Shadowing Practice: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari | Read by Derek Perkins | Penguin Audiobooks - Learn English Speaking with Video
Loading...
1
Brought to you by Penguin Sapiens,
2
a brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari Read by Derek Perkins Part 1.
3
The Cognitive Revolution 1.
4
An Animal of No Significance About 13.5 billion years ago,
5
matter, energy, time, and space came into being in what is known as the Big Bang.
6
The story of these fundamental features of our universe is called physics.
7
About 300,000 years after their appearance, matter and energy started to coalesce into complex structures called atoms.
8
which then combined into molecules.
9
The story of atoms, molecules, and their interactions is called chemistry.
10
About 3.8 billion years ago, on a planet called Earth, certain molecules combined to form particularly large and intricate structures called organisms.
11
The story of organisms is called biology.
12
About 70,000 years ago, organisms belonging to the species Homo sapiens started to form even more elaborate structures called cultures.
13
The subsequent development of these human cultures is called history.
14
Three important revolutions shaped the course of history.
15
The Cognitive Revolution kick-started history about 70,000 years ago.
16
The Agricultural Revolution sped it up about 12,000 years ago.
17
The Scientific Revolution, which got underway only 500 years ago, may well end history and start something completely different.
18
This book tells the story of how these three revolutions have affected humans and their fellow organisms.
19
There were humans long before there was history.
20
Animals much like modern humans first appeared about 2.5 million years ago.
21
But for countless generations they did not stand out from the myriad other organisms with which they shared their habitats.
22
On a hike in East Africa two million years ago, you might well have encountered a familiar cast of human characters, anxious mothers cuddling their babies,
23
and clutches of carefree children playing in the mud, temperamental youths chafing against the dictates of society,
24
and weary elders who just wanted to be left in peace, chest-thumping machos trying to impress the local beauty,
25
and wise old matriarchs who had already seen it all.
26
These archaic humans loved, played, formed close relationships, and competed for status and power,
27
but so did chimpanzees, baboons, and elephants.
28
There was nothing special about humans.
29
Nobody, least of all humans themselves, had any inkling that their descendants would one day walk on the moon,
30
split the atom, fathom the genetic code, and write history books.
31
The most important thing to know about prehistoric humans is
32
that they were insignificant animals with no more impact on their environment than gorillas, fireflies, or jellyfish.
33
Biologists classify organisms into species.
34
Animals are said to belong to the same species if they tend to mate with each other, giving birth to fertile offspring.
35
Horses and donkeys have a recent common ancestor and share many physical traits, but they show little sexual interest in one another.
36
They will mate if induced to do so, but their offspring, called mules, are sterile.
37
Mutations in donkey DNA can therefore never cross over to horses or vice versa.
38
The two types of animals are consequently considered two distinct species, moving along separate evolutionary paths.
39
By contrast, a bulldog and a spaniel may look very different, but they are members of the same species, sharing the same DNA pool.
40
They will happily mate, and their puppies will grow up to pair off with other dogs and produce more puppies.
41
Species that evolved from a common ancestor are bunched together under the heading genus, plural genera.
42
Lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars are different species within the genus panthera.
43
Biologists label organisms with a two-part Latin name, genus followed by species.
44
Lions, for example, are called panthera leo, the species leo of the genus panthera.
45
Presumably everyone listening to this book is a Homo sapiens, the species sapiens, wise, of the genus homo, man.
46
Genera in their turn are grouped into families, such as the cats, lions, cheetahs, housecats, the dogs, wolves,
47
foxes, jackals, and the elephants, elephants, mammoths, mastodons.
48
All members of a family trace their lineage back to a founding matriarch or patriarch.
49
All cats, for example, from the smallest house kitten to the most ferocious lion, share a common feline ancestor who lived about 25 million years ago.
50
Homo sapiens, too, belongs to a family.
51
This banal fact used to be one of history's most closely guarded secrets.
52
Homo sapiens long preferred to view itself as set apart from animals, an orphan bereft of family,
53
lacking siblings or cousins, and, most importantly, without parents.
54
But that's just not the case.
55
Like it or not, we are members of a large and particularly noisy family called the Great Apes.
56
Our closest living relatives include chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.
57
The chimpanzees are the closest.
