The History of the Human Species | Book Insights on Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
发布时间 2022-10-05 14:00:27 来源
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How as a species did we get to where we are? How are we doing today? What kind of future awaits us? Sapiens, a brief history of humankind, is a book that dares to tackle the biggest questions about the progress of humanity. Author Yubal Noah Harari struggles against the idea that the study of history is a dusty affair involving arcane debates about the reigns of forgotten kings. Instead, he pulls together familiar bits of history to create a much bigger story about the progress of our species. This is history on a vast canvas. Sapiens also shines a light on the deep origins of human capacities that we mostly take for granted, including the ability to reason and to cooperate with each other. He shows why these things have made us the most brilliant and the most deadly animal on the planet. With the publication of Sapiens, Harari broke the academic mold. It's a publishing phenomenon with over 10 million copies sold in many languages.
我们作为一个物种是如何到达目前这个地步的？我们现在的状况如何？未来会给我们带来什么样的前景？《人类简史》是一本敢于面对有关人类进步最大的问题的书籍。作者尤瓦尔·诺亚·哈拉利与一个观念作斗争，即历史研究是一种关于被遗忘的国王统治的古老争论的过时事务。相反，他汇集了熟悉的历史片段，创造出一个关于我们物种进步的更大故事。这是一幅庞大的画卷上的历史。《人类简史》还启发我们，深入探究人类能力的起源，这些能力我们大多数都视为理所当然，包括理性思维和协作。他展示了为什么这些能力使我们成为了这个星球上最聪明、最致命的动物。《人类简史》的出版打破了学术模板，是一场畅销现象，以多种语言出售，已售出超过1000万册。
In this book Insight, we'll cover the rise of humans through three big revolutions, and we'll look at Harari's thinking on what's enabled greater human community. The cognitive revolution took place some 70,000 years ago, leading to the rise of homo sapiens. The agricultural revolution that unfolded 12,000 years ago, the unification of the human race that started 2,000 years ago, and the scientific revolution that began 500 years ago. We'll end by drawing up humanity's report card. Has all the dizzying progress since prehistoric times been worth it? Finally, we'll consider Harari's thoughts about the future, that we're living in the last days of homo sapiens, and that a new version of our species, powered by technology, is just around the corner.
在这本《洞察力》的书中，我们将探讨三次重大革命所带来的人类崛起，并探究哈拉利对于促进更大人类社群形成的思考。认知革命发生于约70000年前，导致智人的崛起。农业革命始于12000年前，人类统一的进程开始于2000年前，科学革命在500年前开始。最后，我们将评估人类的成绩单：自史前时代以来所有令人眼花缭乱的进步是否值得？最后，我们将考虑哈拉利关于未来的想法，即我们正在过着智人时代最后的日子，而由技术驱动的我们物种的新版本即将出现。
Let's start with the cognitive revolution. For millions of years, despite their big brains, humans were an insignificant animal. Hunters, yes, but hunters who lived in fear of being hunted. Here's Harari talking with TVO regarding early humans. The bodies and minds of homo sapiens evolved for hundreds of thousands of years in adaptation to life as hunter-gatherers, climbing trees to pick uppills and running after gazelles and going to the woods to look for mushrooms. Then, around 100,000 years ago, homo sapiens leapt to the top of the food chain. As they rose to dominance, they began using their minds in unprecedented ways, possibly as a result of a mutation in their brains. This mental shift, the cognitive revolution, seems to have taken place around 70,000 years ago.
让我们从认知革命开始。尽管人类具有巨大的大脑，但在数百万年间，他们仍然是一个微不足道的动物。他们是猎人，但是一直生活在被猎的恐惧中。哈拉利在与TVO的访谈中谈到了早期的人类。人类的身体和思维已经适应了成千上万年的狩猎采集生活，他们爬上树采摘水果，追逐羚羊，进入森林寻找蘑菇。然后，在大约100,000年前，人类跃升到了食物链的顶端。随着崛起，他们开始以前所未有的方式使用他们的大脑，可能是由于他们的大脑发生了突变。这种心智转变，认知革命，似乎发生在大约70,000年前。
The most significant effect of this revolution was the invention of complex forms of language, like using a limited set of sounds to represent a limitless number of meanings. Language enabled humans to communicate information to each other, which aided their survival. Where's the nearest herd of bison? What's the best way to avoid lions? Can that plant heal us? The invention of language made possible sophisticated kinds of cooperation. It was this that enabled humans to completely dominate the world.
这次革命最重要的影响是复杂语言形式的发明，比如使用有限的一组音素来代表无限数量的意义。语言让人类可以相互传递信息，帮助其生存。哪里有最近的野牛群？如何避开狮子？那种植物能治疗我们？语言的发明使得复杂种类的合作成为可能。正是这使得人类能够完全主宰世界。
Language allows humans to talk about each other and learn about the people around them. This creates the social information needed for individual humans to band together into social units, where 150 is about the ideal number. This will expand the depth and breadth of their cooperation and their power. Ants and lions cooperate, but humans were able to cross the threshold from cooperation within intimate communities of 100 or 150, like those of apes, to the creation of societies of thousands and millions of individuals, most of whom have never met.
