Unstoppable Us, Volume 1: How Humans Took Over the World

“Once they started cooking, that all changed: Humans could spend far less energy chewing and digesting and had more energy to feed big brains.”

Harari argues that one of humanity’s first great discoveries was the ability to make fire. This passage shows how Harari identifies evolutionary shifts that have facilitated human creativity and ingenuity, allowing Sapiens to dominate the world. This is key for his book’s message that human success is the result of evolutionary processes outside moral prerogatives.

“For more than a million years, as humans adapted to unique conditions of each area, they gradually became more and more different.”

Harari uses evolutionary principles to explain why different categories of humans, such as the Floresians, Neanderthals, and Denisovans, existed in the prehistoric age. At that time, our species, Homo sapiens, was one variety of human among many, just as today there are many varieties of bears, birds, or cattle. This supports Harari’s message that Sapiens are not unique in their humanity through human history, challenging narratives of exceptionalism.

“It’s important to remember that evolution takes many generations. It took a long time for skunks to become really smelly, and it also took thousands of years for the humans and elephants of Flores Island to become small.”

This passage is an example of how Harari employs simple diction and syntax suitable for a young audience, especially when describing complex ideas such as the span of prehistory and evolutionary processes.

“Scientists call our ancestors Homo sapiens, or Sapiens for short.”

This passage is an example of how Harari starts from first principles in order to bring his audience with him in his narrative. He explains concepts and terms carefully as they are introduced so that young readers are able to learn and follow.

“Sapiens began spreading all over the world, and whenever they reached a new valley or island, all the other kinds of humans that lived there quickly disappeared.”

This passage shows how Harari’s rhetorical choices help to balance the mixture of positivity and negativity in his narrative. This sentence is in two juxtaposing halves, reflecting the combination of opposite emotions bound into his argument. On the one hand, the spread of Sapiens was an evolutionary success story, as seen from a species-level perspective. On the other hand, it led to the evolutionary collapse of multiple other species.

“If other humans had survived alongside us, maybe it would even have changed the way we see ourselves. Today, most humans think we’re very special creatures. If you try to tell them that humans are animals, they often get seriously upset because they think we’re completely different animals.”

This passage reveals Harari’s ideological and educational purpose. He sees humans as one species in the animal kingdom. In his book, this is a matter of both scientific fact and ideological principle, as he presents this view as a compassionate and open-minded way to view humanity and its position.

“But Sapiens weren’t stronger, faster, or braver than Neanderthals—or plenty of other humans, for that matter.”

Stone Age Sapiens did not have physical advantages over other types of humans, like Neanderthals or Floresians. Physical differences cannot explain why Sapiens survived while others disappeared. Rather, intellectual capacity gave Sapiens an advantage over others. This passage demonstrates the book’s argument that Sapiens were more social and cooperative, which allowed them to outpace Neanderthals as they competed for access to resources. It also helps young readers consider different ideas of strength and success, especially in relation to the concept of “survival of the fittest.”

“All the big achievements of humankind, such as flying to the moon, were the result of cooperation between hundreds of thousands of people.”

Harari discusses how Sapiens possess the ability to cooperate in big groups, in contrast to other human and animal species. His book argues that this collaboration has facilitated significant human achievements from the Stone Age to the modern world, like the moon landing. Modern humans cooperate daily, in matters large and small, just as ancient Sapiens cooperated to hunt large animals.

“Actually, our superpower is something we use all the time […] It is—drumroll, please!—our ability to dream up stuff that isn’t really there and to tell all kinds of imaginary stories. We’re the only animals that can invent and believe in legends, fairy tales, and myths.”

This passage is an example of Harari’s use of humor, especially for young readers. This example is in a characteristically conversational style, which helps readers feel directly engaged. The humor helps break up and lighten the complex ideas of the book and creates a friendly and accessible authorial voice.

“Well, the useful thing about stories is that no matter how ridiculous they are, they help large numbers of people cooperate. If thousands of people believe in the same story, then they’ll all follow the same rules.”

This is an example of Harari’s ambivalence about the benefits of storytelling or their individual truths. In calling some stories “ridiculous” while acknowledging their influence on human evolution, he separates the stories themselves from their role in history and anthropology.

“McDonald’s is a story that millions of grown-ups tell each other and believe very strongly, but it exists only in our imagination. We created it with our special Sapiens superpower.”

Harari uses the McDonald’s corporation as an example of human fictions. He shows that corporations exist because enough people believe in their legitimacy and uphold their existence through regulations and laws. This is a complex idea, and using a concrete example helps readers understand and follow his argument through its steps.

“Our superpower also allows us to change the way we cooperate, and to make these changes quickly.”

Here, Harari discusses how human interaction is fluid. Religious beliefs and political institutions, for example, can change when enough people cooperate to make those changes. This point is one of the foundational arguments for the final message of positive change that ends the book.

“Thousands of years ago, our ancestors lived very differently from us. But the way they lived has shaped how we behave today.”

