table of Contents
2020.8.28：
How to calculate happiness
Continuous and feeble pain, otherwise the disease will not cause long-term unhappiness. For example, if someone is diagnosed with a chronic disease like diabetes, it is indeed depressing for a while, but as long as the condition does not get worse, they can adjust and feel that they are no different from ordinary people's happiness. Let us suppose that there is a pair of middle-class twins Lucy and Luke who participated in a subjective well-being study together. After finishing the study in the morning, Lucy drove home, but was hit by a big bus, causing her to fracture multiple places and having one foot permanently inconvenient. But just as the rescuers pulled her out of the car, Luke called and exclaimed excitedly that he had won the tens of millions of dollars in lottery prize. So, in two years, she will be lame, and he will be richer than he is now. But if psychologists do follow-up studies, the happiness of the two of them will not be much different from the results on the morning of the incident.
At present, it seems that family and community are more important than money and health in the influence of happiness. Those who have close and good family relationships and support each other in their communities are obviously happier. Those whose families are dysfunctional and have been unable to integrate into a certain community are obviously less happy. Among them, marriage is a particularly important factor. Multiple repeated studies have found that a good marriage and feeling happy, as well as marriage incoordination and feeling pain, are highly correlated. Moreover, this is the case regardless of economic status or physical health. Therefore, even a poor and sick person, if he has a partner who loves him, loves his family, and is willing to support his community, he may feel happier than a lonely billionaire. . (Of course, the premise is that the person cannot be really poor to live, and his illness will not continue to worsen or cause him to continue to feel pain.)
In this way, we have to consider a possibility. Although the material conditions of mankind have been greatly improved in the past two centuries, the effects of the two are likely to cancel each other due to family collapse and social disorder. If this is the case, people today are not necessarily happier than in 1800. Even the "freedom" we value so much now may be what makes us less happy. Although we can choose the other half, choose friends, and choose neighbors, they can also choose to leave us. Everyone in modern society has unprecedented freedom and can decide which way he wants to go, but it also makes it more and more difficult for us to truly keep our promises and never leave. As a result, the cohesion of the community and family fell and disintegrated, and the world made us feel more and more lonely.
Those who can't afford these medical miracles (that is, the vast majority of people) will surely be so angry. Throughout history, the reason why the poor and the oppressed can comfort themselves is because death is the only thing that is completely fair. No matter how rich and powerful, no one can escape death. Just thinking that you have to die, but the rich can live forever, will make the poor angry and unstoppable.
2020.8.26：
The legend of Peugeot
Forgetting is for remembering; death is regarded as genetic evolution and mutation possibility (the existence of cancer is our adaptation to the changes of the earth);
The so-called "imaginary reality" refers to something that everyone believes, and as long as this common belief still exists, the power is enough to influence the world. The artists of the Stade Cave-cavern may really believe in the existence of the lion-man guardian spirit. Although some wizards are liars, most of them sincerely believe that there are gods and demons. As for millionaires, most of them also sincerely believe that there are money and limited companies in the world. For active human rightsists, most of them also sincerely believe in the existence of human rights. Although in fact the so-called UN, Libya and human rights are just concepts we have imagined, in 2011, when we said that the UN required the Libyan government to respect the human rights of its citizens, no one would think that this was a lie.
Since the cognitive revolution, Homo sapiens has been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, we have real objective realities like rivers, trees, and lions; on the other hand, we also have imagined realities like gods, countries, and companies. As time passed, the imaginary reality became stronger and stronger; today, if rivers, trees, and lions want to survive, sometimes they have to rely on the imaginary reality of gods, countries, and companies to do well and let them go.
If we put thousands of chimpanzees on the New York Stock Exchange, professional baseball stadiums, Capitol Hill or the United Nations headquarters, it will definitely be a mess. In contrast, we Homo sapiens often have thousands of people in these places. Homo sapiens created well-ordered models, such as trade networks, large-scale celebrations, and political systems; these are absolutely impossible if there are only individuals. The real difference between humans and chimpanzees lies in the fictional stories, which bind thousands of individuals, families and groups together like glue. This glue makes us the masters of everything
2020.6.16：
Among the costs of "thinking":
Numerous disasters in human history, whether it is a devastating war or an ecological catastrophe, actually originated from this hasty jump in status.
Benefits of fire:
The biggest benefit of fire is that you can start cooking. Some foods cannot be digested and absorbed by humans when they are in their natural form, such as wheat, rice, and potatoes, but they have become our staple food because of the cooking technology. Fire not only causes chemical changes in food, but also biological changes: after cooking, the germs and parasites in the food will be killed. In addition, for humans, even if they are eating old foods (such as fruits, nuts, insects and animal carcasses), the time required for chewing and digestion can be greatly reduced. For example, chimpanzees need to chew raw meat for five hours a day, but humans eat cooked food, which takes one hour a day.