语言让人们能够谈论彼此并了解周围的人。这创造了个人人需要的社交信息，以便个人可以团结成社交单位，其中150人大约是理想数量。这将扩大他们合作的深度和广度，提高他们的力量。蚂蚁和狮子合作，但人类能够跨越从亲密社区内合作的阈值，如100或150个，到创建数千和数百万个人的社会，其中大多数人从未见过。
Humans did this when they learned language to make up stories. Stories aren't only a form of entertainment, they're the glue that binds large groups of people together who may not know each other personally. This makes possible the most complex kinds of cooperation, those to do with politics, economics, and religion. Complex cooperation requires a host of stories and myths, whether about gods, about the nature of fairness, or about the historical mission of a clan or nation. This applies just as much to our own civilizations as it did to the early bands of humans who created the first cities. Perhaps we might feel uncomfortable at how our own society is based on something as flimsy as a story.
当人类学会语言编造故事时，就开始做到这一点。故事不仅是一种娱乐形式，更是将不认识彼此的大群人聚合在一起的胶水。这使得最复杂的合作变得可能，这些合作涉及政治、经济和宗教等领域。复杂的合作需要大量的故事和神话，无论是关于神灵，还是关于公平的本质，或者关于部落或国家的历史使命。这同样适用于我们自己的文明，就像早期的人类创造了第一个城市一样。也许我们会感到不舒服，因为我们的社会基于如此脆弱的东西，即故事。
Our early ancestors might have bonded while dancing around campfires and telling tales about ghosts and spirits. But surely we're more rational than them. In fact, most of today's institutions depend on powerful stories. What strange collective imagination is needed for me to believe that this objectively worthless piece of paper I'm holding shall be taken as a legally binding form of exchange. What possesses us to believe that small squares of worthless plastic or paper will buy us a meal or a new coat?
我们的远古祖先可能在营火周围跳舞、讲鬼故事时建立了联系。但现在我们肯定比他们更理性。实际上，大多数今天的机构都依赖于强大的故事。我需要怎样一种奇怪的集体想象才能相信，我手里这张毫无价值的纸张将作为一种法律约束力的交换形式被接受呢？是什么驱使我们相信，价值连城的塑料或纸张小方块可以买到一顿饭或一件新外套？
The Pugeot Corporation pumps out thousands of vehicles a year, creating solid things that we can see and touch. But the company itself exists by virtue of abstract legal codes, which asserts that it exists. These codes are our modern versions of religious doctrines or spells. As Harari puts it, modern business people and lawyers are, in fact, powerful sorcerers. The principle difference between them and tribal shamans is that modern lawyers tell far stranger tales.
标致公司每年生产数千辆汽车，创造我们可以看到和触摸到的实实在在的物品。但实际上，这家公司的存在是因为抽象的法律规定，并声明它的存在。这些规定是我们现代版本的宗教教义或咒语。正如哈拉瑞所说，现代商人和律师实际上是强大的巫师。他们和部落神秘人之间的主要区别在于，现代律师讲述的故事更加奇怪。
When humans learn how to tell stories like this and get other humans to believe in them, these imagined realities gain a power at least as revolutionary as the taming of fire. It would be impossible to create nations, churches, or legal systems if we were only able to speak about things that really exist. Money, human rights, and the American dream are all imagined realities. As long as we all believe in them, they affect the world around us. In a sense, they create our world.
当人类学会像这样讲故事，并且让其他人相信它们时，这些想象的现实力量至少与掌控火的能力同样具有革命性。如果我们只能谈论真实存在的事物，那么就无法创造国家、教会或法律制度。货币、人权和美国梦都是想象的现实。只要我们都相信它们，它们就会影响我们周围的世界。在某种意义上，它们创造了我们的世界。
So the cognitive revolution gave rise to a dual reality of the real and the imaginary. They are surrounded by trees, rivers, and lions, as well as gods, nations, and corporations. Imagine realities eventually become so powerful that today, the survival of real things such as trees and lions often depend on the favor of imaginary things like governments. It's through the creation and manipulation of new social and cultural realities that the humans offset and transcend their genetic makeup.
认知革命催生了现实和想象的二元现实。人们身处树木、河流和狮子之间，同时也存在着神灵、国家和企业等想象现实。随着时间的推移，想象现实越来越强大，如今真实事物如树木和狮子的生存往往取决于虚构事物如政府的偏爱。人类通过创造和操纵新的社会文化现实来抵消和超越自身的基因构成。
Natural selection implies that strength be expressed in the passing on of genes, but over the centuries this was contradicted by the power of celibate priests. Other imagined realities allow us to build nations and empires and to trade with people on the other side of the world. They allow the rapid social innovation that we take for granted and truly set us apart from apes and chimpanzees. With the advent of the cognitive revolution and of imagined realities, human history broke free from the constraints of biology.
