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.