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Yuval Noah Harari
287 quotes
“If AI can suffer, then it is an ethical subject and it needs protection, it needs rights, just like humans and animals.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: #390 - Yuval Noah Harari: Human Nature, Intelligence, Power, and Conspiracies" on Lex Fridman Podcast, found on DeepCast (17 July 2023)
“Intelligence is definitely not something that is directed towards amplifying happiness. I would also emphasize the huge, huge difference between intelligence and consciousness, which many people, certainly in the tech industry and in the AI industry, tend to miss.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: #390 - Yuval Noah Harari: Human Nature, Intelligence, Power, and Conspiracies" on Lex Fridman Podcast, found on DeepCast (17 July 2023)
“Democracies die not only when people are not free to talk but also when people are not willing or able to listen.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, 2024
“Just 6 million years ago, a single female ape had two daughters. One became the ancestor of all chimpanzees, the other is our own grandmother.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Homo erectus, 'Upright Man,' [survived] for close to 2 million years, making it the most durable human species ever. This record is unlikely to be broken even by our own species. It is doubtful whether Homo sapiens will still be around a thousand years from now, so 2 million years is really out of our league.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When humans domesticated fire, they gained control of an obedient and potentially limitless force.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some human species may have made occasional use of fire as early as 800,000 years ago. By about 300,000 years ago, Homo erctus, Neanderthals and the forefathers of Homo sapiens were using fire on a daily basis.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tolerance is not a Sapiens trademark. In modern times, a small difference in skin colour, dialect or religion has been enough to prompt one group of Sapiens to set about exterminating another group.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It may well be that when Sapines encountered Neanderthals, the result was the first and most significant ethnic-cleansing campaign in history.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It (Gossip) comes so naturally to us that it seems as if our language evolved for the very purpose.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In modern society, currency notes usually display religious images, revered ancestors and corporate totems.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Stone Age should be more accurately be called the Wood Age, because most of the tools used by the ancient hunter-gatherers were made of wood.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dog was the first animal domesticated by Homo sapiens, and this occurred before the Agricultural Revolution.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fishing villages might have appeared on the coasts of Indonesian islands as early as 45,000 years ago.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sapiens did not forage only for food and materials. They foraged for knowledge as well.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most of the infectious diseases that have plagued agricultural and industrial societies (such as smallpox, measles and tuberculosis) originated in domestic animals and were transferred to humans only after the Agricultural Revolution.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Animism is not a specific religion. It is a generic name for thousands of very different religions, cults and beliefs. What makes all of them 'animist' is this common approach to the world and man's place in it.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Theism (from 'theos', 'god' in Greek) is the view that the universal order is based on a hierarchical relationship between humans and a small group of of eternal entities called gods.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Planet Earth was separated into several ecosystems, each made up of a unique assembly of animals and plants. Homo sapiens was about to put an end to this biological exuberance.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The journey of the first humans to Australia is one of the most important events in history, at least as important as Columbus' journey to America or Apollo 11 expedition to the moon.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The moment the hunter-gatherer set foot on an Australian beach was the moment that the Homo sapiens to the top rung in the food chain, and became the deadliest species ever in the 4-billion-year history of life on earth.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The settlers of Australia, or more accurately, its conquerors, didn't just adapt. They transformed the Australian ecosystem beyond recognition.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's common... to explain... everything as the result of climate change, but... earth's climate... is in constant flux. Every event in history occurred against the background of... climate change. ...[O]ur planet has experienced numerous cycles of cooling and warming.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The extinction of the Australian Megafauna was probably the first significant mark Homo sapiens left on our planet.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No other animal [Homo sapiens] had ever moved into such a huge variety of habitats so quickly.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the time of the Cognitive Revolution, the planet was home to about 200 genera of large terrestrial mammals weighing over fifty kilograms. At the time of the Agricultural Revolution, only about one hundred remained. Homo sapiens drove to extinction about half of the planet's big beasts long before humans invented the wheel, writing or iron tools.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The elephant bird and the giant lemurs, along with most of the other large animals of Madagascar, suddenly vanished about 1.500 years ago - precisely when the first humans set foot on the island.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Galápagos Islands... remained uninhabited by humans until the nine-teenth century.., preserving a unique menagerie...”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't believe... that our ancestors lived in harmony with nature. Long before the Industrial Revolution, Homo sapiens held the record... for driving the most plant and animal species to... extinctions. We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[H]umans sowed seeds, watered plants, plucked weeds from the ground and led sheep to prime pastures. This.., they thought, would provide... more fruit, grain and meat. It was... the Agricultural Revolution.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even today, with all our advanced technology, more than 90 per cent of the calories that feed humanity come from the handful of plants... our ancestors domesticated between 9500 and 3500 BC - wheat, rice, maize (called 'corn' in US), potatoes, millet and barley. No noteworthy plant and animal has been domesticated in the last 2000 years.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Agricultural Revolution... enlarged the... total... food.., but the extra food did not translate into a better diet or more leisure. ...[I]t translated into population explosion and pampered elites.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“According to... evolutionary criteria of survival and reproduction, wheat has become one of the most successful plants in the history of the earth.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Worldwide, wheat covers about 2.25 million square kilometres of the globe's surface, almost ten times the size of Britain.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he new agricultural tasks demanded so much time... people were forced to settle permanently next to their wheat field. ...[W]heat... domesticated us.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cultivating wheat provided much more food per unit of territory, and... enabled Homo sapiens to multiply exponentially.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Neither did the early farmers understand that feeding children with more porridge and less would weaken their immune system, and permanent settlements would be hotbeds of infectious disease.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of history's few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally, they reach a point where they can't live without it.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The structures at are dated to about 9500 BC, and all available evidence indicates that they were built by s.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the conventional picture, pioneers first built a village, and when it prospered, they set up a temple... But suggests... the temple may have been built first...”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The domesticated chicken is the most widespread fowl ever.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The agricultural revolution is one of the most controversial events in history. Some... proclaim... it set humankind on the road to prosperity and progress. Others... that it has led to perdition.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From the dawn of agriculture.., billions... armed with branches, swatters, shoes and poison sprays have waged... wars against diligent ants, furtive roaches, adventurous spiders and misguided beetles that constantly infiltrate the human domicile.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[F]ood surpluses... with... transportation technology... enabled... more people to cram together... into large villages, then... towns, and finally... cities, all... joined... by new kingdoms and commercial networks.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yugoslavia in 1991 had more than enough... to feed all... and... disintegrated into a... bloodbath.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Roman Empire... collected taxes from up to 100 million subjects. This... financed... 250,000 - 500,000 soldiers, a road network still in use.., and theatres and amphitheatres that host spectacles to this day.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This () was a collection of laws and judicial decisions whose aim was to present Hammurabi as a role model of a just king, serve as a basis for a more uniform legal system across the Babylonian Empire, and teach future generations what justice is and how a just king acts.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“According to the science of biology, people were not 'created'. They... evolved. And... not... to be 'equal'. ...Advocates of equality and human rights may be outraged by this... Their response is likely.., ‘...if we believe that we are all equal in essence, it will enable us to create a stable and prosperous society.’ I have no argument with that. ...[B]elieving in it enables us to cooperate effectively and forge a better society.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]hen... complex societies began to appear.., a... new type of information became vital ― numbers.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he first text of history contains no philosophical insight, no poetry, legends, laws, or... royal triumphs. They were humdrum economic documents, recording... taxes.., debts and... ownership of property.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source