Sapiens: A brief history of man kind by Yuvak Noah Harari
About 13.5 billion years ago, matter, energy, time and space came into being what is known as the Big Bang. Homo Sapiens started to form more elaborate structures called cultures some 70,000 years ago. Three important revolutions shaped the course of history: the Cognitive revolution (70000 years ago), Agricultural revolution 912000 years ago) and the Scientific revolution (500 years ago).
All human beings share some common peculiarities, first and foremost is the size of the brain. Humans have a large sized brain on an average 200 cu cm, the earliest men and women had brain about the size of 600 cu cm.
A jumbo brain is also a jumbo drain on the body. One needs to carry it around and ever since humans began walking, it became even more difficult for them to balance the brain standing on two feet. The weight also put extra pressure on the spine thus creating other complications.
Most researchers believe that unprecedented accomplishments of homo sapiens were the product of a revolution in the Sapiens cognitive abilities. They maintain that the people who changed the face of the earth by driving other species to extinction, settled in emote areas of the globe and drew pictures on the walls of caves were intelligent, creative and sensitive as we are.
The appearance of new ways of thinking and communicating, between 70000 and 30000 years ago, constitutes the Cognitive revolution. What caused it is not known. The most commonly believed theory argues that accidental genetic mutations changed the inner wiring of the brains of Sapiens, enabling them to think in unprecedented ways and communicate using an altogether new type of language.
It is not the first language, every animal has a language but is limited to a few expressions. A monkey can for e.g. communicate “Careful, a lion”. A human in comparison can tell her/his friends that this morning, near the bend in the river, she saw a lion tracking a heard of deer. She an describe the exact location and the paths leading to the location.
While cognition is the key differentiator between humans and other animals, humans are still struggling in the effective use of cognition in various fields of creativity and different professions. We continue to make errors due to our limited understanding of the subject and control of our body. Mindfulness, is the way to have control over the body and mind.