58
Just six million years ago, a single female ape had two daughters.
59
One became the ancestor of all chimpanzees.
60
The other is our own grandmother.
61
Skeletons in the Closet Homo sapiens has kept hidden an even more disturbing secret.
62
Not only do we possess an abundance of uncivilized cousins, once upon a time we had quite a few brothers and sisters as well.
63
We are used to thinking about ourselves as the only humans, because for the last ten thousand years our species has indeed been the only human species around.
64
Yet the real meaning of the word human is an animal belonging to the genus Homo,
65
and there used to be many other species of this genus besides Homo sapiens.
66
Moreover, as we shall see in the last chapter of the book, in the not-so-distant future we might again have to contend with non-sapiens humans.
67
To clarify this point, I will often use the term sapiens to denote members of the species Homo sapiens,
68
while reserving the term human to refer to all extant members of the genus Homo.
69
Humans first evolved in East Africa about 2.5 million years ago from an earlier genus of apes called Australopithecus,
70
which means southern ape.
71
About two million years ago, some of these archaic men and women left their homeland to journey through and settle vast areas of North Africa,
72
Europe, and Asia.
73
Since survival in the snowy forests of northern Europe required different traits than those needed to stay alive in Indonesia's steaming jungles,
74
human populations evolved in different directions.
75
The result was several distinct species, to each of which scientists have assigned a pompous Latin name.
76
Humans in Europe and Western Asia evolved into Homo neanderthalensis, man from the Neander Valley,
77
popularly referred to simply as Neanderthals.
78
Neanderthals, bulkier and more muscular than us sapiens, were well adapted to the cold climate of Ice Age western Eurasia.
79
The more eastern regions of Asia were populated by Homo erectus, upright man, who survived there for close to two million years,
80
making it the most durable human species ever.
81
This record is unlikely to be broken even by our own species.
82
It is doubtful whether Homo sapiens will still be around a thousand years from now, so two million years is really out of our league.
83
On the island of Java in Indonesia lived Homo soloensis, man from the Solo Valley, who was suited to life in the tropics.
84
On another Indonesian island, the small island of Flores, archaic humans underwent a process of dwarfing.
85
Humans first reached Flores when the sea level was exceptionally low, and the island was easily accessible from the mainland.
86
When the seas rose again, some people were trapped on the island, which was poor in resources.
87
Big people, who need a lot of food, died first.
88
Smaller fellows survived much better.
89
Over the generations, the people of Flores became dwarves.
90
This unique species, known by scientists as Homo floresiensis, reached a maximum height of only 3.5 feet,
91
and weighed no more than 55 pounds.
92
They were nevertheless able to produce stone tools, and even managed occasionally to hunt down some of the island's elephants,
93
though, to be fair, the elephants were a dwarf species as well.
94
In 2010, another lost sibling was rescued from oblivion when scientists excavating the Denisova cave in Siberia discovered a fossilized finger bone.
95
Genetic analysis proved that the finger belonged to a previously unknown human species, which was named Homo denisova.
96
Who knows how many lost relatives of ours are waiting to be discovered in other caves, on other islands, and in other climes.
97
While these humans were evolving in Europe and Asia, evolution in East Africa did not stop.
98
The cradle of humanity continued to nurture numerous new species, such as Homo rudolfensis, man from Lake Rudolph,
99
Homo augaster, working man, and eventually our own species, which we've immodestly named Homo sapiens, wise man.
100
The members of some of these species were massive, and others were dwarves.
101
Some were fearsome hunters, and others meek plant-gatherers.
102
Some lived only on a single island, while many roamed over continents.
103
But all of them belonged to the genus Homo.
104
They were all human beings.
105
It's a common fallacy to envision these species as arranged in a straight line of descent,
106
with Augusta begetting Erectus, Erectus begetting the Neanderthals and the Neanderthals evolving into us.
107
This linear model gives the mistaken impression that at any particular moment only one type of human inhabited the earth,
108
and that all earlier species were merely older models of ourselves.
109
The truth is that from about two million years ago until around ten thousand years ago,
110
the world was home at one and the same time to several human species.
111
And why not?
112
Today there are many species of foxes, bears, and pigs.
113
The earth of a hundred millennia ago was walked by at least six different species of man.
