 Yuval Noah Harari begins Sapiens at the very beginning of

the universe known as the Big Bang. Scientists say that

basic aspects of the universe including matter, energy,

time, and space started about 14 billion years ago.

Organisms emerged 4 billion years ago. The relatively short

period of 70,000 years ago represents all of human history

and culture.

 The author outlines the three revolutions that form the

core of his treatment of the history of humankind. The

Cognitive Revolution "kick-started history about 70,000

years ago." The Agricultural Revolution that took place

about 12,000 years ago had an accelerating effect on the

development of human history with the development of

farming. The Scientific Revolution of about 500 years ago

changed humankind's relationship to the world through the

understanding of basing knowledge on evidence.

 Harari notes that "animals much like modern humans" came

into existence about 2.5 million years ago. For a long

time, they "did not stand out from the myriad other

organisms" living on Earth. The species Homo

sapiens belongs to a "particularly noisy family called the

great apes" although Harari argues that many people do not

want to recognize their relation to the rest of the animal

kingdom.

 Homo sapiens or "wise man" emerged as the only human

species after either intermarrying with or killing off Homo

neanderthalensis or "Neander Valley man" and other human

species. The Neander Valley where Homo neanderthalensis was

 first found is in Germany. Throughout the book Harari calls

Homo sapiens by their species name or simply as Sapiens.

 Harari states that between 70,000 and 30,000 years

ago, Homo sapiens developed "new ways of thinking and

communicating" defined as the Cognitive Revolution.

 The development of language is a central part of the

Cognitive Revolution. Scientists believe that language

developed for one of two reasons. Language may have

developed out of people's need to communicate danger such

as a predator lurking nearby. Harari calls this idea the

"there-is-a-lion-near-the-river theory." Another reason

language developed may have been to express who can and

cannot be trusted in a group. Harari calls the second

explanation for the emergence of human language "the gossip

theory."

 According to Harari the most critical creation of the

Cognitive Revolution was fiction. Harari argues that the

ability to cooperate in large groups is based on shared

beliefs in ideas. Harari emphasizes the importance of the

fact that "large numbers of strangers can cooperate

successfully by believing in common myths." This ability

led to the eventual founding of large-scale cooperative

human activities such as founding cities and building

empires.
 According to Yuval Noah Harari, human nature can be best

understood by looking at the lives of "our hunter-gatherer

ancestors." Sapiens' lifestyle revolved around foraging and

hunting for food sources for "tens of thousands of years."

This lifestyle is understood by "the flourishing field of

evolutionary psychology" to have shaped human traits

because humans lived in this way for so long.

 Harari explains that people's understanding of the lives of

hunter-gatherers is based on "flimsy evidence" because they

pre-date writing. Most items they used were made of wood

and did not last. In general hunter-gatherers did not

possess a lot of items at all.

 Dogs were the only animal domesticated by people before the

Agricultural Revolution according to Harari. He describes

dogs' relationship with humans as based on a "15,000-year

bond." Dogs and humans "co-evolved to communicate well with

each other" as dogs helped with hunting, fighting, warning,

and other tasks.

 Harari describes the wealth of knowledge and skills that

"the average ancient forager" possessed. In these times

foragers knew how to quickly create a spear point from a

stone. Foragers understood every detail of their

environment. They learned to control "the internal world of

their own bodies and senses" as they survived in nature

alongside other animals. People in these times had

impressive "physical dexterity" and were "as fit as

marathon runners" according to Harari. Hunter-gatherers

also had better health and more varied diets than people

who lived after them.

 Hunter-gatherers also had spiritual lives according to

Harari. He states that "we have only the haziest notions

about the religion of ancient foragers." According to

Harari scholars agree that early religious beliefs were

animist or based on the idea that "every place, every

animal, every plant and every natural phenomenon has

awareness and feelings, and can communicate directly with

humans."

