Homo sapiens

Homo sapiens, commonly referred to as simply humans, are the only species of the human genus that remains on Earth. To distinguish them from other, extinct human species, Harari often uses the Sapiens. Sapiens have risen to the top of Earth’s food chain and wield dominance over the planet and all of the life it harbors. The author argues that Sapiens achieved primarily because our fictive language allowed to communicate abstract ideas and thus cooperate in large groups. Harari believes that future descendants of Sapiens will be much more advanced than their ancestors and thus will not truly qualify as humans.

The Sumerians

The Sumerians were one of the earliest large, urban Sapien societies, located in modern day Iraq. The Sumerian people conducted large-scale agriculture, allowing their population to grow into the thousands. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Sumerians created the earliest forms of both...