A brief history of mankind
"A Brief History of humanity: from animals to God" to evolutionary biology angle introduces the history of mankind . Harari believes that biology limits the limits of human activities, while culture shapes what happens within the limits, and the discipline of history is a record of cultural changes. "A Brief History of Mankind: From Animals to God" divides the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens from the Stone Age to today into four stages: the cognitive revolution (about 70,000 BC, the evolution of Homo sapiens produced imagination, and language capable of describing stories appeared. ), the agricultural revolution (approximately 12000 BC, agriculture began to develop, Homo sapiens began to domesticate animals and plants), the integration and unity of mankind (human political organizations gradually merged and unified into a "global empire"), the scientific revolution (approximately 1500 to present , Modern science appeared) .
Cognitive Revolution : "The reason why Homo sapiens can rule the earth is because Homo sapiens is the only species that can cooperate on a large scale and flexibly." This is the main point of Harari in the chapter on cognitive revolution. Harari believes that the activities of prehistoric Homo sapiens are an important reason for the extinction of other human species and a large number of other large animals. The reason why Homo sapiens can cooperate flexibly on a large scale is because after the "cognitive revolution", Homo sapiens has the ability to create and believe in fictional things and stories
These fictional things and stories include gods, countries, nations, companies, money, human rights, etc. Harari claimed in the book that all large-scale human cooperation systems, including religion, political system, trade, legal system, etc., are due to Homo sapiens’s unique ability to recognize “fictional things and stories”. At the same time, Harari sees money as a system of mutual trust, and views the political and economic system as a system more or less similar to religion.
Agricultural Revolution : Harari’s main point in this chapter is: "Although the agricultural revolution has promoted the growth of Homo sapiens population and the number of co-evolving species such as wheat and cattle, the agricultural revolution ordered Homo sapiens and its domesticated and domesticated animals. The lifestyle and diet of Homo sapiens have become more monotonous and boring, making the quality of life of the vast majority of Homo sapiens and domesticated animals worse than in the era of Homo sapiens hunting-gathering society." In this chapter and the whole book, Harari also used a larger space to introduce the coldness of Homo sapiens towards other animals.
The integration and unity of mankind: The theme of this chapter is that Homo sapiens has gradually moved towards integration and unity in politics and economy in the course of history. He Lali believes that the gradual integration of unified mankind for centuries the main driving force, including the capitalism of free trade , imperialism and expansion of the territorial requirements, and universalism development ideas.
Scientific revolution : Harari believes that the scientific revolution originated in Europe, based on an innovative view of the elites at the time: willing to recognize human ignorance, and hope to remedy their ignorance and gain through scientific research centered on observation and mathematics New capabilities. This view is completely different from the idea that "all important things in the world are already known to man or to God" before the scientific revolution. The recognition of human ignorance has become an important driving force for the development of early European imperialism and the integration of current human culture. In this chapter, Harari also discussed the lack of research on happiness in history, and believes that modern people are not necessarily happier than people in the past.
Homo sapiens attack
In fact, from about 2 million years ago to about 10,000 years ago, there were actually too many individual species at the same time in the entire world . In addition to Homo sapiens, there are Neanderthals, Homo erectus, Thoreaus, Flores, Denisovans, etc.
These different races are distributed in different regions and have different evolutionary characteristics and living habits. If nothing else, they might be able to coexist to this day.
However, an accident occurred.
About 70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens, who had been active in East Africa, suddenly and rapidly expanded to the Arabian Peninsula, and soon swept the entire Eurasian continent.
The expansion of Homo sapiens on the world map is accompanied by bloody massacres. Whenever they arrive at a new location, the local native race will soon become extinct . This cruel genocide (Note 1) lasted until about 10,000 years ago, at which time there was finally only Homo sapiens on earth.
So why did Homo sapiens suddenly have the fighting power to sweep the world?
Harari pointed out that the reason why Homo sapiens suddenly reborn 70,000 years ago was because of their revolutionary development in cognitive abilities.
An accidental genetic mutation changed the way that Homo sapiens' brains are connected, giving them a new way of thinking and communication .
Harari called the great change that happened to Homo sapiens 70,000 years ago as the " cognitive revolution" .
Fictional reality
The cognitive revolution has brought tremendous changes to the lives of Homo sapiens. The most critical point is the birth of new languages .
Homo sapiens’s new language is not the first language in the world. After all, each animal has its own way of communication.
However, Harari believes that after the cognitive revolution, Homo sapiens language has a unique function, that is: "discussing fictitious things . "
What does it mean, that is, only Homo sapiens can talk about things that have never been seen, touched or heard before, and they can speak very well .
For example, before the cognitive revolution, whether it was Homo sapiens or other animals, they could use words to express "careful! There are lions!"; after the cognitive revolution, Homo sapiens could say "the lion is the patron saint of our tribe." " Such words.
Similar fictional stories give Homo sapiens an unprecedented ability, that is, the ability to cooperate on a large scale. A large number of Homo sapiens who do not know each other can work together as long as they also believe in a certain story.
