Comment on Humans didn't invent agriculture
Psychodelic@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Haha. I’m reading Sapiens right now, too
Comment on Humans didn't invent agriculture
Psychodelic@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Haha. I’m reading Sapiens right now, too
hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
I’ve never actually read any Harari books for some reason. Is his stuff generally “reliable”?
troyunrau@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
r/askhistorians on reddit always rails about it being, paraphrasing: too cut and dry for such complicated topics. I’ve the first half of the first one, and I don’t disagree, but I’m not a historian. Reductionism is definitely in play, and there’s certainly a narrative bias in there for entertainment.
It seems about as reliable as Isaac Asimov’s essays (as published in The Road to Infinity, or similar).
hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Thanks. So, interesting and generally reliable, but claims should be treated with caution?
troyunrau@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Yep.
When a historian complains that something is reductionist, I usually ask them “what is the temperature of the air in the room right now.” I don’t mind reductionism, particularly when ingesting materials from outside my field of expertise – because I don’t have time to become an expert in every field :)
fossilesque@mander.xyz 2 months ago
His supervisor disowned him. He’s not good science. currentaffairs.org/…/the-dangerous-populist-scien…
Psychodelic@lemmy.world 2 months ago
No idea, tbh. I’m nearly half way through it and I’ve yet to hear anything controversial other than religion is basically made up, but I already thought so. It’s really just super thought-provoking stuff.
If I were to describe it, I’d say it’s moreso an incredibly well thought-out narrative on the story of the human species and where we fit in time and space.
For example, the part this meme is from blew my mind. It’s a couple paragraphs and gets set up with the backdrop/context of the agricultural evolution and kind of comes out of nowhere.
Lastly, one interesting thought I had while reading it is how evolution doesn’t really “care” if we’re depressed, as long as we’re still reproducing the cycle continues (this was moreso a thought I had while reading the book than something explicitly said, I think)
ID411@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
I think he’s a historian by trade, so no
TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub 2 months ago
His first book (Sapiens) does a great job of showing how frail is modern civilization, though. Its foundation is, like religion, only beliefs.
ID411@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
It’s a superb book - I was being mischievous.
He’s into meditation is a big way, as was I when I read it, although I have since lapsed.
The advantage I think this gave me at the time, was to deeply connect with his writing perspective - ie not human-centric.
Buddhism cautions against human exceptionalism in various ways and invites anyone to discover this through meditation.
The quote about wheat profoundly expresses this, with great concision.
My quip was about historians being vulnerable to artistic license to tell a story !
hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
We don’t trust historians?!
ID411@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Wonderful storytellers !
lol_idk@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Only entomologists are known for lying