114
It's our current exclusivity, not that multispecies past, that is peculiar, and perhaps incriminating.
115
As we will shortly see, we sapiens have good reasons to repress the memory of our siblings.
116
The Cost of Thinking Despite their many differences, all human species share several defining characteristics.
117
Most notably, humans have extraordinarily large brains compared to other animals.
118
Mammals weighing 130 pounds have an average brain size of 12 cubic inches.
119
The earliest men and women, 2.5 million years ago, had brains of about 36 cubic inches.
120
Modern sapiens sport a brain averaging 73 to 85 cubic inches.
121
Neanderthal brains were even bigger.
122
That evolution should select for larger brains may seem to us like, well, a no-brainer.
123
We are so enamored of our high intelligence that we assume that when it comes to cerebral power, more must be better.
124
But if that were the case, the feline family would also have produced cats who could do calculus.
125
and frogs would by now have launched their own space program.
126
Why are giant brains so rare in the animal kingdom?
127
The fact is that a jumbo brain is a jumbo drain on the body.
128
It's not easy to carry around, especially when encased inside a massive skull.
129
It's even harder to fuel.
130
In Homo sapiens, the brain accounts for about 2-3% of total body weight,
131
but it consumes 25% of the body's energy when the body is at rest.
132
By comparison, the brains of other apes require only 8% of rest-time energy.
133
Archaic humans paid for their large brains in two ways.
134
Firstly, they spent more time in search of food.
135
Secondly, their muscles atrophied.
136
Like a government diverting money from defense to education, humans diverted energy from biceps to neurons.
137
It's hardly a foregone conclusion that this is a good strategy for survival on the savannah.
138
A chimpanzee can't win an argument with the Homo sapiens, but the ape can rip the man apart like a rag doll.
139
Today our big brains pay off nicely, because we can produce cars and guns
140
that enable us to move much faster than chimps and shoot them from a safe distance instead of wrestling.
141
But cars and guns are a recent phenomenon.
142
For more than two million years, human neural networks kept growing and growing, but apart from some flint knives and pointed sticks,
143
humans had precious little to show for it.
144
What then drove forward the evolution of the massive human brain during those two million years?
145
Frankly, we don't know.
146
Another singular human trait is that we walk upright on two legs.
147
Standing up, it's easier to scan the savannah for game or enemies, and arms that are unnecessary for locomotion are freed for other purposes,
148
like throwing stones or signaling.
149
The more things these hands could do, the more successful their owners were,
150
so evolutionary pressure brought about an increasing concentration of nerves and finely tuned muscles in the palms and fingers.
151
As a result, humans can perform very intricate tasks with their hands.
152
In particular, they can produce and use sophisticated tools.
153
The first evidence for tool production dates from about 2.5 million years ago,
154
and the manufacture and use of tools are the criteria by which archaeologists recognize ancient humans.
155
Yet walking upright has its downside.
156
The skeleton of our primate ancestors
157
developed for millions of years to support a creature that walked on all fours and had a relatively small head.
158
Adjusting to an upright position was quite a challenge, especially when the scaffolding had to support an extra-large cranium.
159
Humankind paid for its lofty vision and industrious hands, with backaches and stiff necks.
160
Women paid extra.
161
An upright gait required narrower hips, constricting the birth canal, and this just when babies' heads were getting bigger and bigger.
162
Death in childbirth became a major hazard for human females.
163
Women who gave birth earlier, when the infant's brain and head were still relatively small and supple, fared better and lived to have more children.
164
Natural selection consequently favored earlier births, and indeed, compared to other animals,
165
humans are born prematurely, when many of their vital systems are still underdeveloped.
166
A colt can trot shortly after birth.
167
A kitten leaves its mother to forage on its own when it is just a few weeks old.
168
Human babies are helpless, dependent for many years on their elders for sustenance, protection, and education.
169
This fact has contributed greatly both to humankind's extraordinary social abilities and to its unique social problems.
170
Lone mothers could hardly forage enough food for their offspring and themselves with needy children in tow.
171
Raising children required constant help from other family members and neighbors.
172
It takes a tribe to raise a human.
173
Evolution thus favored those capable of forming strong social ties.
174
In addition, since humans are born underdeveloped, they can be educated and socialized to a far greater extent than any other animal.
