The secret of our success is imagination

What divides humans from any other animal?Imagination.
One hundred thousand years ago at least six species of humans inhabited the Earth: animals whose impact on the planet was no greater than that of gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish. Today, however, there is only one human species on Earth: ours, the Homo Sapiens.
We are the lords of the planet; the only animals who can talk about things that exist only in our imagination. And it is precisely this characteristic that differentiates us.

These concepts are excellently explained in “From Animals to Gods. A Brief History of Humanity,” the latest book by Yuval Noah Harari, a noted Israeli historian and writer. I confess that for me, a passionate and curious devourer of books, this is a work that leaves its mark and deserves our attention for several reasons.

Why am I talking about Harari’s book on my blog?

• It is a history book written like a long and fascinating novel, chronicling the vicissitudes ofHomo Sapiens, from his appearance on Earth to the present day, with a glimpse of the future that awaits him. Page after page, century after century, it intrigues you and makes you want to find out what lies around the corner.
• It is a wonderful opportunity to do some deep thinking about our origins, the motivations behind many of our current behaviors both as individuals and as a community. We often don’t give importance to our origins and the rootedness we have with our history. Being aware of this, in my opinion, helps to have a more objective and insightful look at everything around us.
• It is an often offbeat and in several ways “unsettling” book. It debunks some ingrained myths in common thinking and in the scientific world, in a thoroughly rigorous way. So much so that it has earned the accolades of the international scientific community, as well as a resounding success among the common public.

The brief chronology of man on earth

Among the key passages in the book I want to report here the brief chronology of man on Earth.

• 2.5 million years ago the genus Homo appears in Africa
• 500,000 years ago theNeanderthal Homo evolves in Europe and the Middle East
• 200,000 years ago theHomo Sapiens evolved in East Africa
• 70,000 years ago, language began to spread. Homo Sapiens crossed the borders of Africa, giving rise to the cognitive revolution.
• Between 30,000 and 13,000 years ago, Homo neanderthal andHomo floresiensis. L’Homo sapiens remains the only human species on Earth.
• 12,000 years ago man began to cultivate plants and domesticate animals. The Agricultural Revolution begins.
• 5,000 years ago the first kingdoms, which would soon evolve into empires, and the first forms of writing and currency appear.
• 500 years ago Europeans began to conquer America and the oceans, initiating a true unification of the history of the planet and the rise of capitalism. This phenomenon is called the Scientific Revolution.
• 200 years ago families and communities are replaced by the state and the market. Many of the animal and plant species become permanently extinct on a large scale. The Industrial Revolution takes hold.

The evolution of the mind and habits

Many of the “modern” phenomena we are used to, in evolutionary terms, are decidedly insignificant, given the longevity of humankind on earth.

We have DNA that has been genetically shaped over millions of years, a brain that has evolved to survive and thrive in a decidedly different context than we do today, but, in contrast, eating habits that have a relatively young history (only about ten thousand years) social and environmental habits that are only a few hundred years old, the result of the Industrial Revolution.

It cannot be without consequence that for millions of years we have been hunter-gatherers, nomads in search of new lands, food and animals to eat, and now we find ourselves confined for much of our lives in enclosed places, with a degree of utilization of our bodies and brains far less than is biologically possible.

In other words, even though today we find ourselves living in apartments and small rooms, surrounded by various objects and appliances, our DNA still behaves as if we are in a naturalistic environment.

What about the evolution of the brain? According to some studies, its size has even decreased.

Collectively, man today possesses far more wisdom and knowledge than he has ever had throughout the whole of human history, but individually the ancient hunter-gatherers managed to be more skilled and intelligent than they are today.
Here is what the author says in an excerpt from the book:

To survive they needed a fairly detailed mental map of their territory, without the use of any navigator or paper map…To maximize the efficiency of the daily search for food, they needed to know what the growth pattern of each plant was and what the habits of each animal were. They had to know the nutritional qualities of various foods, which ones were harmful, which ones were good for healing. They had to know what was the alternation of the seasons, which warning sign preceded thunder and which signaled that there would be good weather. In their neighborhood they studied every stream, every walnut tree, every bear den, every flint deposit. Each individual had to figure out how to make a stone dagger, how to repair torn fur, how to prepare a rabbit trap, and how to deal with avalanches, snake bites, and hungry lions.

Mastery of each of these many skills required years of learning and practice. Il cacciatore-raccoglitore di quel tempo poteva ricavare una punta di freccia da una pietra di selce nel giro di pochi minuti. Quando noi cerchiamo di imitare alcune di queste imprese falliamo miseramente.

In today’s industrial society, most people do not need to know great things about the natural world to survive. A computer technician, an insurance agent, a history teacher, a business manager or an industrial worker, what knowledge do they need to make a living? Of course, one needs to know a lot about the specific field one is dealing with, but for most of the necessities of life one blindly relies on the help of other experts, whose knowledge in turn constitutes an equally narrow field of ^expertise*.
( ^* Excerpt from the book “From Animals to Gods. A Brief History of Humanity” by Yuval Noah Harari)

Often, experts also become those who have an interest in pushing us toward the purchase of something…

Hunter-gatherers mastered not only the world around them, the animals, plants, objects, but also the inner world of their own bodies, their senses. They heard even the slightest rustle in the grass and could tell if a snake was lurking there. They watched the foliage of the trees carefully to discover fruits, beehives, bird nests. They moved with minimal effort and noise, and they knew how to sit, walk and run in the most agile and efficient way. The fact that they used their bodies constantly and in so many different actions made them perfect athletes. They possessed a physical dexterity that any person today could not conquer even after years of yoga or tai chi! ^*
( ^* Excerpt from the book “From Animals to Gods. A Brief History of Humanity” by Yuval Noah Harari)

So what? Do we have to go back to being hunter-gatherers?

Absolutely not! We cannot deny the decidedly positive effects of mankind’s “collective” progress. But at the same time I think it is also appropriate to reflect on what we have lost.

The agricultural revolution, for example, forced us to feed ourselves with a ridiculous number of foods, those that best lent themselves to their industrialization, compared to the huge variety we had become accustomed to over the years.

The industrial revolution, has since decisively changed social and environmental habits, forcing us to alienating workdays and eating increasingly far from natural foods.

We are so immersed in our daily grind that we seemingly forget who we really are. I say apparently, because in reality many of the physical and psychological discomforts we experience today are probably perfectly attributable to a lifestyle, which very often is really far from what we have been “trained” for biologically and evolutionarily. But our DNA and deep brain are well aware of all this, and in fact they are constantly sending us more or less latent signals.

Unfortunately, what happens is that, often, we no longer even know how to listen and recognize the messages we receive from the most hidden parts of ourselves.