Week 9: What Comes Next?

Hello West Hill Sapiens!

What a wonderful time we've had together these past months; the rich thoughtful conversation, the laughs, the coming together of old friends and the welcoming of new ones have made this session of the book study a wonderful success.

But we are not quite done yet!

This Friday, May 5, we hope you will join us one more time for our pot-luck dinner of finger foods and treats, and we are counting on you to bring new (or re-plugged) book titles for consideration as our next book for the fall/winter study session.

Marion Cruickshank has warmly offered to open her doors to the group for this special meeting, so this Friday May 5th head over to 67 Satok Terrace.  MAP.

Please join me in thanking Deb Ellis, Wei Djao and Ken Bole who have been excellent facilitators and the most wonderful binding for our group. Special thanks to those who pinch hit when we needed you, who could ask for more!

It's been wonderful to have you along for the read.

See you all soon,

annie​ ​

Week 8: April 21: Chapters 19, 20 and Afterword

Chapter 19: And They Lived Happily Ever After

1. Happiness. How do you define happiness and how do you know when you are “happy”?

2. If money and illness don’t affect happiness levels over time, then what does? How do

expectations or comparisons play a role?

3. Why do we seem to need pharmaceutical interventions so much more now, than in the

past?

4. To what degree is genetics responsible for our happiness? (Keeping us at certain levels?)

5. Does marriage produce happiness, or happiness produce marriages? :)

6. Pg. 391 Meaning in life. The author argues that “any meaning people ascribe to their lives is

just a delusion.” Thoughts?

7. Does happiness depend on self-delusion?

8. Buddhist meditation practices - ‘People are liberated from suffering not when they

experience fleeting pleasures, but rather when they understand the impermanent nature of

feelings and stop chasing them.’ Agree/Disagree? Anyone using these practices willing to

share your experiences?

Chapter 20: The End of Homo Sapiens

1. Is our scientific intelligence (e.g., our ability to modify genes) outpacing our ethical/moral

intelligence?

2. How do you feel about GMOs? Would you eat a potato that had some genes from an Arctic

fish (to be frost-resistant)? What about bacon from a pig with a worm-gene to make it

healthier?

3. If we are able to bring back species like Wooly Mammoths and Neanderthals, should we?

What rights would that Neanderthal man or woman have? Would we have the right to take

his/her life at a certain age (18?) to examine the brain to “identify what biological change

produced consciousness”?

4. How far do we go? E.g., Cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Would healthy people use it to get

super-memories? Implications? How will money play a role in these decisions?

5. pg. 407: Currently looking to develop “a direct two-way brain-computer interface that will

allow computers to read the electrical signals of a human brain, simultaneously transmitting

signals that the brain can read in turn.” The author asks the following questions:

1. What if they can link a brain directly to the Internet?

2. What if they can link several brains to each other?

3. What might happen to human memory, human consciousness and human identity if the

the brain has direct access to a collective memory bank? Would people lose individual

identities?

6. Pg. 408 Suppose you could back up your brain to a portable hard drive and then run it on

your laptop. Would your laptop be able to think and feel just like a Sapiens? If so, would it

be you, or someone else?

7. What if computer programmers could create an entirely new but digital mind, composed of

computer code, complete with a sense of self, consciousness and memory? If you ran the

program, would it be a person? If you deleted it, could you be charged with murder?

8. Personalized medicine - matches treatment to DNA. But what about privacy? Do insurance

companies get access to our info? Can they refuse us if we have genetic predispositions for

ailments?

9. Do you believe that scientists will be able to engineer spirits as well as bodies? Will there

be something/one that will “look at us as condescendingly as we look at the Neanderthals”?

10. “The real question facing us is not ‘What do we want to become?’, but ‘What do we want to

want’? What does this mean?

Afterword: The Animal That Became a God

1. “We have advanced from canoes to galleys to steamships to space shuttles - but nobody

knows where we’re going.” :) Where do you think we’re going?

2. The author asks his final question: “Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and

irresponsible gods who don't know what they want?”