175
Most mammals emerge from the womb like glazed earthenware emerging from a kiln.
176
Any attempt at remoulding will only scratch or break them.
177
Humans emerge from the womb like molten glass from a furnace.
178
They can be spun, stretched, and shaped with a surprising degree of freedom.
179
This is why today we can educate our children to become Christian or Buddhist, capitalist or socialist, warlike or peace-loving.
180
We assume that a large brain, the use of tools, superior learning abilities, and complex social structures are huge advantages.
181
It seems self-evident that these have made humankind the most powerful animal on earth.
182
But humans enjoyed all of these advantages for a full two million years, during which they remained weak and marginal creatures.
183
Thus, humans who lived a million years ago, despite their big brains and sharp stone tools, dwelt in constant fear of predators,
184
rarely hunted large game, and subsisted mainly by gathering plants, scooping up insects, stalking small animals,
185
and eating the carrion left behind by other, more powerful carnivores.
186
One of the most common uses of early stone tools was to crack open bones in order to get to the marrow.
187
Some researchers believe this was our original niche.
188
Just as woodpeckers specialize in extracting insects from the trunks of trees, the first humans specialized in extracting marrow from bones.
189
Why marrow?
190
Well, suppose you observe a pride of lions take down and devour a giraffe.
191
You wait patiently until they're done.
192
But it's still not your turn, because first the hyenas and jackals, and you don't dare interfere with them, scavenge the leftovers.
193
Only then would you and your band dare approach the carcass, look cautiously left and right, and dig into the edible tissue that remained.
194
This is a key to understanding our history and psychology.
195
Genus Homo's position in the food chain was, until quite recently, solidly in the middle.
196
For millions of years, humans hunted smaller creatures and gathered what they could, all the while being hunted by larger predators.
197
It was only 400,000 years ago that several species of man began to hunt large game on a regular basis, and only in the last 100,000 years,
198
with the rise of Homo sapiens, that man jumped to the top of the food chain.
199
That spectacular leap from the middle to the top had enormous consequences.
200
Other animals at the top of the pyramid, such as lions and sharks, evolved into that position very gradually over millions of years.
201
This enabled the ecosystem to develop checks and balances that prevent lions and sharks from wreaking too much havoc.
202
As lions became deadlier, so gazelles evolved to run faster, hyenas to cooperate better, and rhinoceroses to be more bad-tempered.
203
In contrast, humankind ascended to the top so quickly that the ecosystem was not given time to adjust.
204
Moreover, humans themselves failed to adjust.
205
Most top predators of the planet are majestic creatures.
206
Millions of years of dominion have filled them with self-confidence.
207
Sapiens, by contrast, is more like a banana republic dictator.
208
Having so recently been one of the underdogs of the savannah, we are full of fear and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous.
209
Many historical calamities, from deadly wars to ecological catastrophes, have resulted from this over-hasty jump.
210
A Race of Cooks A significant step on the way to the top was the domestication of fire.
211
Some human species may have made occasional use of fire as early as 800,000 years ago.
212
By about 300,000 years ago, Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and the forefathers of Homo sapiens were using fire on a daily basis.
213
Humans now had a dependable source of light and warmth, and a deadly weapon against prowling lions.
214
Not long afterwards, humans may even have started deliberately to torch their neighborhoods.
215
A carefully managed fire could turn impassable barren thickets into prime grasslands teeming with game.
216
In addition, once the fire died down, Stone Age entrepreneurs could walk through the smoking remains and harvest charcoaled animals, nuts, and tubers.
217
But the best thing fire did was cook.
218
Foods that humans cannot digest in their natural forms, such as wheat, rice, and potatoes, became staples of our diet thanks to cooking.
219
Fire not only changed food's chemistry, it changed its biology as well.
220
Cooking killed germs and parasites that infested food.
221
Humans also had a far easier time chewing and digesting old favorites such as fruits, nuts, insects, and carrion if they were cooked
222
Whereas chimpanzees spend five hours a day chewing raw food a single hour suffices for people eating cooked food
223
The advent of cooking enabled humans to eat more kinds of food to devote less time to eating
224
and to make do with smaller teeth and shorter intestines
225
Some scholars believe there is a direct link between the advent of cooking, the shortening of the human intestinal tract, and the growth of the human brain.
