올해 3월 경부터 영어공부 목적으로 읽기 시작한 “사피엔스(Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind)”를 드디어 완독하였다. 아마존 킨들로 완독한 첫번째 책이며, 원서를 완독한 것도 이번이 처음이다. 내가 생각하는 이책의 장점은

  • 어휘 수준이나 문장이 생각보다 어렵지 않아 사전을 많이 찾지 않아도 편하게 책을 읽을 수 있다는 점
  • 만년 이상의 긴 인류사를 쉽고 재미있게 풀어 쓰면서도 종교, 과학, 산업, 경제 등 광범위한 주제를 다루고 있다는 점
  • 그리고 인류사의 흐름을 이어나갈 때 향후 맞이하게 될 미래의 모습과 미래 준비를 위해 우리가 생각해 봐야 할 점을 짚어 준 것

이며, 유발 하라리의 통찰력이 문장 곳곳에 숨어 있어 읽는 재미가 있었다. 내가 원어민이라면 훨씬 더 재미있게 읽었을 것 같다는 생각이 든다. 자연스럽게 사피엔스의 후속작이라 할 수 있는 호모데우스란 책이 궁금해졌고 조만간 읽어 봐야겠다.

사피엔스에 나온 몇가지 인상적인 문장들을 뽑아 보았다.

Unlike lying, an imagined reality is something that everyone believes in, and as long as this communal belief persists, the imagined reality exerts force in the world.

He(Gautama or Budda) encapsulated his teachings in a single law: suffering arises from craving; the only way to be fully liberated from suffering is to be fully liberated from craving; and the only way to be liberated from craving is to train the mind to experience reality as it is.

The Scientific Revolution and modern imperialism were inseparable. People such as Captain James Cook and the botanist Joseph Banks could hardly distinguish science from empire. Nor could luckless Truganini.

During this era(from 1500 to 1850) Europe did not enjoy any obvious technological, political, military or economic advantage over the Asian powers, yet the continent built up a unique potential, whose importance suddenly became obvious around 1850. The apparent equality between Europe, China and the Muslim world in 1750 was a mirage. Imagine two builders, each busy constructing very tall towers. One builder uses wood and mud bricks, whereas the other uses steel and concrete. At first it seems that there is not much of a difference between the two methods, since both towers grow at a similar pace and reach a similar height. However, once a critical threshold is crossed, the wood and mud tower cannot stand the strain and collapses, whereas the steel and concrete tower grows storey by strey, as far as the eye can see. What potential did Europe develop in the early modern period that enabled it to dominate the late modern world? There are two complementary answers to this question: modern science and capitalism.

Thanks to the work of people like William Jones and Henry Rawlinson, the European conquerors knew their empires very well. Far better, indeed, than any previous conquerors, or even than the native population itself. Their superior knowledge had obvious practical advantages. Without such knowledge, it is unlikely that a ridiculously small number of Britons could have succeeded in governing, oppressing and exploiting so many hundreds of millions of Indians for two centuries. (…) These practical advantages were not the only reason why empires financed the study of linguistics, botany, geography and history. No less important was the fact that science gave the empires ideological justification. (…) The fact that empires produced a constant stream of new knowledge branded them as progressive and positive enterprises.

But the belief in Western superiority did not vanish. Instead, it took on new forms. Racism was replaced by culturism. Today’s elites usually justify superiority in terms of historical differences between cultures rather than biological differences between races. We no longer say, ‘It’s in their blood.’ We say, ‘It’s in their culture.’

It(Bank’s credit creation) sounds like a giant Ponzi scheme, doesn’t it? But if it’s a fraud, then the entire modern economy is a fraud. The fact is, it’s not a deception, but rather a tribute to the amazing abilities of the human imagination. What enables banks - and the entire economy - to survive and flourish is our trust in the future. This trust is the sole backing for most of the money in the world.

If the global pie stayed the same size, there was no margin for credit. Credit is the difference between today’s pie and tomorrow’s pie.

