Conclusion Evidence Strength Human populations are mixtures resulting from multiple migrations and gene flow throughout prehistory. Analysis and comparConclusion Evidence Strength Human populations are mixtures resulting from multiple migrations and gene flow throughout prehistory. Analysis and comparison of ancient and modern DNA from human populations around the world. Strong Neanderthals and other “ghost populations” interbred with modern humans and contributed to their genetic diversity. Detection of Neanderthal DNA segments in modern human genomes, especially in non-Africans. Strong Indo-European languages spread from the Yamnaya culture in the Pontic-Caspian steppe through migrations and cultural diffusion. Evidence of genetic affinity between ancient Yamnaya people and modern Europeans, Asians, and Native Americans. Weak Ancient DNA can shed light on social inequalities, gender relations, and health conditions in past societies. Examples of genetic evidence for caste systems, female-biased migrations, disease resistance, and lactose tolerance in different regions and periods. Tentative...more
Second experiment with a great courses lecture. Used the guidebook and transcript as much as the lecture, hence adding here. Prof. Edward is a good stSecond experiment with a great courses lecture. Used the guidebook and transcript as much as the lecture, hence adding here. Prof. Edward is a good storyteller and covers all these turning points in nice bite-sized lectures, without compromising on context or detail. Good lecture to pick inf you want a refresher.
List of turning points (in case anyone is curious):
1. 1617: The Great Epidemic 2. 1619: Land of the Free? Slavery Begins 3. 1636: Freedom of Worship - Roger Williams 4. 1654: Yearning to Breathe Free - Immigration 5. 1676: Near Disaster - King Philip's War 6. 1735: Freedom of the Press - The Zenger Trial 7. 1773: Liberty! The Boston Tea Party 8. 1776: We're Outta Here - Declaring Independence 9. 1777: Game Changer - The Battle of Saratoga 10. 1786: Toward a Constitution - Shay's Rebellion 11. 1789: Samuel Slater - The Industrial Revolution 12. 1800: Peaceful Transfer - The Election of 1800 13. 1803: Supreme Authority - Marbury v. Madison 14. 1807: On the Move - Transportation Revolution 15. 1816: One Man, One Vote - Expanding Suffrage 16. 1821: Reborn - The Second Great Awakening 17. 1831: The Righteous Crusade - Abolition 18: 1844: What's New? The Communication Revolution 19. 1845: The Ultimate American Game - Baseball 20. 1846: Land and Gold - The Mexican War 21. 1862: Go West, Young Man! The Homestead Act 22. 1862: Terrible Reality - The Battle of Antietam 23. 1868: Equal Protection - The 14th Amendment 24. 1872: Open Spaces - The National Parks 25. 1873: Bloody Sunday - Ending Reconstruction 26. 1876: How the West Was Won and Lost - Custer 27. 1886: The First Red Scare - Haymarket 28. 1898: The End of Isolation - War with Spain 29. 1900: The Promised Land - The Great Migration 30. 1901: That Damned Cowboy! Theodore Roosevelt 31. 1903: The Second Transportation Revolution 32. 1909: The Scourge of the South - Hookworm 33. 1917: Votes for Women! The 19th Amendment 34. 1919: Strikes and Bombs - The Year of Upheaval 35. 1933: Bold Experimentation - The New Deal 36. 1939: Einstein's Letter - The Manhattan Project 37. 1942: Surprise - The Battle of Midway 38. 1945: The Land of Lawns - Suburbanization 39. 1948: The Berlin Airlift and the Cold War 40. 1950: Tuning In - The Birth of Television 41. 1960: The Power to Choose - The Pill 42. 1963: Showdown in Birmingham - Civil Rights 43. 1968: Losing Vietnam - The Tet Offensive 44. 1969: Disaster - The Birth of Environmentalism 45. 1974: An Age of Crisis - Watergate 46. 1975: The Digital Age - The Personal Computer 47. 1989: Collapse - The End of the Cold War 48. 2001: The Age of Terror - The 9/11 Attacks
Each of these lectures should ideally be a starting point to explore more about these pivotal events. Don't leave it at the lectures......more
Don't know enough about US history to be able to make judgments on coverage, ideological biases or accuracy. However, it was an enjoyable read and thaDon't know enough about US history to be able to make judgments on coverage, ideological biases or accuracy. However, it was an enjoyable read and that in my book earns points....more
Science tells us how to heal and how to kill; it reduces the death rate in retail and then kills us wholesale in war; b
Single Quote Counter-Review:
Science tells us how to heal and how to kill; it reduces the death rate in retail and then kills us wholesale in war; but only wisdom—desire coordinated in the light of all experience—can tell us when to heal and when to kill.
The audacious first act, Sapiens, ended with a wild and apocalyptic prophesy - that the Sapiens were cooking up the next epochal revolutHomo Obsoletus
The audacious first act, Sapiens, ended with a wild and apocalyptic prophesy - that the Sapiens were cooking up the next epochal revolution that will overshadow the previous three: the cognitive, agricultural and scientific/industrial revolutions. Home Deus, the second act, is the full exploration of that prophesy.
Both Sapiens and Homo Deus are compulsory reading in my book, even though the macro-history presented is plenty vulnerable to all sorts of attacks. But then, it might be better to think of these as works of philosophy and not of history. Just like Sapiens is not a History, Home Deus is not a prophesy, both are explorations.