自然选择意味着力量通过基因的传递来表达，但几个世纪以来，独身的神职人员的力量背离了这个原则。其他想象中的现实使我们能够建立国家和帝国，并与世界另一端的人进行贸易。它们促进了我们所理所当然的快速社会创新，确实使我们不同于猿猴和黑猩猩。认知革命和想象中的现实的出现使人类历史摆脱了生物学的限制。
Let's take a break for now. But first, let's recap what we've learned from Harari sapiens. We've covered one of the earliest revolutions in human history, the cognitive revolution. This was set off by the mutation of the early human mind. People were able to communicate not only directions, but stories, which shaped civilization more than we give credit. Next, we'll look at the agricultural and scientific revolutions. Enjoying this episode of Book Insights? If so, keep listening and learning.
现在让我们稍作休息。但首先，让我们回顾一下哈拉瑞《人类简史》中我们所学到的内容。我们已经讲述了人类历史上最早的一次革命——认知革命。它是由早期人类头脑的突变所引发的。人们不仅能够传达方向，而且能够讲述故事，这对文明的形成产生了比我们想象的更大的影响。接下来，我们将探讨农业和科学革命。喜欢这一集的《书籍洞察》吗？如果是的话，请继续听并学习。
Just a collection of over 100 titles you can read or listen to now at memodeapp.com-insights. That's m-e-m-o-d-a-p-p.com-slashinsights. We're continuing our look into sapiens, a brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.
在memodeapp.com-insights上，你可以阅读或听取超过100个作品的收藏。网址是m-e-m-o-d-a-p-p.com-slashinsights。我们将继续探讨由尤瓦尔·诺阿·哈拉利撰写的《赋智史》。
A central theme of the book is that over thousands of years, isolated human communities fused together into an even more global and unified civilization. The rise of money, empires, and religion help bring this about. Previously, we've looked at how cognitive evolution allowed us to communicate and more importantly, form stories. Much of our history today functions based on people communicating massive amounts of information through the stories we weave.
这本书的一个核心主题是，在数千年的时间里，孤立的人类社群融合成了更加全球化和统一的文明。货币、帝国和宗教的崛起促成了这一进程。以前，我们探讨了认知演化如何使我们能够沟通，更重要的是，形成故事。今天，我们的很多历史都基于人们通过我们编织的故事大量传递信息。
Now we'll ask, is the agricultural revolution history's biggest fraud? Then we'll look at how we shape the modern world through the scientific revolution.
现在我们要问的是，农业革命是历史上最大的欺骗吗？然后我们将看一看通过科学革命如何塑造现代世界。
Humans' next big revolution took place in the Middle East 12,000 years ago when we domesticated plants and animals. With the agricultural revolution, our hunter-gatherer forebearers settled down and became farmers. A common interpretation is that humans used their intelligence to invent new methods of producing food, leading to an easier life for all. But Harari called the revolution history's biggest fraud.
人类的下一个重大革命发生在1.2万年前的中东，当时我们开始驯养植物和动物。随着农业革命的到来，我们的狩猎采集祖先定居下来，成为了农民。一个普遍的解释是，人类运用他们的智慧创造了新的生产食品的方法，从而为所有人带来了更容易的生活。但是哈拉利称这场革命是历史上最大的欺诈。
What does he mean by this? Today's prosperity may be built on the agricultural revolution, but this doesn't mean that it was good for those who lived through its early stages. It fulfilled an evolutionary imperative, allowing more people to survive. But from the individual's point of view, the rise of agriculture was a trap. It's true that the settled agricultural life could support a greater population because of its increased food production. However, larger populations put pressure on supply, and farmers soon found themselves having to work even harder to keep up with an even bigger population.
他的意思是什么？今天的繁荣可能是建立在农业革命基础之上的，但这并不意味着对那些经历过其早期阶段的人来说是好事。农业革命实现了一种进化必然，使更多的人能够生存下来。但从个人的角度来看，农业的崛起是一个陷阱。虽然定居的农业生活由于其食物生产的增加可以支持更多的人口，但是更大的人口对供应造成了压力，农民很快就发现自己不得不更加努力地工作来跟上更大的人口增长。
Farming meant long hours of boring, backbreaking toil compared to foraging for food which only took a few hours. Foraging was highly absorbing and different every day. Moreover, the diet of foraging communities was much more varied and better than that of farming people. But once the process was underway, people forgot what life was like before.
