I was impressed by Sapiens, this probably am biased. But once I read it, I did not really follow Harari as a person, because there was no reason too. I probably

I was impressed by Sapiens, this probably am biased. But once I read it, I did not really follow Harari as a person, because there was no reason too. I probably just skimmed through a quoter of a book, where the author was speculating about the future or overall going into off-the-ramp speculations, the rest was thoroughly enjoyable and I am yet to find any pop science book where an author does not engage in some speculations. It was a good attempt at looking at the entirety of human history through a lens of evolution, biology, economy and pure randomness. But it is a pop science, not a research paper. This article, however, read like a pamphlet fueld by jealousy of someone else’ success. > earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per speaking appearance. On par with Hillary Clinton, no? > Harari concludes that, “many historical calamities, from deadly wars to ecological catastrophes, have resulted from this over-hasty jump.” As an evolutionary biologist, I have to say: this passage sets my teeth on edge. It is a speculation, ok. And right now, we are on the brink of a nuclear war, because of one man’s insecurities. So to suggest that our non-linear evolution afforded us means of mass and self-destruction, but no commensurable means of self-control is not such a wild conjecture. And anyway, even we want to look into science of it, there is really no much science to look at. Because when it comes to history of humanity there is a sample of one and fundamental irreproducibility. As you step away from pure biology towards any field that studies human as a species or human societies, it is ridden with unsustained claims and politicization. It reminds me of Taleb’s work on black swan and skin in the game. Sure, to some devoted followers now everything is a black swan and trump and putin are the champions. But you don’t need to subscribe to his entire philosophy to agree that he brings up many good points, that might have been hidden otherwise.