumerism tells us that in order to be happy we must consume as many products and services as possible
Every television commercial is another little legend about how consuming some product or service will make life better
The Great Pyramid of Giza. The kind of thing rich people in ancient Egypt did with their money
A n objective phenomenon exists independently of human consciousness and human beliefs
The subjective is something that exists depending on the consciousness and beliefs of a single individual. It disappears or changes if that particular individual changes his or her beliefs
T h e inter-subjective is something that exists within the communication network linking the subjective consciousness of many individuals. If a single individual changes his or her beliefs, or even dies, it is of little importance
Many of history’s most important drivers are inter-subjective: law, money, gods, nations
the dollar, human rights and the United States of America exist in the shared imagination of billions, and no single individual can threaten their existence. If I alone were to stop believing in the dollar, in human rights, or in the United States, it wouldn’t much matter. These imagined orders are intersubjective, so in order to change them we must simultaneously change the consciousness of billions of people, which is not easy. A change of such magnitude can be accomplished only with the help of a complex organisation, such as a political party, an ideological movement, or a religious cult
There is no way out of the imagined order. When we break down our prison walls and run towards freedom, we are in fact running into the more spacious exercise yard of a bigger prison
Because the Sapiens social order is imagined, humans cannot preserve the critical information for running it simply by making copies of their DNA and passing these on to their progeny. A conscious effort has to be made to sustain laws, customs, procedures and manners, otherwise the social order would quickly collapse
Trapped in this vicious circle, blacks were not hired for whitecollar jobs because they were deemed unintelligent, and the proof of their inferiority was the paucity of blacks in white-collar jobs
Such vicious circles can go on for centuries and even millennia, perpetuating an imagined hierarchy that sprang from a chance historical occurrence. Unjust discrimination often gets worse, not better, with time. Money comes to money, and poverty to poverty. Education comes to education, and ignorance to ignorance. Those once victimised by history are likely to be victimised yet again. And those whom history has privileged are more likely to be privileged again
To be a husband was to have full control of your wife’s sexuality
Biology enables, Culture forbids
Males must prove their masculinity constantly, throughout their lives, from cradle to grave, in an endless series of rites and performances. And a woman’s work is never done – she must continually convince herself and others that she is feminine enough
Success is not guaranteed. Males in particular live in constant dread of losing their claim to manhood. Throughout history, males have been willing to risk and even sacrifice their lives, just so that people will say ‘He’s a real man!’
most masculine and feminine qualities are cultural rather than biological
It is far more likely that even though the precise deɹnition of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ varies between cultures, there is some universal biological reason why almost all cultures valued manhood over womanhood. We do not know what this reason is
Women are generally more resistant to hunger, disease and fatigue than men
Wars are not a pub brawl. They are very complex projects that require an extraordinary degree of organisation, cooperation and appeasement. The ability to maintain peace at home, acquire allies abroad, and understand what goes through the minds of other people (particularly your enemies) is usually the key to victory. Hence an aggressive brute is often the worst choice to run a war. Much better is a cooperative person who knows how to appease, how to manipulate and how to see things from diʃerent perspectives. This is the stuʃ empire-builders are made of
men have been programmed to be ambitious and competitive, and to excel in politics and business, whereas women have tended to move out of the way and dedicate their lives to raising children
AFTER THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION, human societies grew ever larger and more complex, while the imagined constructs sustaining the social order also became more elaborate. Myths and ɹctions accustomed people, nearly from the moment of birth, to think in certain ways, to behave in accordance with certain standards, to want certain things, and to observe certain rules. They thereby created artiɹcial instincts that enabled millions of strangers to cooperate effectively. This network of artificial instincts is called culture
But specialisation created a problem – how do you manage the exchange of goods between the specialists?