This line can be taken as the transition line that links the first book with the second one: “Having raised humanity above the beastly level of survival struggles, we will now aim to upgrade humans into gods, and turn Homo sapiens into Homo deus.”
The old enemies of mankind— plague, famine and war—are now under control. Except for the potentially restrictive energy constraint, Sapiens has very little standing in our way now. The result is that the Sapiens are becoming more and more God-like, Harari says, and one is forced to pause and reflect: by any previous standards of our history, are we not already Gods? Have we not already exceeded most wild power fantasies? Well yes, but even more God-like attributes are coming: cheating death and creating new life being primary.
And along with this march towards the godlike we are marching towards being machine-like too, as we outsource more and more of our internal algorithms to better data-based external algorithms. And the march is relentless, Homo Deus is taking birth before our eyes. The tomorrow is already upon us, and so forth.
However, just like the previous three revolutions that infused the Sapiens with power, this revolution too will come at a price, the price of a ratcheting up of inequality. The new Gods will be the techno-super-rich. BTW, reading Harari is good motivation to work on getting rich faster: he hints at a possibility that anyone who is rich enough to afford it, some 50 years into the future, should be able to buy proxy-immortality. And it will probably be a window that closes quickly, since the super-rich would soon take over the monopoly on immortality. So if you are rich enough at the right point in time, then you can be part of Olympus too. That might not be a deal many would want to miss out on…
There is one more catch: as technology takes over most of the functions, even the godlike sapiens will find themselves stuck in a universe devoid of real meaning. Bulk of humanity will have no economic, social or cultural purpose since anything we can do our new creations would be able to do even better. “Organisms are algorithms,” and the new algorithms will be so much better than the imperfect ones we are made of. As Bill Gates asked in his article about the book, “What If People Run Out of Things to Do?” We will be stuck in an immortal meaninglessness, our own creations clearly our betters. We will need a new religion to make sense of all this, since the powerful combo of Humanism+Science will not work in world where the sanctity of being Human has lost meaning. Harari feels that “Dataism” will be the religion that will fill the avoid left by Humanism.
The whole of Humanity, the Earth, and maybe the entire Universe will become servants to data - a huge data-processing system, the eternal all-knowing Atman. And serving this goal will be the only meaningful pursuit left for us.
Immortal, All-powerful, Obsolete: this is the future of the Sapiens....more
Marshall could have kept up the initial presentation and analysis throughout the book, but at some point the editors decided to shorten the pages and Marshall could have kept up the initial presentation and analysis throughout the book, but at some point the editors decided to shorten the pages and compress regions together. As a fellow reviewer says, "It is solid stuff, but after some time this geography thing gets a bit repetitive – plains, mountains, rivers, plainsmountainsrivers, portsportsports ..."...more
The author repeatedly claims uniqueness to his book by saying it is about ‘the history of India’s geography’. The introduction detailing out this objeThe author repeatedly claims uniqueness to his book by saying it is about ‘the history of India’s geography’. The introduction detailing out this objective for the book makes a case that this is an interesting way to look at Indian history and, to be honest, it is. However the rest of the book, except for the first chapter, barely acknowledges this supposed orientation.
There is nothing that distinguishes this from the other books on Indian history that I have read, except that the author is clearly nationalistic in outlook, has a penchant for wild theories, and is always willing to give priority to a good story over confusing details, in the interest of brevity or maybe, bias. The book reads like a standard, if stylized, history. And for that, there are many better books out there....more
Picked this to get a feel for Sahgal as an author... probably the wrong book to look at for this purpose, but this was easily availaIntroduce & Enlist
Picked this to get a feel for Sahgal as an author... probably the wrong book to look at for this purpose, but this was easily available. It is a pretty basic account of Modern Indian history, spanning the modern era, from the European advent to the European departure. Sahgal makes no attempt to make it scholarly and pretty much deals it out as a statement based history - the kind of history book I stopped enjoying a long while ago. I understand that this is probably meant as an introductory work for young readers, but even such a work should not try to stoke interest by showing that history makes for an entertaining story alone.
An equally good tactic might be to show how history makes for an entertaining detective story, where even the author does not have all the clues and wants to enlist some of the readers’ careers in piecing together more of the puzzle. A good test of an introductory work in any subject would be to ask how far it would motivate readers to make a career or hobby out of it, due to the sheer pleasure they found in it. Such an attempt could be a better introductory history book, instead of history books that tend to give a false sense of completion. They leave you with the feeling you have understood “enough” and that is where ignorance of history becomes a result of textbook learning, which is even more irritating than ignorance born of not learning. The second sort can be countered more easily, but once you have ‘learnt’ it, then you are done for....more
Two core principles of difference are drawn out in the course of all the selective history that is presented:
1. The West was the realm of individual f Two core principles of difference are drawn out in the course of all the selective history that is presented:
1. The West was the realm of individual freedom and the East was the realm of despotism. Hence the East could never develop incentives. (Italics are my extrapolation) 2. The West was the realm where laws were made of, by and for humans, the East was the realm where laws were made of, by and for gods (or their representatives). Hence the east could never develop institutions. (Italics are my extrapolation)
This is why the two world views so incompatible had to clash and clash violently. Such differences cannot easily co-exist, especially since one is clearly superior. Of course the wars of West with West would have spoiled the narrative. Hence we have a sweeping history book that ignores the greatest theater of war, including the two greatest showdowns, the world wars. Wonder what small differences of opinion and worldview precipitated those minor conflicts....more
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