The speaker, Yuval Noah Harari, discusses the evolution of humanity and its current state of control over the planet. He highlights that our ancestors were insignificant animals 70,000 years ago, and their impact on the world was minimal. In contrast, today, humans control the planet.
Harari explains that we often look for differences between humans and other animals on an individual level. However, the real difference between humans and other animals is not on the individual level, but on the collective level. Humans control the planet because they are the only animals that can cooperate both flexibly and in large numbers.
He contrasts this with other animals, like social insects and social mammals, which can cooperate in large numbers but not flexibly, or only in small numbers due to intimate knowledge among them.
Harari then discusses how humans alone, of all animals, can create and believe in fictional stories, which enables us to cooperate flexibly with countless numbers of strangers. This ability to create and believe in fictions is what allows humans to cooperate in large numbers.
He uses examples from various fields, including religion, law, politics, and economics, to illustrate how humans use this ability to create fictional realities to cooperate in large numbers.
In conclusion, Harari suggests that humans control the world because they live in a dual reality, a combination of an objective reality and a fictional reality created by humans. This fictional reality has become more powerful over time, and today, the most powerful forces in the world are these fictional entities, which exist only in our own imagination.
1. Prehistoric humans were insignificant animals with a minimal impact on the world, not much greater than that of jellyfish, fireflies, or woodpeckers .
2. Today, humans control the planet, a shift from their prehistoric state .
3. The speaker believes that the difference between humans and other animals is on the collective level, not the individual level .
4. Humans are unique because they are the only animals that can cooperate both flexibly and in very large numbers .
5. Other animals, like social insects and social mammals, can cooperate in large numbers but not flexibly, or only in small numbers .
6. The speaker argues that the only animal that can combine the abilities to cooperate flexibly and in large numbers is Homo sapiens .
7. Humans control the world because they can cooperate flexibly in large numbers, even against chimpanzees .
8. The speaker believes that humans have the ability to create and believe in fictional stories, which enables them to cooperate flexibly with countless numbers of strangers .
9. Humans use their language not only to describe reality but also to create new realities, fictional realities .
10. Human rights, states, and nations are stories invented by humans and are not objective realities .
11. The speaker argues that money is the most successful story ever invented and told by humans because it is the only story everybody believes .
12. Humans live in a dual reality, an objective reality and a fictional reality .
13. The speaker predicts that as computers become better and better in more and more fields, there is a distinct possibility that computers will out-perform us in most tasks and make humans redundant .
14. The speaker suggests that the best guess we have for the future is to keep humans happy with drugs and computer games .
15. The speaker sees several possibilities for the future, including the creation of a new massive class of useless people, the division of humankind into different biological castes, or the continued growth of economic inequality .