Yet most societies found a more easy way to connect large numbers of experts – they developed money
Money was created many times in many places. Its development required no technological breakthroughs – it was a purely mental revolution. It involved the creation of a new inter-subjective reality that exists solely in people’s shared imagination
Money is anything that people are willing to use in order to represent systematically the value of other things for the purpose of exchanging goods and services
In 2006, the sum total of money in the world is about $60 trillion, yet the sum total of coins and banknotes was less than $6 trillion
Cowry shells and dollars have value only in our common imagination
money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised
Counterfeiting is not just cheating – it’s a breach of sovereignty, an act of subversion against the power, privileges and person of the king
Money is the only trust system created by humans that can bridge almost any cultural gap, and that does not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, race, age or sexual orientation. Thanks to money, even people who don’t know each other and don’t trust each other can nevertheless cooperate effectively
An empire that cannot sustain a blow and remain standing is not really an empire
An empire is a political order with two important characteristics. First, to qualify for that designation you have to rule over a signiɹcant number of distinct peoples, each possessing a diʃerent cultural identity and a separate territory. Second, empires are characterised by ɻexible borders and a potentially unlimited appetite. They can swallow and digest more and more nations and territories without altering their basic structure or identity
Empires were one of the main reasons for the drastic reduction in human diversity. The imperial steamroller gradually obliterated the unique characteristics of numerous peoples (such as the Numantians), forging out of them new and much larger groups
Building and maintaining an empire usually required the vicious slaughter of large populations and the brutal oppression of everyone who was left. The standard imperial toolkit included wars, enslavement, deportation and genocide
‘We are conquering you for your own benefit,’ said the Persians
Humankind is seen as a large family: the privileges of the parents go hand in hand with responsibility for the welfare of the children
According to traditional Chinese political theory, Heaven (Tian) is the source of all legitimate authority on earth. Heaven chooses the most worthy person or family and gives them the Mandate of Heaven. This person or family then rules over All Under Heaven (Tianxia) for the beneɹt of all its inhabitants. Thus, a legitimate authority is – by deɹnition – universal. If a ruler lacks the Mandate of Heaven, then he lacks legitimacy to rule even a single city. If a ruler enjoys the mandate, he is obliged to spread justice and harmony to the entire world. The Mandate of Heaven could not be given to several candidates simultaneously, and consequently one could not legitimise the existence of more than one independent state
most imperial elites earnestly believed that they were working for the general welfare of all the empires inhabitants
Since all social orders and hierarchies are imagined, they are all fragile, and the larger the society, the more fragile it is. Religions assert that our laws are not the result of human caprice, but are ordained by an absolute and supreme authority. This helps place at least some fundamental laws beyond cahllenge, thereby ensuring social stability
Religion is a system of human norms and values that is founded on a belief in a superhuman order
Much of ancient mythology is inn fact a legal contract in which humans promise everlasting devotionn to the gods in exchange for mastety over plants and animals
Dualistic religions espouse the existence of two opposing powers: good and evil. The entire universe is a battleground between these two force, and that everything that happens in the world is part of the struggle
Monotheists have to practise intellectual gymnastics to explain how an all-knowing, all-powerful and perfectly good God allows so much suffering in the world. One well-known explanation is that this is God's way of allowing for human free will. Were there no evil, humans could nont choose between good and evil, and hence there would be non free will
Humans have a wonderful capacity to believe in contradictions
Syncretism is the simultaneous avowal of different and even contradictory ideas and the combination of rituals and practices taken from different sources. It may be the single great world religion
The central figure of Buddhism is not a god but a human being, Siddhartha. He saw that men and women, childen and old people, all suffer not just from occasional calamities such as war and plauge, but also from anxiety, frustration and discontent, all of which seem to be an inseperable part of the human condition. People pursue wealth and power, acquire knowledge and possessions, beget sons and daughters, and build houses and palaces. Yet no matter what they achieve, they are never content. Life is a pointless rat race
Suffering is not caused by ill fortune, by social injustice, or by divine whims. Rather, suffering is caused by the behaviour patterns of one's own mind
No matter what the mind experiences, it usually reacts with craving, and craving always involves dissatisfaction
If, when the mind experiences something pleasant or unpleasant, it simply understands things as they are, then there is no suffering. If you experience sadness without craving that the sadness go away, you continue to feel sadness but you do not suffer from it. If you experience joy without craving that the joy linger and intensify, you continue to feel joy without losing your peace of mind
'What am I experiencing now?' rather than 'What would I rather be experiencing?'
The flames of craving are replaced by a state of perfect contentment and serenity, known as nirvana
A person who does not crave cannot suffer
Suffering arises from craving; the only way to be liberated from craving is to train the mind to experience reality as it is
This law, dharma, is the universal law of nature
The first principle of monotheist religions is 'God exists. What does He want from me?' The first principle of Buddhism is 'Suffering exists. How do I escape it?'
