Psientist’s Reviews > Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind > Status Update
Psientist
is on page 199 of 512
The style is a bit simplistic. Overly repetitive and explanatory, really hammering the points home. Like a very introductory freshman course. On the positive side it was interesting to see how strongly Harari comes out on the side of judging agricultural civilization as being a step backwards. That used to be the territory of anarcho-primitivists like John Zerzan and was more recently developed by James C. Scott.
— Dec 20, 2020 08:40PM
Like flag
Psientist’s Previous Updates
Psientist
is on page 416 of 512
Forced myself to finish it up. Just had the homily about the Singularity. Nothing unpredictable.
— Nov 10, 2021 02:21PM
Psientist
is on page 335 of 512
Just finished the section where he ties technological progress to colonial expansion. There is a good deal of blurring the difference between capitalism and imperialism here. Seems to be working himself up to calling for some sort of limits on capitalism due to climate catastrophe, but he is going very carefully
— Jun 27, 2021 12:33PM
Psientist
is on page 243 of 512
Ridiculously brief aside on Game Theory. It would have been better not to mention it. In an attempt to bolster the anodyne idea that cultures/beliefs/ideologies can serve themselves using humans as a petri dish he has ignored all the work done by e.g. Sober on showing that arms races are just one corner case that leads to mutual destruction. Mutual aid is far more common. Pre-figuration for neo-lib conclusion?
— Jan 03, 2021 09:54AM
Psientist
is on page 242 of 512
YNH is confused about the Marxist assertion culture functions to control people against their own interests. Many Marxist scholars argue explicitly that such ideas arise explicitly from the material conditions of production. Again YNH is slipshod and free in his wide-ranging assertions. Also posits chaos and determinism as opposites: Chaos Theory actually argues that chaos arises in deterministic systems.
— Jan 03, 2021 09:47AM
Psientist
is on page 239 of 512
Although agreeing with the problems of Just-So stories in human history (for which idea he should acknowlege Stephen Jay Gould) it is an Iron Law of Bullshit that someone asserting a debatable hypothesis will refer to said hypothesis as an iron law.
— Jan 03, 2021 09:33AM
Psientist
is on page 232 of 512
I like the idea of Nazis as "evolutionary humanists". Had not heard that definition before. Not sure about his definition of humanism or the partition of humanism into 3 branches: liberal, socialist or evolutionary. Seems like he has introduced the idea of syncretism in the earlier discussion of religion in order to give himself some room for fudging and wriggling here.
— Jan 03, 2021 09:21AM
Psientist
is on page 229 of 512
The attempt to paint ideologies as being the same as religions is not useful. In answer to his suggestion: yes, some Buddhist sects and stoics are examples of ideologies, but not religions. Some people _do_ justify their view of the world with (inaccurate) references to relativistic physics (New Age religions). Communism and neo-liberalism are different because they make concrete testable assertions. Weak sauce.
— Jan 03, 2021 09:18AM
Psientist
is on page 229 of 512
The attempt to paint ideologies as being the same as religions is not useful. In answer to his suggestion: yes, some Buddhist sects and stoics are examples of ideologies, but not religions. Some people _do_ justify their view of the world with (inaccurate) references to relativistic physics (New Age religions). Communism and neo-liberalism are different because they make concrete testable assertions. Weak sauce.
— Jan 03, 2021 09:14AM
Psientist
is on page 228 of 512
p.228 on religion is very vague. I wonder what scholars of religion make of his definition of religion, especially the idea that what he terms "natural-law religions" include liberalism,nazism and communism because they all believe in a "superhuman order". Does that make physics and chemistry religions too?
— Jan 03, 2021 09:08AM
Psientist
is on page 240 of 512
The same slow pace, moving onto religion as the other unifying myth. Will finish, but it is not scintillating.
— Dec 30, 2020 10:01AM
