Sapiens: a brief History of Humankind

New ability
Wider consequences
The ability to transmit larger quantities of
information about the world surrounding 
Homo
sapiens
Planning and carrying out
complex actions, such as
avoiding lions and hunting
bison
The ability to transmit larger quantities of
information about Sapiens social relationships
Larger and more cohesive
groups, numbering up to 150
individuals
The ability to transmit information about things
that do not really exist, such as tribal spirits,
nations, limited liability companies, and human
rights
a. Cooperation between very
large numbers of strangers
b. Rapid innovation of social
behaviour
History and Biology
The immense diversity of imagined realities that Sapiens invented, and the
resulting diversity of behaviour patterns, are the main components of what we
call ‘cultures’. Once cultures appeared, they never ceased to change and develop,
and these unstoppable alterations are what we call ‘history’.
The Cognitive Revolution is accordingly the point when history declared its
independence from biology. Until the Cognitive Revolution, the doings of all
human species belonged to the realm of biology, or, if you so prefer, prehistory (I
tend to avoid the term ‘prehistory’, because it wrongly implies that even before
the Cognitive Revolution, humans were in a category of their own). From the
Cognitive Revolution onwards, historical narratives replace biological theories as
our primary means of explaining the development of 
Homo sapiens
. To understand
the rise of Christianity or the French Revolution, it is not enough to comprehend
the interaction of genes, hormones and organisms. It is necessary to take into
account the interaction of ideas, images and fantasies as well.
This does not mean that 
Homo sapiens
and human culture became exempt from
biological laws. We are still animals, and our physical, emotional and cognitive
abilities are still shaped by our DNA. Our societies are built from the same building
blocks as Neanderthal or chimpanzee societies, and the more we examine these

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building blocks – sensations, emotions, family ties – the less di erence we nd
between us and other apes.
It is, however, a mistake to look for the di erences at the level of the individual
or the family. One on one, even ten on ten, we are embarrassingly similar to
chimpanzees. Signi cant di erences begin to appear only when we cross the
threshold of 150 individuals, and when we reach 1,000–2,000 individuals, the
di erences are astounding. If you tried to bunch together thousands of
chimpanzees into Tiananmen Square, Wall Street, the Vatican or the headquarters
of the United Nations, the result would be pandemonium. By contrast, Sapiens
regularly gather by the thousands in such places. Together, they create orderly
patterns – such as trade networks, mass celebrations and political institutions –
that they could never have created in isolation. The real di erence between us
and chimpanzees is the mythical glue that binds together large numbers of
individuals, families and groups. This glue has made us the masters of creation.
Of course, we also needed other skills, such as the ability to make and use tools.
Yet tool-making is of little consequence unless it is coupled with the ability to
cooperate with many others. How is it that we now have intercontinental missiles
with nuclear warheads, whereas 30,000 years ago we had only sticks with int
spearheads? Physiologically, there has been no signi cant improvement in our
tool-making capacity over the last 30,000 years. Albert Einstein was far less
dexterous with his hands than was an ancient hunter-gatherer. However, our
capacity to cooperate with large numbers of strangers has improved dramatically.
The ancient int spearhead was manufactured in minutes by a single person, who
relied on the advice and help of a few intimate friends. The production of a
modern nuclear warhead requires the cooperation of millions of strangers all over
the world – from the workers who mine the uranium ore in the depths of the earth
to theoretical physicists who write long mathematical formulas to describe the
interactions of subatomic particles.
To summarise the relationship between biology and history after the Cognitive
Revolution:
a
. Biology sets the basic parameters for the behaviour and capacities of