226
Since long intestines and large brains are both massive energy consumers, it's hard to have both.
227
By shortening the intestines and decreasing their energy consumption, cooking inadvertently opened the way to the jumbo brains of Neanderthals and Sapiens.
228
Fire also opened the first significant gulf between man and the other animals.
229
The power of almost all animals depends on their bodies, the strength of their muscles, the size of their teeth, the breadth of their wings.
230
Though they may harness winds and currents, they are unable to control these natural forces and are always constrained by their physical design.
231
Eagles, for example, identify thermal columns rising from the ground, spread their giant wings, and allow the hot air to lift them upwards.
232
Yet eagles cannot control the location of the columns, and their maximum carrying capacity is strictly proportional to their wingspan.
233
When humans domesticated fire, they gained control of an obedient and potentially limitless force.
234
Unlike eagles, humans could choose when and where to ignite a flame, and they were able to exploit fire for any number of tasks.
235
Most importantly, the power of fire was not limited by the form, structure, or strength of the human body.
236
A single woman with a flint or fire stick could burn down an entire forest in a matter of hours.
237
The domestication of fire was a sign of things to come.
238
Our Brothers Keepers Despite the benefits of fire, 150,000 years ago, humans were still marginal creatures.
239
They could now scare away lions, warm themselves during cold nights, and burn down the occasional forest.
240
Yet, counting all species together, there were still no more than perhaps a million humans living between the Indonesian archipelago and the Iberian Peninsula,
241
a mere blip on the ecological radar.
242
Our own species, Homo sapiens, was already present on the world stage, but so far it was just minding its own business in a corner of Africa.
243
We don't know exactly where and when animals
244
that can be classified as Homo sapiens first evolved from some earlier type of humans, but most scientists agree that by 150,000 years ago,
245
East Africa was populated by sapiens that looked just like us.
246
If one of them turned up in a modern morgue, the local pathologist would notice nothing peculiar.
247
Thanks to the blessings of fire, they had smaller teeth and jaws than their ancestors, whereas they had massive brains, equal in size to ours.
248
Scientists also agree that about 70,000 years ago, sapiens from East Africa spread into the Arabian Peninsula,
249
and from there they quickly overran the entire Eurasian landmass.
250
When Homo sapiens landed in Arabia, most of Eurasia was already settled by other humans.
251
What happened to them?
252
There are two conflicting theories.
253
The interbreeding theory tells a story of attraction, sex, and mingling.
254
As the African immigrants spread around the world, they bred with other human populations, and people today are the outcome of this interbreeding.
255
For example, when sapiens reached the Middle Eastern Europe, they encountered the Neanderthals.
256
These humans were more muscular than sapiens, had larger brains, and were better adapted to cold climes.
257
They used tools and fire, were good hunters, and apparently took care of their sick and infirm.
258
Archaeologists have discovered the bones of of Neanderthals who lived for many years with severe physical handicaps, evidence that they were cared for by their relatives.
259
Neanderthals are often depicted in caricatures as the archetypical brutish and stupid cave people,
260
but recent evidence has changed their image.
261
According to the interbreeding theory, when sapiens spread into Neanderthal lands,
262
sapiens bred with Neanderthals until the two populations merged.
263
If this is the case, then today's Eurasians are not pure sapiens, they are a mixture of sapiens and Neanderthals.
264
Similarly, when sapiens reached East Asia, they interbred with the local erectus, so the Chinese and Koreans are a mixture of sapiens and erectus.
265
The opposing view, called the replacement theory, tells a very different story,
266
one of incompatibility, revulsion, and perhaps even genocide.
267
According to this theory, sapiens and other humans had different anatomies, and most likely different mating habits, and even body odors.
268
They would have had little sexual interest in one another.
269
And even if a Neanderthal Romeo and a sapiens Juliet fell in love, they could not produce fertile children,
270
because the genetic gulf separating the two populations was already unbridgeable.
271
The two populations remained completely distinct, and when the Neanderthals died out or were killed off, their genes died with them.
272
According to this view, sapiens replaced all the previous human populations without merging with them.
273
If that is the case,
274
the lineages of all contemporary humans can be traced back exclusively to East Africa, 70,000 years ago.