 The Cognitive Revolution which emerged in about 70,000 BCE

led to the Sapiens' expansion according to Harari. He

describes how about 45,000 years ago, Sapiens living in

Asia "developed the first seafaring society." The Sapiens

were able to expand into Australia which had a completely

different ecosystem untouched by humans. Harari states that

the appearance of humans led to the disappearance of the

majority of animal species in Australia. Scientists believe

this could be due to humans' agricultural burning

techniques, hunting, climate change, or a combination of

these factors. In any case these Australian extinctions

represent "the first significant mark Homo sapiens left on

our planet."
 Yuval Noah Harari states that about 10,000 years ago,

Sapiens stopped focusing on foraging and "began to devote

almost all their time and effort to manipulating the lives

of a few animal and plant species." For example humans

domesticated plants like wheat by about 9000 BCE, peas in

8000 BCE, olive trees by 5000 BCE, and grapevines in 3500

BCE. Animals were also domesticated which included goats by

9000 BCE and horses by 4000 BCE.

 The Agricultural Revolution began in the Middle East around

9000 BCE, but "scholars agree that agriculture sprang up in

other parts of the world." Other independent examples of

the development of agriculture include China in 6000 BCE

and Central America in 4500 BCE.

 According to Harari humans developed agriculture only in

the locations where the few species of plants and animals

that "were suitable candidates for farming and herding"

could thrive. While hunter-gatherers could choose from a

wide variety of natural plants and animals for their diet,

the Agricultural Revolution was based on a much narrower

diet of what can be grown and raised.

 Harari argues that "there is no evidence that people became

more intelligent with time." On the contrary the "secrets

of nature" known to the average forager were forgotten as

the Agricultural Revolution transformed human life.

 The author refers to the Agricultural Revolution as

"history's biggest fraud" because he argues that it tricked

humankind into arranging itself around unnatural and

harmful ways of life. Harari notes that farmers hoped to

store food so that they could have a surplus for times of

 scarcity. The extra food did not help the majority of

people. Instead, the surplus of food led to "population

explosions and pampered elites."

 Farmers worked harder than foragers but had less enjoyment

and a less healthy diet that was centered on crops like

wheat, rice, and potatoes. When these central crops had

issues due to weather or disease, the entire population of

people could starve.

 The domestication of animals led to the creation of a new

type of society "based primarily on the exploitation of

animals" by herders. Harari notes that domesticated animals

became the most widespread mammals in the world, but their

lives are miserable. Animals are forced to live in ways

that are against their desires and nature. Har ari notes

that for humans to domesticate animals, they had to oppress

animals' instincts, social relationships, sexual urges, and

the ability to move freely. According to Harari the

processes involved with the domestication of animals have

only gotten worse over time.

 During the foraging times, humankind lived in bands

according to Harari. Hundreds of people could cooperate

toward goals. In the agricultural era, many more people

were able to cooperate based on the strength of shared

myths. The emergence of empires demonstrated the human

imagination's ability to create ideas that bound people

together toward a common purpose.

 Harari shares examples of early societies like the first

Egyptian kingdom in 3100 BCE and the Akkadian Empire which

was formed around 2250 BCE. Mega-empires like the

Babylonian and Persian empires thrived from about 1000 BCE

to 500 BCE. Other empires like the Qin in China and the
 Roman Empire governed millions of people. These empires

were all possible because of humankind's unique ability to

create "astounding networks of mass cooperation."

 According to Harari these "human cooperation networks" are

not oriented toward justice and equality. Instead, most of

them "have been geared towards oppression and

exploitation." Suffering peasants and enriched elites have

been part of almost all "human cooperation networks" or

societies according to Harari. Social distinctions giving

more rights to one group than another are often

foundational in society.
 Yuval Noah Harari details the development of mathematics

which allowed humankind to handle more information than

their memories could. Societies developed ways for people

to record information because "the human brain is not a

good storage device for empire-sized databases."

 Numbers played a central role in the development of human

society. The development of writing started with "facts and

figures" related to exchanges of goods. The first written

records of humankind dealt with financial deals about

grain. Numbers are now "the world's dominant language" in

Harari's telling.

 Harari argues that "all societies are based on imagined

hierarchies" that classify people according to different

aspects such as religion, ethnicity, or gender. While there

are differences in how this plays out from society to

society, Harari notes that "concepts of pollution and

purity" often contribute to a society's classification of

people. He connects these concepts to the caste system in

India and the racist policies and actions of the United

States during the era of segregation and beyond.

 Harari examines the reasons for and history of why

"patriarchy has been the norm in almost all agricultural

and industrial societies." He details theories like men

having more muscle strength or aggression than women.

Another "biological explanation" holds that men and women

evolved differently based on "survival and reproduction

strategies." This theory states that men needed to compete,

and women needed to work with men and with other women to

survive during pregnancy and to help raise their children.

Harari argues that the research on this topic has provided

"no good answer" about the widespread prevalence of

patriarchy.