Experience of Reading A Brief History of Mankind

What is your summary after reading a book? It's time to calm down and write about your reading experience. So can you write about your reading experience? The following is my reading experience of "A Brief History of Mankind" carefully arranged for reference only. Welcome to reading.

Reading Experience of A Brief History of Mankind 1 Zhi Nuo, an ancient Greek philosopher, said that human knowledge is like a circle, which is known inside and unknown outside. The more you know, the bigger the circle, and the more you don't know.

A Brief History of Humanity not only provides the unknown outside the circle, but also tells readers the new knowledge in the known circle, refreshing readers' view of human history. This is why a history book can set off such a big wave. Young Israeli writer yuval? Herari became famous with this book. If "Guns, Germs and Steel" describes the natural history of human development, while "A Brief History of Human Development" tells the history of human development and describes the mental journey of human beings from cognitive revolution, agricultural revolution to scientific revolution, it is not only an interesting macro-historical process reader, but also a masterpiece full of profound speculative philosophy.

Most readers are familiar with the story of Homo sapiens leaving Africa. What makes Homo sapiens, who are engaged in hunting and gathering like most animals, rule the world in a short time? It's intelligence, yes!

"A Brief History of Mankind 2" When Tao talked about artificial intelligence in his program "Round Table School", I knew about yuval harari. I was instantly attracted by his perspective of looking down on all beings like a god, so I bought an electronic version of A Brief History of Humanity to read in detail. Back and forth, bits and pieces took about 1 week to read the whole book. In the process of reading, although some words are boring, they are still "fascinating" on the whole. I used a word to describe scenery, but this word, I think, is extremely appropriate to describe my reading process. I think I'm enjoying the beautiful scenery. I have never seen it since I was born, or I have seen it, but I can see other beautiful scenery from different angles. I feel like an ignorant child sitting next to this great professor, listening to him talk about human civilization from the ancient gods.

A Brief History of Humanity tells the development trend of mankind in the future society, from hunger, war and malaria in the past to the pursuit of immortality, happiness and godlike wisdom in today's society. The book quotes a lot of knowledge about philosophy, psychology, sociology and biology to explain the future development trend of mankind. It feels like science fiction, but it feels justified and true.

I really like Herari's analysis of human consciousness. He quantified human consciousness into two systems, narrative self and experiential self. "Experiencing self" pursues the freedom and pleasure of the body with concrete actions, while "Narrating self" is responsible for preparing a perfect set of rhetoric for this set of actions. More interestingly, he thinks that maybe people's consciousness doesn't exist at all, and the love-hate relationship you feel is just a biochemical reflection of neuron discharge. Those moral codes of conduct that have been circulated for many years, as well as the classic works of philosophers, historians, writers, etc., are just manuals for the use of human machines, helping humans to better restrain themselves and not interfere with each other. From the Bible to Marxism, from "God" to "Science", with the passage of time, the manual of human behavior is constantly changing, and the subject of belief is also constantly changing. This may not be the so-called progress at all, but the result of the continuous accumulation of biological algorithms. This idea has a great influence on me, or his rhetoric makes my neurons discharge strangely. This reaction makes me feel relieved, yes, it is relieved. Things that used to make me angry in my life are actually not so annoying now that I think about it. For example, the world is cold and human feelings are warm and cold. Whenever someone hurts me, I hate him. I don't understand why he did it. I use the so-called moral ethics in books, the moral ethics in others' mouths and the moral ethics in parents' eyes to measure it. I can't figure it out day and night, and my hatred is growing day by day. Now, I seem to understand that I don't care whether Herari's statement is right or not, even if it proves to be Herari's nonsense in the next century, at least I believe him now. I believe that what those who hurt others do is not treachery and injustice, but the result of biochemical reaction calculation. That's what he saw and heard. After tens of thousands of meta-calculations, he got an action that didn't make any sense. He's just a machine. You tripped over a brick, and you can only blame yourself for being careless. Are you still complaining about how this dead brick got in my way here? This idea is very good, which makes me jump out of the traditional emotional bondage and ignore the gossip and rational life of those external entities. I still believe in loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, faith and learning, and support the China Producer Party. However, all this is no longer an absolute and unshakable authority in my heart, and I can choose freely.

