This is the history book I’ve been looking for, and I didn’t even know it until I asked you. Sapiens summarizes the evolution of humanity from biological, cultural, and economic lenses.
If you find yourself asking, “How did humanity get here? and why are things so bad? or good?“ you will be surprised at how well this book addresses that question.
My main takeaway is that the biggest difference between us and other species that led to our success is that we can coordinate in very large numbers through fiction.
Dunbar’s number, 150, is the cognitive limit on the number of close relationships in a human group. Thousands of years ago, humans lived in ‘bands’ of up to a few hundred, and the average human never met up to 500 humans in their lifetime.
Chimpanzees still live in similar size ‘bands‘ today. Importantly, if you put thousands of chimpanzees in Times Square, violence would break out!
They don’t share a common myth or belief. But humans can use shared beliefs to coordinate more than 150 people. Money. Religion. Nationalism. These are called inter-subjective realities.
There are three realities according to Sapiens.
Objective reality: These are pure facts. Radiation will kill you whether or not you believe in it. Ask Marie Curie.
Subjective reality: These exist only in one person’s mind. Your childhood imaginary friend, Coco. Coco can’t affect anything or anyone in the real world, and if you stop believing in Coco, Coco no longer exists.
Inter-subjective reality: These exist in the minds of many people. The United States. Google. Money. Just because you stop believing in the United States doesn’t mean it will no longer exist. Yet the country is not defined by its physical land, language, or people alone. It only exists as a concept that many believe in — fiction.
You might ask, “This mass coordination thing with fiction or money isn’t that impressive. Can’t bees and ants coordinate in very large numbers?” Yes, this is true, but it’s a weak kind of teamwork because it’s in their DNA.
You can get a group of humans to sell fax machines and one year later have that group answering customer service phone calls. But in an ant colony, the ants can’t suddenly decide that they don’t want a queen and want to break into independent nations. The gene for being a worker and queen ant is present in every ant's DNA!
But there is no gene in our DNA for being an American, a Muslim, or a Capitalist. We can adapt and believe in new things. Ants cannot.
Money
When people share a belief, then they can cooperate. In fact, money is the first such fiction that unified all of humanity. Before this, we lived in those bands of a few hundred. Then money entered the chat and kicked off globalization.
We progressed from trade by barter in small communities to using monies that have intrinsic value like barley. Then we moved to gold coins because they were easier to store and transport across communities. The difference is that we needed an authority to sign off on the authenticity and value of the coin.
We use the same idea with the US dollar today. But instead, the US government promises that people will accept that dollar from you, not that the $10 note actually contains $10 of gold. In fact, over 90% of the paper dollars out there have no gold equivalent in some vault.
This type of money not backed by concrete value is called fiat money. The dollar only retains its value because we believe in a shared myth that it is valuable.
How to change Cultures
Our interests and desires are all in the context of the Inter-subjective realities we are born into. Law, Money, Gods, Nations. Lawyers, Entrepreneurs, Priests, Presidents.
“We believe in an imagined order not because it is objectively true but because believing in it enables us to cooperate effectively and forge a better society“
And the only way to get rid of an imagined reality is to create a bigger one.
It’s not at all clear why this has to be true, so let’s walk through it.
If I stop believing in Google, that does nothing. It lives on in many other people’s heads. Okay, so I need to convince a large group of people who already believe in Google to stop believing. But we only have one tool to coordinate large groups of humans in one direction — a shared myth that we all believe in.
So the only way to dismantle an existing inter-subjective reality is with a bigger one. Slavery was abandoned for the bigger fiction that is freedom and equality. Google could be dismantled if the law said so.
To get people to stop believing in Brooklyn, you need a bigger myth like NYC. To get people to stop believing in New York City, you would need a bigger myth like the US Constitution.
“There is no way out of the Imagined order. When we break down our prison walls and run towards freedom, we are in fact running into the more spacious exercise yard of a bigger prison “
Mass coordination using fiction teaches us that the way to change group behaviors and actions is through convincing stories.
Thanks for reading my newsletter! Like this post and subscribe for free because the sleeve for your coffee cup at Starbucks is called a Zarf.