From ancient times to the present, the foundation of any large-scale human cooperation is some kind of fictional story that only exists in the collective imagination.
The foundation of the country is [Country Story] : Two Americans who do not know each other, as long as they both believe that the main body of the United States does exist, they may risk their lives to save each other;
The foundation of the church is [Religious Story] : Two Catholics who have never met before can join the Crusades together because they also believe that God is nailed to the cross;
The foundation of trade activities is [Money Story] : Only when everyone believes that a few colorful pieces of paper are valuable, can this business be done;
The foundation of the judicial system is the [Legal Story] : Two lawyers are at war with each other in court because they both believe that law, justice, and human rights do exist.
However, the above concepts only exist in stories that humans invent and tell each other . Except in the common imagination of mankind, there is no country, no god, no money, and no human rights in this universe.
I was very impressed by a line in a recent TV series: Did you kill or not, you said it, the police said it. We already believe in this;
Before the cognitive revolution, Homo sapiens, like human cousins, chimpanzees, would only rely on social instinct to maintain small groups. Once the group is too large, the social order will collapse and the group will face division. But after the cognitive revolution, Homo sapiens was able to assemble a large number of manpower to cooperate flexibly by telling fictional stories , thus breaking the limit of the number of Homo sapiens groups: and this is the key to the success of Homo sapiens.
For example, if it is a one-on-one singles, a strong Neanderthal should be able to beat Homo sapiens; but if hundreds of people fight in groups, Neanderthals will never win, because They have no effective cooperation mechanism.
Cultural evolution
From the very beginning, Homo sapiens relied on flexible and large-scale cooperation to get rid of other races.
Later, with various larger-scale cooperation, they crossed the threshold of small groups to live together, created cities with tens of thousands of residents, empires with hundreds of millions of people, and step by step into the 21st century.
In this process, human society has become larger and more complex, and the fictional stories that maintain social order have become more detailed and complete. Human beings are surrounded by various fictional stories and concepts from birth to death, and so-called "culture" was born .
The path of "cultural evolution" is obviously much faster than "gene evolution".
Since the cognitive revolution, Homo sapiens can quickly adjust their behaviors according to changing needs and pass on new behaviors to the next generation . This makes our development speed far behind other animals on the earth, step by step to the top of the food chain.
As Harari said , fictional stories bind thousands of individuals, families and groups together like glue. This glue makes us the masters of everything.
And everything originated from the cognitive revolution 70,000 years ago. This is the history of the fortune of mankind.
One step into a god
However, human ambitions obviously go beyond this. Imperialism, capitalism, liberalism, romanticism, consumerism, humanism...you just sing one after another fictional story, I appear on the stage , intertwined with the chaos of human history after the agricultural revolution.
About 500 years ago, the scientific revolution created a new situation for human history and also brought new problems:
In the 21st century, human beings have even begun to try to design life intelligently, trying to break free from the shackles of biology and make themselves a god in one step:
What's more interesting is that in the next "A Brief History of the Future", the author mentioned that mankind is about to usher in the second cognitive revolution , artificial intelligence and algorithms will defeat mankind, and 99% of people will be reduced to a useless class !
Note 1 : Scientists believe that in addition to genocide, Homo sapiens and other races also have mixed breeding behaviors. For example, studies have found that modern Middle Easterners and Europeans have 1% to 4% Neanderthal DNA, and modern Melanesians and Australian aborigines have up to 6% Denisovan DNA.
Note 2 : The so-called "imaginary reality" refers to something that everyone believes, and as long as this common belief still exists, the power is enough to influence the world. Harari believes that since the cognitive revolution, Homo sapiens has been living in a dual reality (objective reality & imaginary reality). With the development of Homo sapiens, imaginary reality has become stronger.
Note 3 : Under natural conditions, the chimpanzee population is generally composed of 20-50 chimpanzees. As the number of chimpanzees increases, the order of the ethnic group will be shaken, and eventually the ethnic group will split, and some members will leave the ethnic group to form another home. Different chimpanzee groups not only rarely cooperate, but also fight to the death for territory and food. Similarly, sociological research points out that the largest "natural" group that humans can maintain is about 150 people. As long as there are less than 150 people, whether it is a community, a company, a social network, or a military unit, as long as everyone knows and exchanges information with each other, it can operate smoothly, without the need to specify formal classes, titles, and standards. However, once the 150-person threshold is broken, if no measures are taken, the "natural" group is likely to collapse.
Note 4 : Since large-scale human cooperation is based on fictitious stories, so long as the story is changed, the way humans cooperate can be changed. In certain situations, fictional stories can change quickly. For example, in 1789, almost overnight, the story that the French believed in changed from "gifted monarchy" to "the people call the shots." In other words, imagine the construction of the total order is at risk of collapse overnight, wants to maintenance of stability, we must continue to invest a lot of effort to maintain the fiction behind these order and adopt some violence or coercion (eg national government needs The army, police, courts and prisons play a role day and night )