If the mind of a person is free of all craving, nno god can make him miserable. Coversely, once craving arises in a person's minnd, all the gods in the universe cannot save him from suffering
If the mind of a person is free of all craving, nno god can make him miserable. Coversely, once craving arises in a person's minnd, all the gods in the universe cannot save him from suffering
If the mind of a person is free of all craving, nno god can make him miserable. Coversely, once craving arises in a person's minnd, all the gods in the universe cannot save him from suffering
Religion is a system of human norams and values that is founded on belief in a superhuman order
Religion is a system of human norams and values that is founded on belief in a superhuman order
Religion is a system of human norams and values that is founded on belief in a superhuman order
Nationalist: believes in the existence of an American nation with a special role to play in history
Free-market capitalist: believes that open competition and the pursuit of self-interest are the best ways to create a prosperous society
Libarl humanist: believes that humans have been endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights
Libarl humanist: believes that humans have been endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights
Inn early modernn Europe, murdereres were thought to violate and destabilise the cosmic order. To bring the cosmos back to balance, it was necessary to torture and publicly execute the criminal, so that everyone could see the other re-established
The battle for existence is hard and unforgiving, but is the only way to maintain life. This struggle eliminates everything that is unfit for life, and selects everything that is able to survive ... These natural lawas are incontrovertible; living creatures demonstrate them by their very survival. They are unforgiving. Those who resist them will be wiped out. Biology not only tells us about animals and plants, but also shows us the laws we must follow in our lives, and steels our wills to live and fight according to these laws. The meaning of life is struggle. Woe to him who sins against these laws
'The person who attempts to fight the iron logic of nature thereby fights the principles he must thank for his life as a human being. To fight against ntature is to brinng about one's own destruction' - Mein Kampf
'The person who attempts to fight the iron logic of nature thereby fights the principles he must thank for his life as a human being. To fight against ntature is to brinng about one's own destruction' - Mein Kampf
Chaotic systems come in two shapes. Level one chaos is chaos that does not react to predictionsn about it. Level two chaos is chaos that reacts to predictions about it, and therefore can never be predicted accurately
Why study history? Unlike physics or economics, history is not a means for making accurate predictions. We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable
A cultural idea can compel a human to dedicate his or her life to spearding that idea, even at the price of death
Power -> resources -> research -> power
Modern science is based on the Latin injunction ignoramus - 'we do not know'. It assumes we don't know everything. Even more critically, it accepts that the things that we think we know could be proven wrong as we gain more knowledge
The great discovery that launched the Scientific Revolution was the discovery that humans do not know the answers to their most important questions. It was a revolution of ignorance
In order to understand the universe, we need to connect observations into comprehensive theories
The Gilgamesh project is the quest for immortality
What made Europeans exceptional was their unparalleled and insatiable ambition to explore and conquer
Banks are allowed to loan $10 for every dollar they actually possess, which meanns that 90 percent of all the money in our bank accounts is not covered by actual coins and notes
Credit enables us to build the present at the expense of the future. It's founded on the assumption that our future resources are sure to be far more abundant than our present resources. A host of new and wonderful opportunities open up if we can build things in the present using future income
Previous eras did not trust that the future would be better than the present
The idea of progress is built on the notion that if we admit our ignorance and invest resources in research, things can improve
Whoever believes in progress believes that georgraphical discoveries, technological inventions and organisational developments can increase the sum total of human production, trade, and wealth
The idea of progress convinces people to put more and more trust in the future
Greed is good, by becoming richer I benefit everybody, not just myself, Egoism is altruism
My profits are also your profits
All investments must somehow inncrease production and translate into larger profits
The profits of production must be reinvested in increasing production
Capital consists of money, goods and resources that are invested in production. Wealth, on the other hand, is buried in the group or wasted on unproductive activities
Your suits might be Versace and you might get to travel on a private jet, but those expenses are nothing compared to what you invest in increasing human production
Capitalism: economic growth is the supreme good, because justice, freedom and even happiness all depend on economic growth
Everything depends on the people in the labs. If the labs do not fulfil the expectations that new discoveries and industries could back the trillions of make-believe money that the banks and governments have created since 2008, we are heading towards very rough times
In order to understand the universe, we need to connect observations into comprehensive theories
Isaac Newton published The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in 1687 and presented a general theory of movement and change
Knowledge is power. The real test of knowledge is not whether it is true, but whether it empowers us. The real test is utility. A theory that enables us to do new things constitues knowledge
In most societies more people are in danger of dying from obesity than from starvation
Man must live with his inevitable destiny of death
The Gilgamesh Project is the quest for immortality
Modern science has achieved wonders thanks largely to the willingness of governments, businesses, foundations, and private donors channelling billions of dollars into scientific research
What is more important? and what is good? are not scientific questions. Only religions and ideologies can seek to answer such quests of what should be in the future
There is poetic justice in the fact that a quarter of the world, and two of its seven continents, are named after a little-known Italian whose sole claim to fame is that he had the courage to say, 'We don't know.'
