en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:…
"Harari's main argument is that Sapiens came to dominate the world because they are the only animal that can cooperate flexibly in large numbers. [ . . . ] He further argues that the ability of Sapiens to cooperate in large numbers arises from its unique capacity to believe in things existing purely in the imagination, such as gods, nations, money and human rights."
... as also observed by e.g. Terry Pratchett.
"Harari claims that all large-scale human cooperation systems – including religions, political structures, trade networks and legal institutions – owe their emergence to Sapiens' distinctive cognitive capacity for fiction. Accordingly, Harari describes money as a system of mutual trust and political and economic systems as similar to religions."
#YuvalHarari
#SapiensABriefHistoryOfMankind #Sapiens #ABriefHistoryOfMankind
@clacke I'm not impressed by Harari. He's just making stuff up and stating it with extreme confidence. Worse than Dawkins.