Extra Post- TED Talk Illustrates the Intangibleness of Human Civilization

 

Yuval Noah Harari has written several works detailing human past and predicting human future

Have you ever stopped and wondered about how human society manages to flow so fluidly? What makes us so different from the billions of other species that inhabit this planet? How do billions of people happen to agree upon the exact value of currency or the rules of a sporting event? The answer, according to Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, comes from human beings' ability to create "fiction" in the meanings of objects and activities that allow them to become organized on a massive scale. 

The human race did not always control the earth though. Based on studies about evolution, we can infer that humans once looked more like chimpanzees than they do actual people. Harari makes this point by pointing out that humans are in fact "embarrassingly similar" to chimpanzees on a biological level (1:10). Yet as humans evolved, the gap between them and the rest of sentient life on this planet widened tremendously due to our ability to create a new sense of meaning. Harari states that this trait is unique to humanity as it exists not on the individual level but rather the collective level where flexible cooperation is required (1:40).

Harari then goes on to explain how some of what we perceive as basic functions of life - religion, states/nations, laws, etc, - exist as "stories" humans have "invented" over time to subjugate the known world. One of the most enlightening examples comes from when Harari breaks down the basic business structure of a corporation. He points out that these companies exist as a "legal fiction" (10:54) and that their purpose is to make money, which happens to be the most commonly shared story in society. When everyone believes in the purpose of money, it actually works from transcending its objective lack of value into the most important facet of the world. Harari suggests that money is "the most successful story ever invented and told by humans, because it is the only story everybody believes" (12:58). While other species toil in their objective realities, humans exist in a dual reality of both objectivity and fiction. And over the course of history, these fictional entities now supersede the objective realities of not just humans but other species as well (13:54). So after you watch this TED Talk, perhaps you will see where in your daily life this concept of "fiction" has uttermost importance in governing how you go about your day.