275
We are all pure sapiens.
276
A lot hinges on this debate.
277
From an evolutionary perspective, 70,000 years is a relatively short interval.
278
If the replacement theory is correct, all living humans have roughly the same genetic baggage,
279
and racial distinctions among them are negligible.
280
But if the interbreeding theory is right, there might well be genetic differences between Africans,
281
Europeans, and Asians that go back hundreds of thousands of years.
282
This is political dynamite, which could provide material for explosive racial theories.
283
In recent decades, the replacement theory has been the common wisdom in the field.
284
It had firmer archaeological backing and was more politically correct.
285
Scientists had no desire to open up the Pandora's box of racism by claiming significant genetic diversity among modern human populations.
286
But that ended in 2010, when the results of a four-year effort to map the Neanderthal genome were published.
287
Geneticists were able to collect enough intact Neanderthal DNA from fossils to make a broad comparison between it
288
and the DNA of contemporary humans.
289
The results stunned the scientific community.
290
It turned out
291
that 1 to 4% of the unique human DNA of modern populations in the Middle East and Europe is Neanderthal DNA.
292
That's not a huge amount, but it's significant.
293
A second shock came several months later, when DNA extracted from the fossilized finger from Denisovir was mapped.
294
The results proved that up to 6% of the unique human DNA of modern Melanesians and Aboriginal Australians is Denisovan DNA.
295
If these results are valid, and it's important to keep in mind that further research is underway and may either reinforce or modify these conclusions,
296
the interbreeders got at least some things right.
297
But that doesn't mean that the replacement theory is completely wrong.
298
Since Neanderthals and Denisovans contributed only a small amount of DNA to our present-day genome,
299
it is possible to speak of a merger between sapiens and other human species.
300
Although differences between them were not large enough to completely prevent fertile intercourse, they were sufficient to make such contacts very rare.
301
How then should we understand the biological relatedness of sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans?
302
Clearly, they were not completely different species, like horses and donkeys.
303
On the other hand, they were not just different populations of the same species, like bulldogs and spaniels.
304
Biological reality is not black and white.
305
There are also important gray areas.
306
Every two species that evolved from a common ancestor, such as horses and donkeys, were at one time just two populations of the same species,
307
like bulldogs and spaniels.
308
There must have been a point when the two populations were already quite different from one another, but still capable on rare occasions of having sex and producing fertile offspring.
309
Then another mutation severed this last connecting thread, and they went their separate evolutionary ways.
310
It seems that about 50,000 years ago, Sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans were at that borderline point.
311
They were almost, but not quite, entirely separate species.
312
As we shall hear in the next chapter, sapiens were already very different from Neanderthals and Denisovans, not only in their genetic code and physical traits,
313
but also in their cognitive and social abilities.
314
Yet it appears it was still just possible, on rare occasions, for a sapiens and a Neanderthal to produce a fertile offspring.
315
So the populations did not merge, but a few lucky Neanderthal genes did hitch a ride on the Sapiens Express.
316
It is unsettling, and perhaps thrilling,
317
to think that we Sapiens could at one time have sex with an animal from a different species and produce children together.
318
But if the Neanderthals, Denisovans, and other human species didn't merge with Sapiens, why did they vanish?
319
One possibility is that Homo sapiens drove them to extinction.
320
Imagine a sapiens band reaching a Balkan valley where Neanderthals had lived for hundreds of thousands of years.
321
The newcomers began to hunt the deer and gather the nuts and berries that were the Neanderthals' traditional staples.
322
Sapiens were more proficient hunters and gatherers, thanks to better technology and superior social skills, so they multiplied and spread.
323
The less resourceful Neanderthals found it increasingly difficult to feed themselves.
324
Their population dwindled and they slowly died out, except perhaps for one or two members who joined their sapiens neighbors.
325
Another possibility is that competition for resources flared up into violence and genocide.
326
Tolerance is not a sapiens trademark.
327
In modern times, a small difference in skin color, dialect, or religion has been enough to prompt one group of sapiens to set about exterminating another group.
328
Would ancient sapiens have been more tolerant towards an entirely different human species?
329
It may well be that when sapiens encountered Neanderthals, the result was the first and most significant ethnic cleansing campaign in history.