Over the last 500 years the idea of progress convinced people to put more and more trust in the future. This trust created credit; credit brought real economic growth; and growth strengthened the trust in the future and opened the way for even more credit. It didn’t happen overnight - the economy behaved more like a roller coaster than a balloon. But over the long run, with the bumps evened out, the general direction was unmistakable. Today, there is so much credit in the world that governments, business corporations and private individuals easily obtain large, long-term and low-interest loans that far exceed current income.

Just as the Atlantic slave trade did not stem from hatred towards Africans, so the modern animal industry is not motivated by animosity. Again, it is fueled by indifference. Most people who produce and consume eggs, milk and meat rarely stop to think about the fate of the chickens, cows or pigs whose flesh and emissions they are eating. (…) The tragedy of industrial agriculture is that it takes great care of the objective needs of animals, while neglecting their subjective needs.

Industrial Revolution, on the other hand, managed within little more than two centuries to break these building blocks into atoms. Most of the traditional functions of families and communities were handed over to states and markets.

People tended to reconcile themselves to the status quo, declaring that ‘this is how it always was, and this is how it always will be’.

Today, wealth consists mainly of human capital and organizational know-how. Consequently it is difficult to carry it off or conquer it by military force. Consider California. Its wealth was initially built on gold mines. But today it is built on silicon and celluloid - Silicon Valley and the celluloid hills of Hollywood.

They have researched the history of just about everything - politics, society, economics, gender, diseases, sexuality, food, clothing - yet they have seldom stopped to ask how these influence human happiness.

One interesting conclusion is that money does indeed bring happiness. But only up to a point, and beyond that point it has little significance. (…) Another interesting finding is that illness decreases happiness in the short term, but is a source of long-term distress only if a person’s condition is constantly deteriorating or if the disease involves ongoing and debilitating pain. (…) Family and community seem to have more impact on our happiness than money and health.

When things improve, expectations balloon, and consequently even dramatic improvements in objective conditions can leave us dissatisfied. When things deteriorate, expectations shrink, and consequently even a severe illness might leave you pretty much as happy as you were before.

We moderns have an arsenal of tranquillizers and pain-killers at our disposal, but our expectations of ease and pleasure, and our intolerance of inconvenience and discomfort, have increased to such an extent that we may well suffer from pain more than our ancestors ever did.

If that’s the case, even immortality might lead to discontent. (…) Those unable to afford the new miracle treatments - the vast majority of people - will be beside themselves with rage. (…) The poor will not be comfortable with the thought that they have to die, while the rich will remain young and beautiful forever.

If we invest billions in understanding our brain chemistry and developing appropriate treatments, we can make people far happier than ever before, without any need of revolutions. (…) Nothing captures the biological argument better than the famous New Age slogan: ‘Happiness Begins Within.’ Money, social status, plastic surgery, beautiful houses, powerful positions - none of these will bring you happiness. Lasting happiness comes only from serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin.

The findings demonstrate that happiness is not the surplus of pleasant over unpleasant moments. Rather, happiness consists in seeing one’s life in its entirety as meaningful and worthwhile. (…) As Nietzsche put it, if you have a why to live, you can bear almost any how. A meaningful life can be extremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a meaningless life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is.

In meditation, you are supposed to closely observe your mind and body, witness the ceaseless arising and passing of all your feelings, and realize how pointless it is to pursue them. (…) But once you stop craving particular feelings, you can just accept them for what they are. You live in the present moment instead of fantasizing about what might have been.

It is now beginning to break the laws of natural selection, replacing them with the laws of intelligent design. (…) The first crack in the old regime(natural selection) appeared about 10,000 years ago, during the Agricultural Revolution. (…) It was a race of chickens unknown to nature, produced by the intelligent design not of a god but of a human. (…) Today, the 4-billion-year-old regime of natural selection is facing a completely different challenge. In laboratories throughout the world, scientists are engineering living beings.

Yet the real potential of future technologies is to change Homo sapiens itself, including our emotions and desires, and not merely our vehicles and weapons. (…) We may be fast approaching a new singularity, when all the concepts that give meaning to our world - me, you, men, women, love and hate - will become irrelevant. Anything happening beyond that point is meaningless to us.

What we should take seriously is the idea that the next stage of history will include not only technological and organisational transformations, but also fundamental transformations in human consciousness and identity.