农耕相较于觅食而言，意味着漫长的无聊和劳顿，需要付出艰辛的劳动，而仅需几个小时的寻找食物，却是非常有趣的，并且每天都不一样。此外，采食社群的饮食比农耕社群更加丰富和好。但是，一旦过程开始，人们就会忘记之前的生活是什么样子的。
The agricultural revolution had effects far beyond its immediate goal of increasing food supply. Once humans settled down, they became attached to the land and to their homes. The land became their land, and people now lived on human islands, villages and towns surrounded by the wild. This was hard for them to leave. People lived in more confined physical spaces, but their sense of time expanded. The demands of sowing and harvesting meant that farmers had to think about the future like never before. The food they produced fed soldiers, kings, and poets, and so supported even more sophisticated practices of war, politics, and art. These new kinds of social existence were a new kind of imagined reality. Today, we call them social orders.
农业革命的影响远远超出了其增加食物供应的直接目标。一旦人类定居下来，他们就会跟土地和家园产生感情。土地成为他们的土地，人们现在居住在由野生环绕的人类岛屿、村庄和城镇上。这对他们来说很难离开。人们生活在更加密集的物理空间中，但他们的时间感却扩展了。耕种和收获的要求意味着农民必须像以前从未想过的那样考虑未来。他们生产的食物供养了士兵、国王和诗人，因此支持了更复杂的战争、政治和艺术实践。这些新的社会存在形式是一种新的想象现实。今天，我们称之为社会秩序。
Social orders are products of our mind and can't be passed on in our DNA. They have to be preserved and transmitted in laws and codes, in an ocean of numbers and data, and in thousands of norms which together create politics, economics, and bureaucracy. No single brain can hold on to all of this. To construct complex societies, humans had to escape the limits of the individual mind. The Mesopotamians achieved this by inventing writing. For the first time, humans were able to transfer the knowledge contained in particular brains onto objects located outside of them, which others could later access. This made possible the complex forms of administration needed for the creation of cities and empires.
社会秩序是我们头脑中的产物，无法通过我们的DNA传递。它们必须在法律和规范、大量的数据和数字、以及成千上万的规范中得到保护和传递，这些规范共同构成了政治、经济和官僚制度。没有任何一个大脑可以掌握其中的全部内容。为了构建复杂社会，人类必须逃离个体思维的限制。美索不达米亚人通过发明写作来实现了这一目标。人类首次能够将存在于某个大脑中的知识传递到位于其外部的物体上，供其他人后来访问。这使得城市和帝国创造所需的复杂行政形式成为可能。
In the distant past, humans lived in discrete worlds that never collided. A person on another continent might as well have lived on the moon. Now, nearly all of us live in nations governed by legal systems, and mostly under capitalist economies. Trade and international law links us together. Many of us wear the western uniforms of jeans and t-shirts at home, and suits and ties at work, whether we're in Washington, Cairo, or New Delhi.
在遥远的过去，人类生活在彼此独立的世界里，互不干涉。在另一个大陆的人，就好像住在月球上一样。现在，几乎我们所有人都生活在由法律制度管理的国家中，大多数处于资本主义经济之下。贸易和国际法律将我们联系在一起。许多人在家里穿着西装外套和T恤，而在工作场合则穿着西装领带，无论我们是在华盛顿、开罗还是新德里。
It was in the first millennium BC that there emerged the idea of universal orders that applied to all humans. This came with the rise of money, and the idea that all humans are potential customers. It arrived through the rise of empires, and the notion that all humans could be potential subjects. And it emerged via universal religions like Buddhism and Christianity, which held that all humans are potential believers. In short, the idea of a potentially unified humankind was driven by merchants, conquerors, and prophets.
公元前一千年出现了一个普遍适用于所有人类的秩序的想法。这是随着货币的兴起而来的，人们开始认为所有人都有可能成为潜在客户。这也随着帝国的崛起而来的，人们开始认为所有人都有可能成为潜在的臣民。此外，普遍的宗教如佛教和基督教也出现了，这些宗教认为所有人都有可能成为信徒。简而言之，一个潜在的统一人类的想法是由商人、征服者和先知一起推动的。
Let's look in more detail at the impact of money and religion. Money is an imagined reality based on mutual confidence. Everyone recognizes coins or bank balances as being worth something. This, therefore, is the raw material from which all types of money are minted. Money acts as a unifier of humanity because, for example, Christians and Muslims accept each other's coins even if they can't agree about the nature of God. Coins don't discriminate on the basis of gender, religion, or sexual orientation. In many ways, money is the most open and tolerant system that humans have created. Here's Harari in his TED Talk. Money, in fact, is the most successful story ever invented and told by humans. Not everybody believes in God. Not everybody believes in human rights. But everybody believes in money.
让我们更详细地看看金钱和宗教的影响。金钱是基于相互信任的想象现实。每个人都认可硬币或银行余额的价值。因此，这是制造所有类型金钱的原材料。金钱是人类的统一者，因为，例如，基督徒和穆斯林即使无法就上帝的本质达成一致，也会接受彼此的硬币。硬币不会因性别、宗教或性取向而歧视。在许多方面，金钱是人类创造的最开放、最容忍的系统。以下是哈拉里在他的TED演讲中对此的描述。事实上，金钱是人类发明和讲述的最成功的故事。不是每个人都相信上帝，不是每个人都相信人权。但每个人都相信金钱。
Money also has a dark side. When we say money is a universal system of trust, what we're really saying is that you trust the money of the shopkeeper or the foreign investor. What the actual person? Money can corrode communities and emotional bonds between people. Even as humans embraced money because of its power to unify them, they also resisted it and tried to protect certain areas of life from the full force of the market.