 

Week 7: April 7: Chapters 16, 17 and 18

Our readings for this week, for those who like to keep up, are Chapters 16, The Capitalist Creed, Chapter 17,  The Wheels of Industry, and Chapter 18,  A Permanent Revolution. However, even if you've fallen a little behind, please come out regardless to enjoy good conversation, make closer friendships, and hopefully broaden and deepen your perspective. Who knows how much longer Sapiens will be here?

Chapter 16: The Capitalist Creed

1. 307- “What enables banks - and the entire economy - to survive and flourish is our trust in the future.  This trust is the sole backing for most of the money in the world.”

308 “Credit enables us to build the present at the expense of the future. It’s founded on the assumption that our future resources are sure to be far more abundant than our present resources.”

Is that human foolishness or brilliance at work, here?

2. Business looked like a zero-sum game…You could cut the pie in many different ways, but it never got any bigger.”  This meant that, if one person got ‘richer’, someone else must be getting poorer - which explains why so many cultures developed a bias against wealth (as sinful).

311 - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations .“…[A]n increase in the profits of private entrepreneurs is the basis for the increase in collective wealth and prosperity.”

i.e. Greed is good; by becoming richer I benefit everybody, not just myself. Egoism IS altruism.

Greed is good for the collective. Being rich meant being moral.

Are there any ways in which Smith’s theory was right?  What was problematic about it? 

3. 322 “Today some people warn that twenty-first century corporations are accumulating too much power.”

Agree or disagree?

4. 323 - Story of the Mississippi shares - people given a fantasy story, sold everything to invest — believed they’d found “the easy way to riches.”

323-4:  Mississippi story  -  stocks became worthless; the big speculators sold in time and emerged unscathed.  The little guys lost everything - many committed suicide.

What IS that, in humans?  When will we learn?  Similarities to the Bernie Madoff story of the last few years — a recent suicide connected to him, just this month.  

5. 329  - The rise of European capitalism - hand in hand with rise of Atlantic slave trade. 

“Unrestrained market forces, rather than tyrannical kings or racist ideologues, were responsible for this calamity.” 331 - “did not stem from racist hatred towards africans - those involved rarely thought about the africans.”

Also the Great Bengal Famine - financed by upstanding Dutch - loved their kids, gave to charity — but had no regard for the suffering of 10 million Bengalis.  

How is it that a human can be kind and good in many ways, yet participate in something horrific and be indifferent to others’ suffering?

6. Capitalism - 2 answers to its critics:

1.      capitalism has created a world that nobody but a capitalist could run

2.     paradise is just around the corner - the pie will grow and everyone will get a bigger piece (never equitable, but enough to satisfy everyone)

Do you agree with either of these arguments, and why?

Chapter 17:  The Wheels of Industry - The Industrial Revolution

1. 341 ‘Life on the Conveyor Belt’

“The Industrial Revolution was above all else, the Second Agricultural Revolution.” 

What does he mean? 

2. “Farm animals stopped being viewed as living creatures that could feel pain and distress, and instead came to be treated as machines.” “The industry has no intrinsic interest in the animals’ social and psychological needs (except when these have a direct impact on production).”

“Just as the Atlantic slave trade did not stem from hatred towards Africans, so the modern animal industry is not motivated by animosity.  Again, it is fuelled by indifference.”

What are the similarities or differences in these two instances?

3. 347 “The Age of Shopping”

A new ethic:  Consumerism

For most of history - scarcity, frugality, austere ethics

Today - we buy countless products we don’t really need, and that until yesterday we didn’t know existed.

What are the outcomes of this for us as individuals, as society, as a world?

4.349

Previous ethical systems - paradise, but only if you overcome all your vices. Here, it’s the opposite - this ethic allows you to give in to all of them. 

 

Chapter 18:  A Permanent Revolution

1.352 - Time, clocks

Subject only to the movements of the sun and the growth cycles of plants.

No uniform working day.  Modern industry care little about the sun or the season. It sanctifies precision and uniformity.

Do you think this has been a good/helpful change for most of humanity?
How has being on the clock affected you, for good or for ill?