Harari argues that we have inherited biological tendencies from our Sapiens ancestors, despite our very different daily lives. He then gives the example that we often crave sweet and fatty foods because our foraging ancestors relied on such foods for survival. In this way, Harari explains the relationship between modern and ancient humans using accessible, everyday experiences.

“Most people picture our Stone Age ancestors living in caves.”

This passage is an example of the many popular misconceptions that the book seeks to correct. This is part of its basic educational authority but is also important so that the reader can understand the evolutionary process as Harari unfolds it. For instance, it is important that readers understand the Stone Age nomadic lifestyle in order to conceptualize the gradual spread and separation of human species over that time.

“Our Stone Age ancestors moved very often. They rarely stayed in one place for long. And they had to carry all their stuff on their backs. They didn’t have trucks, or wagons, or even horses. So they didn’t accumulate many things.”

Prehistoric humans were nomadic foragers. They migrated from place to place according to the seasons to gather resources and follow the animals they hunted. They did not amass a lot of property because it was not practical for this highly mobile lifestyle.

“Fortunately, there is one other way that we can find out about how our ancestors lived: by watching living people. There are a few places in the world where people still live a little like our ancestors did. If we visit them, we can learn a lot.”

Harari turns to modern anthropological data to shed light on how past hunter-gathers might have lived. Scholars have observed the customs and traditions of these contemporary people to understand the beliefs and living conditions of prehistoric Sapiens. For example, we can surmise that Stone Age foragers had more leisure time than agrarian societies because modern hunter-gathers often work less than 20 hours per week to procure the resources they need. This passage demonstrates the book’s interdisciplinary approach to the human story.

“The band didn’t have one powerful leader who told everyone what to do. When decisions needed to be made—like which way to go or where to set up camp—everybody could say what they thought.”

Harari argues that ancient bands of Sapiens did not have powerful government structures or monarchs. Instead, they made decisions collectively and for the good of the band, which reflects the power of cooperation. This is an example of how he sometimes uses narrative authority to present a widely supported scientific concept as a certainty.

“In the Stone Age, gatherers who knew enough about the surrounding world often lived good lives. They actually worked far less than many people do today.”

Modern people living in sedentary societies should not assume that our lives are better than hunter-gatherers, including past people. These ancient foragers accumulated significant knowledge about the landscapes they mined for resources and maximized their skills, so they worked fewer hours than most modern people and thus had more leisure time.

“Gatherers usually ate better, more varied food than many modern factory workers, and they suffered less from starvation and disease. Archaeologists who examined the skeletons of gatherers discovered that they ate a lot of different things.”

Harari draws on archeological and anthropological evidence to show that ancient hunter-gatherers were well nourished because of their varied diets. They consumed a diversity of foods because they relied on what the land offered them and did not cultivate specific crops. This passage embeds an educational message on nutrition. It also challenges the popular misconception that human evolution is synonymous with progress in health and happiness.

“Gatherers were healthy not only because they ate so many different things, but also because there were fewer infectious diseases back then. Most of the infectious diseases we know today—like smallpox, measles, and flu—came to us from animals.”

Harari draws on the work of archeologists and anthropologists that shows the foraging lifestyle to be less physically taxing and healthier for humans. Hunter-gatherers, past and present, show evidence of a more diverse and thus nutritious diet because they do not rely on specific high-yield agricultural products. Likewise, because they do not come into close contact with herds of domesticated animals, like those dependent on farming, they are and were less likely to become infected with zoonotic diseases. The recent COVID-19 pandemic provides an important context for this passage and is likely to be understood by readers even though it is not explicitly referenced here.

“Sadly, accidents were quite common, and because gatherers had no hospitals or modern medicines, even a minor injury could be very dangerous.”

Harari is careful not to idealize the past. Stone Age people were subject to various dangers, including injuries that are now considered minor but that, in the past, could have meant death. For example, a broken bone that had difficulty healing would have been a significant hinderance to a migratory, foraging way of life.

“A good way to research what Stone Age gatherers might have believed is to talk to modern gatherers. And sure enough, many of these gatherers don’t believe in powerful gods, but they do believe that animals, trees, and even rocks can talk, and that the world is full of ghosts and spirits.”

Harari suggests that religious ideas are an example of our storytelling power. However, because Stone Age people did not produce written records, it is difficult to know their precise beliefs. Yet modern anthropological studies of today’s hunter-gatherers might provide insight. Many contemporary foragers practice animistic religions, which reflect their close relationship with nature.

“The moment when the first humans set foot on an Australian beach was the moment when we humans became the most dangerous animal in the world—the rulers of the planet Earth. Until then, humans had had a relatively small influence on their environment, but from that moment onward, they started completely changing the world.”

Harari describes Sapiens’ arrival on the island of Australia, around 50,000 years ago, as a turning point. His citation of this event highlights the power that our ancient ancestors wielded, including the ability to cooperate and make fire, both of which they used to hunt the unique megafauna that once existed in Australia. Sapiens’ effective abilities meant that these large ancient creatures became extinct, a pattern that Harari identifies as being replicated across the world. This passage is a crux for Harari’s argument that humans can negatively impact our environment, presenting the ancient past as a cautionary tale for the present day.