钱也有其负面影响。当我们说钱是一种普遍信任的系统时，实际上是指你信任商店老板或外国投资者的钱财，而不是信任实际的人。钱会腐朽社区和个人之间的情感纽带。虽然人类接受了钱的力量，因为它能够统一他们，但他们也反抗它，并试图保护生活某些方面，不让市场的力量影响到它们。
We often think of religion as a cause of division, but the rise of universal religions has, in fact, been a major unifying force. All religions began as local and exclusive to a particular people. Their followers would have had no interest in spreading their beliefs beyond their own religion. But over time, local religions and cults gave way to more powerful deities in polytheistic or multi-god systems. These were often the spiritual underpinnings of farming societies which needed new gods to help man control the natural world. Gradually, monotheistic religions grew up and came to dominate.
我们经常认为宗教是分裂的一个原因，但事实上，通向普遍的宗教的崛起，确实是一个主要的统一力量。所有宗教最初都是地方性的，只属于某个特定的民族。他们的信徒对于传播教义到其他地方是不感兴趣的。但随着时间的推移，地方宗教和信仰逐渐让位于更有力的众神系统。这些通常是农业社会的精神基础，需要新的神来帮助人类控制自然世界。逐渐地，一神论宗教崛起并占据主导地位。
Unifying religions like Christianity believe in a superhuman order that isn't confined to a single forest or plain, but applies to humans everywhere. These kinds of religions emerged in the First Millennium BC and tended to be strongly missionary, wanting to spread their beliefs to as many people as possible, including those in distant lands. They tend to assume that the last few hundred years have seen a growing secularism, but Harari argues that today we are ruled by religions of humanity, including liberalism, communism, and capitalism. These have a lot in common with traditional religion. They have trust in a superhuman order, whether of market forces or the spirit of the nation, which aren't dependent on individual human whims. Humans of humanity are based on the warship of homo sapiens. They profess that humans are sacred, unique, and superior to all other animals.
基督教等融合性宗教相信一个超人类秩序，它不局限于某一片森林或平原，而是适用于全球范围内的人类。这类宗教在公元前一千年左右出现，并倾向于积极传教，希望将他们的信仰传播给尽可能多的人，包括那些在远方的人。他们往往认为最近几百年见证了不断增长的世俗主义，但哈拉利认为，如今我们被以人类为中心的宗教统治，包括自由主义、共产主义和资本主义。这些与传统宗教有很多共同点，它们信仰超人类秩序，无论是市场力量还是民族精神，它们并不依赖于个人的人类心愿。人类中心的信仰基于对智人的崇拜，宣扬人类至高无上、独一无二和卓越于所有其他动物。
Five hundred years ago came the last big revolution. Science. The scientific revolution brought us unprecedented new powers and involved a profound shift in our worldview. It's still unfolding today. It's not that humans, up until then, hadn't tried to understand the world around them. They'd been trying to since the cognitive revolution. What was different about the scientific revolution was that people were willing to admit their own ignorance. They understood that today's wisdom could be proven false tomorrow. Pre-modern civilizations didn't admit fundamental ignorance. Everything worth knowing was contained in holy texts, and if you needed to know something, all you had to do was ask your priest.
五百年前发生了最后一次大革命，科学革命。科学革命带来了前所未有的新力量，并引起了我们世界观的深刻变革。这个变革至今仍在继续。并不是说在此之前，人们没有尝试去理解周围的世界，自认知识的认知从认知革命开始就被人类所追寻。但科学革命不同的是，人们愿意承认自己的无知，他们明白今天的智慧明天可能就被证明是错误的。在前现代文明中，人们不会承认根本的无知，一切值得知道的都被包含在神圣的经文中，如果你需要知道什么，你只需要问你的神职人员即可。
But the scientific revolution changed all this. Its assumption that all knowledge is changing has made science the most dynamic and supple system of understanding ever devised. The cognitive and agricultural revolutions gave rise to cities and empires, but the basic building blocks of society still remained the family and the community. System and the Industrial Revolution, which was powered by the scientific revolution, changed that. The new social myth of individualism said that you were the master of your own destiny, free to live where you want and marry who you want, even to choose your own religion or belief system. The market would provide you with a job, and the state would educate your children and look after you if you got sick.