2. He points out (355) that we are surrounded by things showing us the time, all the time.

How does that affect your psyche? Is this similar to always having your phone in hand, always ‘being connected’?  Do you experience more joy or relaxation when you don’t know the time, or does that make you anxious?

3.Collapse of the Family and Community

Before - the nuclear, extended or community family took care of all our needs

Now - the state does.  Health, construction, education, law and order, etc.

That has had good and bad outcomes - where would you say the balance lies?  Are we better off with more from the state and market, and less dependence on family? 

4. The mantra was, “Become individuals”, “be more independent.” 

Do you think we have become either of those things?

5. 365 He argues that it’s almost impossible to identify a defining attribute of our time, except for constant change - like defining the colour of a chameleon.

What would YOU say is a defining attribute of our time?

6. 366

“Real peace is not the mere absence of war.  Real peace is the implausibility of war.” 

The law of the jungle - plausible scenario of war within one year.  Today, for most polities, there is no plausible scenario leading to full-scale conflict within one year. 

How does that make you feel?  Relieved? Surprised? Doubtful/skeptical?

7. 372

“Never before has peace been so prevalent that people could not even imagine war.”

The following were some of the reasons he cites as to why we live in a time where people can hardly imagine a war.  Do you believe these reasons are enough to prevent another world war?

1.     The price of war has gone up dramatically

2.     Wealth today cannot be plundered and taken - it’s human capital and technical know-how

3.     Peace is more lucrative than ever - foreign trade and investments have become all-important

4.     Global political culture has shifted - the elites see war as bad and avoidable.

5.     The ‘tightening web of international connections erodes the independence of most countries,’ lessening the chance of one of them starting a conflict.

Week 6: March 24: Chapetsr 14 and 15

Those of you still on schedule will have read Chapter 14, The Discovery of Ignorance, and Chapter 15, The Marriage of Science and Empire by now. If you haven't yet, no problem, you can read it when you're ready. Or not...

Chapter 14: The Discovery of Ignorance

1.     Pgs 249-250 - Harari writes, “Science needs more than just research to make progress. It depends on the mutual reinforcement of science, politics and economics.”

How has scientific development been influenced by politics and economics? How do you see that happening today?  Should this be happening?  Why or why not?

2.     pg 251 - “The Scientific Revolution has not been a revolution of knowledge. It has been above all a revolution of ignorance.”

What did he mean by this? How does modern science’s view of ignorance compare to how the ancient traditions viewed ignorance?

3. Pg. 254 - “One of the things that has made it possible for modern social orders to hold together is the spread of an almost religious belief in technology and in the methods of scientific research, which have replaced to some extent the belief in absolute truths.”

Is human society exchanging religious belief in deities for religious belief in science and technology?  What does that mean? Is this good or bad?

4. pg. 256  - “Newton showed that the book of nature is written in the language of Mathematics.” 

What is your reaction to this?

5. Pg. 262 - “Today many Americans believe that the solution to terrorism is technological rather than political.”  E.g. Nanotechnology for bionic spy-flies; brain research for FMRI scanners to read people’s thoughts, etc.

a)    Do you agree that the solution to terrorism is technological; why/ why not?

b)    Should tax dollars be put toward these endeavours?  (If not, why not?  If so, what would you take the money from, in order to put it here?)

c)    If these were already developed, what would be your rules about how they should be used?  E.g., Ok to use, but only in foreign countries (e.g., spy flies)? Would you vote for or against brain scanners/thought readers being used at Pearson Airport, if it made it safer to fly?

d)    What are you thoughts on this, in the current climate of Russia-gate in the US, and the reports of TVs being used to spy on people?

7. “People still suffer from numerous degradations, humiliations and poverty-related illnesses, but in most countries nobody is starving to death. In fact, in many societies more people are in danger of dying from obesity than from starvation.”

Your thoughts? 

8. Pg. 267-271 - For science - death is a ‘technical problem’; people die technical failures - heart attack, cancer, infections. The leading project of the Scientific Revolution is to give humankind eternal life. A few serious scholars suggest that by 2050, some humans will become a-mortal.”

Do you think this immortality is a wise and moral use of resources today (why/why not)?

