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Boudewijn's Reviews > Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
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by
Boudewijn's review
bookshelves: english, non-fiction, audio, downloaded, on-ipod, favorites
Jun 25, 2015
bookshelves: english, non-fiction, audio, downloaded, on-ipod, favorites
Once in a while you’ll discover a book that truly leaves a mark. This is one of those books.
I read Jared Diamond’s “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed� (review here) and remember being blown away with it. This book deserves its place next to this master work.
The animal that became a God
70.000 years ago, Homo Sapiens was an animal just as all other animals, trying to survive just like everybody else in a corner of Africa. Today, this animal is rapidly destroying the ecosystem, is without any doubt the master of the Earth and stands at the threshold of becoming a God: on the verge of creating eternal youth, and acquiring the divine abilities of creation and destruction.
Unfortunately, we have so far produced little that we can be proud of. Did we decrease the amount of suffering in the world? Were we able to improve the suffering? And what do we want to achieve?
We have advanced from canoes to space shuttles, but nobody knows where we’re going. We’re more powerful than ever, but we don’t know what to do with this power. As Gods, with only the laws of physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no-one.
Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible Gods who don’t know what they want?
I read Jared Diamond’s “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed� (review here) and remember being blown away with it. This book deserves its place next to this master work.
The animal that became a God
70.000 years ago, Homo Sapiens was an animal just as all other animals, trying to survive just like everybody else in a corner of Africa. Today, this animal is rapidly destroying the ecosystem, is without any doubt the master of the Earth and stands at the threshold of becoming a God: on the verge of creating eternal youth, and acquiring the divine abilities of creation and destruction.
Unfortunately, we have so far produced little that we can be proud of. Did we decrease the amount of suffering in the world? Were we able to improve the suffering? And what do we want to achieve?
We have advanced from canoes to space shuttles, but nobody knows where we’re going. We’re more powerful than ever, but we don’t know what to do with this power. As Gods, with only the laws of physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no-one.
Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible Gods who don’t know what they want?
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Quotes Boudewijn Liked
“History is something that very few people have been doing while everyone else was ploughing fields and carrying water buckets.”
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Reading Progress
June 25, 2015
–
Started Reading
June 25, 2015
– Shelved
June 25, 2015
– Shelved as:
english
June 25, 2015
– Shelved as:
non-fiction
June 25, 2015
– Shelved as:
audio
June 25, 2015
– Shelved as:
downloaded
June 25, 2015
– Shelved as:
on-ipod
July 8, 2015
–
50.0%
July 20, 2015
– Shelved as:
favorites
July 20, 2015
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-6 of 6 (6 new)
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by
Dimitri
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rated it 4 stars
Jul 20, 2015 12:26PM
moet via de bib niet moeilijk te vinden zijn, thx
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Outstanding review! I just put this book on my TBR-list and gave it some priority.
Lilo wrote: "Outstanding review! I just put this book on my TBR-list and gave it some priority."Hi Lilo, thanks! If there is a book that should be on the top of your TBR list, it's this one :-)
Any opinion on this critique? 
Certainly dangerous for him to presume that HE understands the past and present, let alone what is next, while completely ignoring and/or misinterpreting many significant developments. :(
If Donald Trump should get elected into the White House, I'll start a petition to have the "sapiens" removed from "homo sapiens".