然而，科学革命改变了这一切。它的假设是所有知识都是在变化的，这使科学成为了有史以来最具有动态性和灵活性的理解系统。认知和农业革命催生了城市和帝国，但社会的基本构建模块仍然是家庭和社区。而工业革命，是由科学革命推动的，改变了这一点。新的社会神话是个体主义，它说你是自己命运的主人，可以自由选择居住地、婚姻对象，甚至选择自己的宗教或信仰系统。市场会为你提供工作，而国家会教育你的孩子，并在你生病时照顾你。
This has been a mixed blessing. People in individualistic societies gain new possibilities as they break free from the restrictive and oppressive communities. Women and children are no longer seen as the property of their fathers and husbands. On the other hand, millions of years of evolution has conditioned us to live together. We often feel the loss of community and family, and the pain of being alienated individuals in a world dominated by markets and the state. Our need to belong hasn't gone away. New imagined realities that give us the feeling of contribution partially fulfills us. The imagined community of the nation became dominant over the last few centuries.
这是一种两面性的祝福。在个人主义社会，当人们摆脱约束和压抑的社区时，他们获得了新的可能性。妇女和儿童不再被视为他们父亲和丈夫的财产。然而，数百万年的演化使我们习惯了生活在一起。我们经常感到社区和家庭的失落，以及在市场和国家主导的世界中感到疏远的个体的痛苦。我们需要归属感并没有消失。赋予我们贡献感的新想象力部分地满足了我们。在过去几个世纪中，虚构的国家社区已经占主导地位。
In recent decades, as globalization has undermined the power of nations, communities of consumer and ethical tribes have become ever more important. Harari writes, a German vegetarian might well prefer to marry a French vegetarian than a German carnivore. Let's break for now. But first, let's go over what we've covered this time on Harari's sapiens. We've gone over how the agricultural revolution both fed larger populations and also hardened the lives of farmers. Then, we went over how money and religion are unifying mankind. Then we looked at how everything has led up to the scientific revolution.
近几十年来，全球化破坏了国家的权力，消费者和道德部落社区变得越来越重要。哈拉瑞写道，一个德国素食主义者可能更愿意嫁给法国素食主义者而不是德国食肉主义者。现在我们先休息一下，但是首先让我们回顾一下哈拉瑞的智人中我们已经讨论的部分。我们讨论了农业革命如何喂养更多的人口，但也使农民的生活变得更加艰苦。接着，我们讨论了金钱和宗教如何统一人类。然后我们看了一下一切是如何导致科学革命的。
We'll conclude next time as we discuss humanity's report card and the next stage of homo sapiens. Enjoying this episode of book insights? If so, keep listening and learning. There's a collection of over 100 titles you can read or listen to now at memodeap.com/slash insights. That's m-e-m-o-d-a-p-p.com/slash insights.
下一次节目我们将总结人类的报告卡和智人下一阶段的讨论。喜欢这期书籍洞察节目吗？如果是，那么请继续聆听和学习。现在，你可以在memodeap.com/slash insights阅读或听取超过100个标题的收藏。m-e-m-o-d-a-p-p.com/slash insights。
We're concluding our look into sapiens, a brief history of humankind. Notice the book that made Yuval Noah Harari into an international star of big thinking. Previously, we've gone over how the agricultural revolution placed humans in a rough position. It increased food supplies for massive populations, but also made life for the farmer incredibly hard. Then, we looked at the unification benefits of money and religion. Then we ended on how science molded the modern world.
我们即将结束对《人类简史》这本书的探讨，这是一部关于人类的简短历史。其中包括了Yuval Noah Harari成为重要思想家走向国际舞台的原因。之前，我们探讨了农业革命为人类带来的好处。它增加了人口的食物供应，但同时也使农民的生活变得异常艰难。然后，我们研究了货币和宗教的一体化带来的好处。最后，我们讲述了科学如何塑造现代世界。
Now, we'll look at humanity's report card. Then we'll end with looking ahead at what humanity may become.
现在，我们来看看人类的成绩报告。然后，我们将展望人类未来可能会成为什么样子。
Once a marginal species, homo sapiens now rules the world. Our dominance shows up in a few brute physical facts. Our farm animals weigh 700 million tons, but the wild animals with which we share our planet and which we're driving into extinction weigh a mere 100 million tons. Here's Harari talking with TVO.
曾经是一个边缘物种的智人现在统治着世界。我们的优势在于几个粗暴的物理事实。我们的养殖动物重达7亿吨，但是我们与之共享地球的野生动物却只有1亿吨，而我们却在将它们驱使灭绝。以下是Harari和TVO的对话。
Beginning about 50, 60, 70,000 years ago, one human species, our species, homo sapiens, suddenly became extremely intrusive and extremely destructive and changed the face of the Earth completely. We're exploiting the planet's resources like never before. The through technology we're creating new resources all the time too, either through discovery or extraction. We've climbed to the top through a series of revolutions, cognitive, agricultural and scientific, and through the unification of humankind, via the effects of economics, politics, and religion.