330
Whichever way it happened, the Neanderthals and the other human species pose one of history's great what-ifs.
331
Imagine how things might have turned out had the Neanderthals or Denisovans survived alongside Homo sapiens.
332
What kind of cultures, societies, and political structures would have emerged in a world where several different human species coexisted?
333
How, for example, would religious faiths have unfolded?
334
Would the book of Genesis have declared that Neanderthals descend from Adam and Eve?
335
Would Jesus have died for the sins of the Denisovans?
336
and would the Koran have reserved seats in heaven for all righteous humans, whatever their species?
337
Would Neanderthals have been able to serve in the Roman legions, or in the sprawling bureaucracy of imperial China?
338
Would the American Declaration of Independence hold as a self-evident truth that all members of the genus Homo are created equal?
339
Would Karl Marx have urged workers of all species to unite?
340
Over the past 10,000 years, Homo sapiens has grown so accustomed to being the only human species
341
that it's hard for us to conceive of any other possibility.
342
Our lack of brothers and sisters makes it easier to imagine that we are the epitome of creation,
343
and that a chasm separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.
344
When Charles Darwin indicated that Homo sapiens was just another kind of animal, people were outraged.
345
Even today, many refuse to believe it.
346
Had the Neanderthals survived, would we still imagine ourselves to be a creature apart?
347
Perhaps this is exactly why our ancestors wiped out the Neanderthals.
348
They were too familiar to ignore, but too different to tolerate.
349
Whether sapiens are to blame or not, no sooner had they arrived at a new location than the native population became extinct.
350
The last remains of Homo soloensis are dated to about 50,000 years ago.
351
Homo denisover disappeared shortly thereafter.
352
Neanderthals made their exit roughly 30,000 years ago.
353
The last dwarf-like humans vanished from Flores Island about 12,000 years ago.
354
They left behind some bones, stone tools, a few genes in our DNA, and a lot of unanswered questions.
355
They also left behind us, Homo sapiens, the last human species.
356
What was the sapiens' secret of success?
357
How did we manage to settle so rapidly in so many distant and ecologically different habitats?
358
How did we push all other human species into oblivion?
359
Why couldn't even the strong, brainy, cold-proof Neanderthals survive our onslaught?
360
The debate continues to rage.
361
The most likely answer is the very thing that makes the debate possible.
362
Homo sapiens conquered the world thanks above all to its unique language.
363
for more audiobook samples and videos with your favorite authors.
364
See you next time.
Understanding the Context: A Journey Through Human History
The video introduces Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens, tracing the story of humankind from the Big Bang to the rise of cultures. It explains key revolutions—Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific—and classifies humans within the biological world, comparing us to other species. This rich, narrative-driven content is ideal for practicing English comprehension and pronunciation, as it blends complex ideas with accessible language.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "coalesce into": To come together to form a single group or structure (e.g., "Clouds coalesced into a storm").
- "chafing against": Feeling irritated by a rule or restriction (e.g., "Teens often chafe against curfews").
- "inkling": A slight idea or suspicion (e.g., "I had no inkling she was leaving").
- "myriad": A large, indefinite number (e.g., "There are myriad ways to cook rice").
- "fathom": To understand something deeply (e.g., "I can’t fathom why he left").
Step-by-Step Shadowing Guide for This Video
The shadowing technique—repeating speech immediately after a speaker—works well here. Follow these steps to improve English pronunciation and fluency:
- Listen first: Watch the video once to grasp the main ideas. Focus on Derek Perkins' steady pace and clear enunciation.
- Break it down: Pause after 5-10 second segments. Repeat each line, mimicking the tone and rhythm. Pay attention to stressed words like "Cognitive Revolution" or "Homo sapiens."
- Focus on tricky sounds: Words like "coalesce" (koh-uh-LES) or "fathom" (FATH-um) have specific phonetics. Use the shadowing technique to practice these until they feel natural.
- Speed up gradually: Once comfortable, try shadowing without pausing. This trains your brain to process and reproduce language in real time, a key part of shadow speak.
- Record and compare: Record yourself and listen back. Note differences in pronunciation or pacing, then adjust. This helps refine your shadow speech skills over time.
Practicing with this video’s engaging content makes shadowing enjoyable while building confidence in understanding and speaking English.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.