jade’s Reviews > Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind > Status Update

“what we should take seriously is the idea that the next stage of history will include not only technological and organizational transformations, but also fundamental transformations in human consciousness and identity. and these could be transformations so fundamental that they will call the very term ‘human’ into question.
—how long do we really have?
no one really knows.”

“as Nietzsche put it, if you have a why to live, you can bear almost any how. a meaningful life extremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a neaningless life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is.”

"to satisfy both optimists and pessimists, we may conclude by saying that we are on the threshold of both heaven and hell, moving nervously between the gateway of the one and the anteroom of the other. history has still not decided where we will end up, and a string of coincidences might yet send us rolling in either direction."

“in contrast to medieval peasants and shoemakers, modern industry cares little about the sun or the season. it sanctifies precision and uniformity; in order to prevent calamities, everybody must adhere to a precise timetable. each worker arrives at work at exactly the same time... everybody goes home when a whistle announces that the shift is over—not when they have finished their project.

“most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. they were promised paradise, but only if they cultivate compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger.. the history of ethic is a sad take of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucious a temper tantrum.”

“we flick our fingers and it prints book and sew clothes, keeps our vegetables fresh and our ice cream frozen, cooks our dinners and executes our criminals, registers our thoughts and records our smiles, lights up our nights and entertains us with countless television shows.
few of us understand how electricity does all these things, but even fewer can imagine life without it.”

"the craving to increase profits and production blinds people to anything that might stand in the way. when growth becomes a supreme good, unrestricted by any other ethical considerations, it can easily lead to catastrophe."

“you could cut the pie in many different ways, but it never got any bigger. if the pie is static, and I have a big part of it, then I must have taken somebody else’s slice. the rich were obliged to do penance for their evil deeds by giving some of their surplus wealth to charity.”

“were it not for businessmen seeking to make money, Columbus would not have reached America, James Cook would not have reached Australia, and Neil Armstrong would not have taken small step on the surface of the moon.”

“to explain ‘how’ means to reconstruct the series of specific events that led from one point to another.
to explain ’why’ means to find causal connections that account for the occurrence of this particular series of events to the exclusion of all others.”