大约5万、6万、7万年前开始，我们人类物种（即智人）突然变得极具侵略性和破坏性，并彻底改变了地球的面貌。我们正在前所未有地开发地球的资源。通过技术，我们不断创造新的资源，无论是通过发现还是提取。通过认知、农业和科学等一系列革命以及通过经济、政治和宗教等因素统一全人类，我们已经攀登到了尖端。
Yet Harari doesn't just want to explain the rise of homo sapiens, but to take stock of it, to write humanity's report card. Where have we succeeded and where have we failed? Has progress really been worth the trouble?
然而，哈拉利不仅想解释智人的崛起，而且想要盘点它，撰写人类的成绩单。我们在哪些方面取得了成功，哪些方面失败了？进步真的值得麻烦吗？
The 20th century brought genocides and two world wars. At the same time, we live in the most peaceful era in history, largely due to the rise of the power of the state. This has supplanted the power of traditional families and communities that settle disputes through violent feuds. Environmental violence has also been at an all-time low since 1945, when empires left the world stage. The invention of nuclear weapons made the cost of war higher than ever, while its economic benefits fell. The most valuable forms of wealth today are human capital and institutions, rather than the traditional war booties of gold and land.
20世纪带来了种族灭绝和两次世界大战。同时，我们生活在历史上最和平的时代，这大致归功于国家实力的崛起。这取代了传统家庭和社区通过暴力冲突解决争端的权力。自1945年帝国退出世界舞台以来，环境暴力也达到了历史最低点。核武器的发明使得战争的代价空前高昂，而经济利益却有所减少。如今，最有价值的财富形式是人力资本和制度，而不是传统的战争战利品金子和土地。
Harari doesn't mean to be naively optimistic though. He says we're on the threshold of both heaven and hell, moving nervously between the gateway of the one and the antirum of the other. History has still not decided where we'll end up, and a string of coincidences might yet send us rolling in either direction.
然而，哈拉利并不是天真乐观的。他说我们正处于天堂和地狱的门槛上，紧张地在两者之间摇摆。历史仍未决定我们将走向何方，一系列巧合可能会把我们推向任一方向。
To be useful, humanity's report card needs to also answer the question of whether all our achievements have made us happier. As Neil Armstrong, the first of us to step onto the moon, any happier than the nameless hunter-gatherer who 30,000 years ago left her handprint on a wall in Chevekave? Historians rarely dare to pose the question, but if all our cities, wealth, science and industry hasn't made us more happy, what is the actual point?
为了更具实际意义，我们的人类报告需要回答一个问题，那就是我们的所有成就是否让我们更幸福。尼尔·阿姆斯特朗，第一个踏上月球的人，比30,000年前在Chevekave的一面墙上留下手印的无名狩猎者更加幸福吗？历史学家很少敢于提出这个问题，但如果我们的所有城市、财富、科学和工业并没有让我们更加幸福，那么这一切到底有什么意义呢？
If the report card of human history is a mixed one, then what does it say of our future? Harari believes that the scientific revolution could turn out to be as important as the appearance of life itself. Not only have we learned to overturn natural selection, we've begun the wholesale engineering of new life forms. The creation of superhumans with extraordinary mental and physical capabilities is now a very real possibility. As we manipulate our genes and insert machines and chips into our bodies, we may turn into something other than homosapiens. The most groundbreaking achievement would be the creation of a direct computer to brain interface.
如果人类历史的成绩单是一份混合的报告，那么它会对我们的未来说些什么呢？哈拉里认为，科学革命可能会像生命本身的出现一样重要。我们不仅学会了推翻自然选择，还开始了新生命形式的批量工程化。创造出具有非凡精神和身体能力的超级人类现在是一个非常现实的可能。当我们操纵自己的基因并在身体中嵌入机器和芯片时，我们可能会变成非同寻常的存在，而不是智人。最具开创性的成果将是创建一种直接的计算机与大脑的接口。
The resultant being would no longer really be human, through biological and bionic engineering, and through the development of artificial intelligence, we're moving towards an era in which evolution will be replaced by intelligent design. But the designer is humanity, rather than God. Here's Harari again in his TED Talk. There is a distinct possibility that computers will outperform us in most tasks and will make humans redundant, and then the big political and economic question will be, what do we need humans for? What do we need so many humans for? We may be living in the last days of sapiens. Perhaps future humans will look down on us as we look back on the Neanderthals.
这个结果，不再真正是人类，通过生物和生物工程以及人工智能的发展，我们正在走向一个进化被智能设计所取代的时代。但这个设计师是人类而不是上帝。哈拉瑞在他的TED演讲中又一次表达了这一点。有一个明显的可能性，电脑将在大多数任务上超越我们，我们将被取代，然后一个重大的政治和经济问题将出现，我们还需要人类干什么？我们还需要这么多人类干什么？我们可能正在经历智人最后的日子。也许未来人类会像我们看待尼安德特人一样看待我们。
In the story of Frankenstein, human hubris leads to the creation of a monster, a being that turns out to be inferior to its inventor. But in the future, we may create a new species of human, more majestic and powerful than we can imagine. The idea that we may be vastly inferior to human beings is a disturbing thought, but if we're really turning into something else, we have to be clear on what we want to become. The necks stage is our becoming gods.