Can you imagine the world in 2050, from a science/technology perspective?  What does it look like?  Would you want to live in that world, as you imagine it?

9. Pg. 272 - 274  “Most scientific studies are funded because somebody believes they can help attain some political, economic or religious goal. To channel limited resources we must answer questions such a ‘what is more important?’ and ‘what is good?’  And these are not scientific questions….Science is unable to set its own priorities.

Where do morals, ethics, philosophy etc. come into play in the decisions re: what to fund and what not? If you were the King/Queen and could make the decisions/ set the priorities, how would you handle this?  What ideologies could help make those choices? Could you create one? 

Chapter 15: The Marriage of Science and Empire

1.      Harari argues that the “Scientific Revolution and Imperialism are inseparable.” What does he mean?  Some examples?

2.     Pg. 284 - “European imperialism was entirely unlike all other imperial projects in history.  Previous seekers of empire tended to assume that they already understood the world. Conquest merely utilized and spread their view of the world…In contrast, European imperialists set out to distant shores in the hope of obtaining new knowledge along with new territories.”

3. p 285 - The story - or legend - about an encounter between astronauts-in-training and a Native American has a pretty powerful ending. 
What were your thoughts/reactions to that?

4. Pg. 286 -  The Empty Maps.

Imagine living in a time when there was no certain map of the earth.  Columbus was so sure that the scriptures and his current understanding of the world were right that even when he literally landed on information to the contrary, he still refused to believe it.

Do you think it’s possible we have similar blind spots today, as individuals and/or as a nation? A world? What might they be? What stops us from seeing them?

5. P 290 -291 - The Chinese also sent out explorers (Zheng He) - in fact, with far more ships, and far larger crews. The difference?  He did not try to conquer or colonize the countries he visited.  “What made Europeans exceptions was not their outstanding technological edge - it was their unparalleled and insatiable ambition to explore and conquer. The Europeans were the oddity - “…to sail to distant and completely unknown lands full of alien cultures, take one step onto their beaches, and immediately declare, “I claim all these territories for my king!”

Why do you think the Chinese explorers had such a different mindset from the Europeans?  How might the world look today, if everyone had gone out with a similar viewpoint/mindset to the Chinese (for good, or for ill)?

6. Pg. 300 - 301

Knowledge really was power for the European conquerers - in what sense(s)? 

7. Pg. 301 

What was the “White Man’s Burden”?

8. Pg.  302 - 304 - “The place of racism in imperial ideology has now been replaced by ‘culturalism’…We no longer say, ‘It’s in their blood.’  We say, ‘It’s in their culture.’”

How do you see that playing out in the world today?  What’s the danger?

Week 5: March 10 Questions (Chapters 11, 12 and 13 (?):

This week we are following through on Jeanne's great idea from our last gathering: YOU bring the questions! After going around the room, it was felt to be a good time for each of us to take on the responsibility for coming up with questions or passages that were of interest to each of ourselves. You can use a hi-liter, make notes, or (heaven forbid!) fold over the top corner of a page - anyway way you choose, but please come prepared to share your own discussion points.

Week 4: Feb 24 Questions (Chapt 8, 9, 10)

Chapter 8 concludes Part Two (The Agricultural Revolution). Chapter 9 and 10 introduce Part Three (The Unification of Humankind). The whole book, though, seems based on the idea that the world has been made smaller by homo sapiens in that thousands and thousands of people unknown to each other for thousands and thousands of years gradually morphed into a single culture common to the whole planet. The questions that follow are intended to highlight specific points made in each section of each chapter. The truths that flow from them might be summarized in questions such as, What’s next: where are we as homo sapiens going? Is there any turning back? Why are so many people afraid of (or enthusiastic about) world trade, world government, and world unity? How do we resolve disputes that threaten world peace?  
   

CHAPTER 8: There is No Justice in History

1.     What do Hammurabi, Aristotle, the Brahmins, the Shudras, and the authors of the American Declaration of Independence have in common? What fictions support their views? How are these views sustained in contemporary society?