Favor present observations over past traditions
Throughout history most human societies were so busy with local conflicts and neighbourhood quarrels that they never considered exploring and conquering distant lands
Capitalism is the force behind the rise of science, technology, and knowledge. All of these steps come from businessmen seeking to make money
Money has been essential for building empires and for promoting science
Today, every man, woman, and child produces, on the average, $8,800 a year
Banks are allowed to load $10 for every dollar they actually possess, which means that 90 per cent of all the money in our bank accounts is not covered by actual coins and notes
What enables banks and the entire economy to survive and flourish is our trust in the future. This trust is the sole backing for most of the money in the world
Credit is imaginary goods, goods that do not exist in the present. It enables us to build the present at the expense of the future. It's founded on the assumption that our future resources are sure to be far more abundant than our present resources
Credit is the difference between today's pie and tomorrow's pie
The idea of progress is built on the notion that if we admit our ignorance and invest resources in research, things can improve
Whoever belives in progress believes that geographical discoveries, technological inventions and organisational developments can increase the sum total of human production, trade and wealth
Over the last 500 years the idea of progress convinced people to put more and more trust in the future. This trust created credit; credit brought real economic growth; and growth strengthened the trust in the future and opened the way for even more credit
Greed is good. By becoming richer I benefit everybody, not just myself. Egoism is altruism - Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations
The rich are accordingly the most useful and benevolent people in society, because they turn the wheels of growth for everyone's advantage
The profits of production must be reinvested in increasing production
Capitalism distinguishes 'capital' from mere 'wealth'. Capital consists of money, goods, and resources that are invested in production. Wealth is buried in the ground or wasted on unproductive activities
Ethic: a set of teachings about how people should behave, educate their children and even think
Capitalism's principal tenet is that economic growth is the supreme good because justice, freedom, and happiness all depend on economic growth
When considering investments: will this project enable us to increase production and profits and will it produce economic growth?
Over the last few years, banks and governments have been frenziedly printing money because everybody is terrified that the current economic crisis may stop the growth of the economy. Everything depends on the scientists, technicians and, engineers. New discoveries could create entirely new industries, whose profits could back the trillions of make-believe money that the banks and governments have created since 2008. If the labs do not fulfil these expectations before the bubble bursts, we are headed towards very rough times
Nobody wants to pay taxes, but everyone is happy to invest
The amount of credit in an economy is determined not only by purely economic factors such as the discovery of a new oil field or the invention of a new machine, but also by political events such as regime changes or more ambitious foreign policies
Today, a country's credit rating is far more important to its economic well-being than are its natural resources
Economic growth required energy and raw materials. These are finite. When and if they run out, the entire system will collapse
A need shaped in the wild continues to be felt subjectively even if it is no longer really necessary for survival and reproduction
Each year the US population spends more money on diets than the amount needed to feed all the hungry people in the rest of the world
Millions of years of evolution have designed us to live and think as community members. Within a mere two centuries we have become alienated individuals
The only characteristic of which we can be certain is the incessant change
Today, wealth consists mainly of human capital, technical know-how and complex socio-economic structures such as banks
Most current ideologies and political programmes are based on rather flimsy ideas concerning the real source of human happiness. Communists postulate that everyone would be blissful under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Capitalists maintain that only the free market can ensure the greatest happiness of the greatest number, by creating economic growth and material abundance and by teaching people to be self-reliant and enterprising
Since humans generally use their capabilities to alleviate miseries and fulfill aspirations, it follows that we must be happier than our medieval ancestors, and they must have been happier than Stone Age hunter-gatherers
Power corrupts and as humankind gained more and more power, it created a cold mechanistic world ill-suited to our real needs
Evolution molded our minds and bodies to the life of hunter-gatherers. The transition first to agriculture and then to industry has condemned us to living unnatural lives that cannot give full expression to our inherent inclinations and instincts, and therefore cannot satisfy our deepest yearnings
Every new invention puts another mile between us and the Garden of Eden
Much of the vaunted material wealth that shields us from disease and famine was accumulated at the expense of laboratory mokeys, dairy cows, and conveyor-belt chickens
Modern industrial agriculture might well be the greatest crime in history