在《弗兰肯斯坦》的故事中，人类的傲慢导致了一个怪物的诞生，最终证明它比创造它的人更加低劣。但是在未来，我们可能会创造出一种新的人类，更为威严和强大，超出我们的想象。我们可能会被认为是极度低劣的人类的想法是令人不安的，但是如果我们真的正在变成其他东西，我们必须明确自己要成为什么样的样貌。下一阶段是我们变成神。
Our success as a species has not necessarily improved the lives of individual humans, or of the animals that we share our planet with. We remain restless and discontented. We flail around in the pursuit of short-term goals and pleasures, unsure of what we truly want and wreak destruction on the planet in the process. And so Harari concludes his account of the epic human journey with the warning. Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don't know what they want?
我们作为一个物种的成功并不一定改善了个体人类或者我们共享地球的动物的生活。我们仍然焦躁不安，不满足。我们为了追求短期目标和快乐而四处挥舞，不确定我们真正想要什么，却在这个过程中对地球造成破坏。因此，哈拉利以警告结束了他的叙述史诗性的人类历程。有什么比不满意和不负责任的神更危险，他们不知道自己想要什么吗？
Sapiens is one of those books that in the vastness of its vision has the power to lift you out of petty everyday concerns. It makes the most pressing questions of politics and economics seem trivial. Sapiens' immigration policies or the economic impact of Brexit are small-fri compared to the question of what kind of species we want to become. It's a rare kind of book that does this, and Sapiens is an exhilarating read.
《人类简史》这本书具有宏伟的视野，能够让你超脱琐碎的日常关注。它让政治和经济上最紧迫的问题显得微不足道。与我们希望成为何种物种的问题相比，Sapiens的移民政策或Brexit的经济影响是微不足道的。这本书是一种罕见的书籍类型，阅读起来令人振奋。
Sapiens made Harari into an intellectual rock star, but the book's extraordinary success took everyone by surprise. Although clearly written and aimed at the general reader, it's full of challenging discussions of historical, economic, and philosophical questions. Upon its release in 2011, most booksellers expected it to sell no more than a few thousand copies. Instead, it has sold millions. Amid a sea of smartphones, its bold cover is now a common sight on public transport. This seems to be evidence that after a hard day's work, many people feel drawn to deep questions of history rather than to the latest celebrity Twitter spat.
《人类简史》让哈拉瑞成为一个知识界的巨星，但这本书的成功却出乎所有人的意料。尽管书中的内容清晰易读，旨在为普通读者服务，但它充满了对历史、经济和哲学问题的深入探讨，颇具挑战性。在2011年出版时，大多数书商预计销售量不会超过几千册。然而，它却卖了数百万册。在智能手机泛滥的时代，它那醒目的封面已经成为公共交通工具上常见的景象。这似乎表明，在一天的辛苦工作之后，许多人更倾向于探讨历史上的深刻问题，而不是追逐最新的名人推特争端。
Before we conclude this book insight, let's go over everything we've learned from Harari's Sapiens. We've looked at the three revolutions from human history. The cognitive revolution was the neurological leap that gave early humans the ability to communicate directions and most importantly stories. The agricultural revolution provided larger populations the means to feed themselves, although it hardened life for the farmer. The scientific revolution pushed humanity into the modern world and will hopefully lead us into the next stage of humanity. By fusing the human mind with technology, we're on the fringe of creating a new entity that will surpass its mortal creators.
在我们结束对哈拉瑞的《人类简史》的深思熟虑之前，让我们回顾一下我们从中学到的一切。我们看过人类历史上的三次革命。认知革命是一次神经学上的飞跃，让早期人类拥有了沟通方向和最重要的故事的能力。农业革命为更大的人口提供了养活自己的手段，尽管它使农民的生活变得艰苦。科学革命推动人类进入现代世界，并有望引领我们进入人类的下一个阶段。通过将人类思维与技术融合，我们正在创造一个将超越其致命创造者的新实体的边缘。
In its vast sweep of history, Sapiens offers a way of finding one's intellectual and moral footing against a backdrop of political, cultural, and economic instability and anxiety. Amid the chaos and noise, we leap upon anything that seems to provide clarity. Harari helps us understand the progress of humanity and the world as a single movement. We're sitting in a hot air balloon gazing down at the planet. Its history and future has its dangers, but it's exhilarating to get such a bird's eye view.
在其广阔的历史范围内，赛文斯提供了一种在政治、文化和经济不稳定和焦虑的背景下找到自己的智力和道德立足点的方法。在混沌和噪音中，我们会抓住任何似乎能提供清晰度的东西。哈拉利帮助我们理解人类和世界的进步是单一的运动。我们坐在热气球里凝视地球。其历史和未来有着危险，但这样的鸟瞰图视角令人振奋不已。
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