The Vicious Circle

2.     How have concepts of purity and pollution enforced social and political divisions between people?

Purity in America

3.     Why did the lot of the slaves not improve after the American Civil War? What was the impact of the Jim Crow laws (de jure in the South; de facto in the North)?

He and She

4.     What does it mean to say that biology enables, while culture forbids?

5.     Is it natural for an insect to fly or a chimpanzee to use sex to cement political alliances?

Sex and Gender

6.     What is the difference between sex and gender?

What’s so Good About Men

7.     Is there some universal biological reason why almost everyone valued manhood over womanhood?

Muscle Power

8.     Could boxing matches have produced better pharaohs and better popes? (cf Trudeau)

The Scum of Society

9.     How did the militarily challenged Caesar Augustus establish a stable empire?

10.  Could a woman have done so as easily?

Patriarchal Genes

11.  Why ae human woman less likely to play dominant roles in their societies than elephant females in theirs?

CHAPTER 9: The Arrow Of History

12.  What is cognitive dissonance? How is it evident in Christianity, American politics, and Muslim culture? Is it like doublespeak in 1984?

The Spy Satellite

13.  Does the inexorable trend toward unity really bring the New York stockbroker and the Afghan together? If so, what’s next?

The Global Vision

14.  Why can Osama Bib Laden be said to have transcended the binary evolutionary division (us vs them) of homo sapiens?

CHAPTER 10: The Scent of Money

15.  Why did Muslim merchants accept gold coins having the sign of the cross?

How Much Is It?

16.  What is the problem with the barter system? Why did it not work for the Soviet Union?

Shells and Cigarettes

17.  How was it possible to convert forbidden sex into salvation?

How Does Money work?

18.  Why have people trusted money for as long as 5,000 years? When have they not trusted it?

The Gospel of Gold

19.  How does money unify the world? What can challenge that unity?

The Price of Money

20.  Why is money not enough?

Week 3: Feb 10 Questions (Chapt 5, 6, 7)

 Chapter 5: History's Biggest Fraud

 

1.  What was the agricultural revolution according to Harari?  What were the effects?

2.  P. 81 “We did not domesticate wheat.  It domesticated us.” 

Explain whether you agree or disagree.

3. What is the luxury trap?

 Chapter 6: Building Pyramids

 

4.  P. 101  “These forfeited food surpluses fueled politics, wars, art and philosophy. They built palaces, forts, monuments and temples. . . . History is something that very few people have been doing while everyone else was ploughing fields and carrying water buckets.”

Is history simply something “done” by very few people?  Discuss.

5.  P. 102  “The problem at the root of such calamities (conflicts, collapse of social order, etc.) is that human evolved for millions of years in small bands of a few dozen individuals.  The handful of millennia separating the Agricultural Revolution from the appearance of cities, kingdoms and empires was not enough time to allow an instinct for mass cooperation to evolve.”

People often used words such as “instinct,” “human nature,” and “culture” when they try to explain something that they are NOT too clear about.  What is your understanding of “instinct” in the quote?  Do you agree with the author in his use of “instinct” in explaining the lack of cooperation among Sapiens?

6.  Chapters 5 and 6:  The author seems to argue that the Agricultural Revolution, including planning for the future, brought Sapiens stress and troubles instead of a better life.

Do you think so? Explain.

7.  P. 103  Empires became linked to standing armies around 2250 BCE.  How did the Agricultural Revolution influence the development of empires and standing army?

8.  Pp. 105 – 109  How are both the Code of Hammurabi and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of 1776 myths of history serving as cooperation manuals among large numbers of people?

9.  Pp. 108 -110  Harari quotes the famous line from the American Declaration of Independence and then translates the line into biological terms.  Do you agree with the author’s reasons for the change?  Why or why not?

 Chapter 7: Memory Overload

 

10.  Ch. 7  What is an imagined order?  Why is it necessary in a Sapiens society?  Give examples from the book or your own experience.

11.  Pp. 130 – 132  About the language of numbers and its various “descendants,” Harari writes:  “Writing was born as the maidservant of human consciousness, but is increasingly becoming its master.”   Do you agree or disagree?  Explain.