Buddha said: self-persistence is the root of pain. People who know little about themselves and the world, but are burdened with hopes and fantasies, will not find peace in their hearts. They will be bound by various emotions, such as despair, confusion, hesitation, anger and so on. In the face of these pains, some people blame others, some people blame others, and some people blame others. In either case, the "narrative self" can always make up a set of reasons to defend itself. According to the theory of evolution, all the transformations of instinct, impulse and emotion have only one purpose: survival and reproduction. This is an instinct, just like squirrels are born to store nuts. Every act that goes against the instinct will make the individual uncomfortable. For example, you are poor, you are ashamed, you are depressed because you can't survive well, and you feel lonely when you are single because you can't have children. In the face of these emotional shackles, we should not entangle ourselves, nor immerse ourselves in them, giving up on ourselves. We should try our best to accept and improve this situation, which is an innate instinct.

Some words in A Brief History of the Future are classic to me, and the meaning of most people's lives only exists in stories told to each other. Indeed, the happiness, happiness, pain and sadness you feel all come from your "narrative self", which is described with different emotional colors, and others may feel differently. Therefore, we should learn more about the world, let our brains receive more stimulation, and thus produce more advanced and unattainable algorithmic behaviors in the eyes of other biological individuals.

A Brief History of Mankind 3 A Brief History of Mankind written by Israeli writer yuval harari is a sociological work about the historical progress and development of mankind. The theme of this speech is "From Animals to God", which is also the subtitle of this book. The author jumps out of the anthropocentric thinking and tells from an objective perspective how human beings have developed from an obscure animal group in a corner of Africa to the master of the earth, standing at the top of the biological chain and striving to become a god with eternal youth and destructive power.

2.5 million years ago, humans were just a group of ancient apes who were no different from animals on the grasslands of East Africa. Until 2 million years ago, human beings began their first migration journey, starting from East Africa and covering every inch of land in Eurasia. A population called Neanderthals formed in Europe and West Asia, and Homo erectus in East Asia. In Indonesia, people living alone. On another island not far from flores, human beings went through a process of dwarfing, forming a unique species-flores people, who are less than one meter tall and weigh less than 25 kilograms, and perfectly adapted to the life of food shortage on the island. This process lasted about 2 million years. These humans lived together in Eurasia until Homo sapiens appeared and broke the balance. About 6.5438+0.5 million years ago, people who looked exactly like us modern people appeared on the East African Plateau, and then began the journey of conquering the world. By about 65438+200,000 years ago, there were only Homo sapiens left in the world.

Not only humans, but also animals in the world have suffered the spread of Homo sapiens. Although many people claim that the extinction of animals is the cause of climate change, in fact, many animals died out only one or two thousand years after Homo sapiens landed, such as saber-toothed tigers and ground sloths (34 of the original 47 genera of large mammals in North America disappeared forever, 50 of the 60 genera in South America disappeared, and 23 of the 24 genera of large mammals in Australia died out). It can be said that Homo sapiens is as powerful as an extinction.

What makes Homo sapiens stand at the top of the food chain is the first revolution of mankind-the cognitive revolution. Humans have the ability to gossip. With the help of gossip, we can maintain a group of about 150 people, which is the primary settlement of Homo sapiens. If more people need to get together, the secret lies in fictional stories, or imagination. Whether it is a country or a religion, it is the result of our imagination. Since the cognitive revolution, Homo sapiens has been living in a dual reality, one is the objective reality such as trees and lions, and the other is the reality imagined by human beings such as countries, religions and enterprises. This makes me feel deeply. I know for the first time that the maintenance of our daily society actually depends on people's imagination. The words we use to write, the language we use to communicate and the knowledge we have learned are all products of our imagination. This is amazing. Secondly, the idea that imagination helps people please the natural laws that evolution depends on DNA also refreshes me. For example, it may take millions of years for birds to evolve wings, but it was not until 2200 after the industrial revolution that humans invented the plane and conquered the sky. The influence of DNA on us is gradually shrinking.

The second important progress of mankind is the agricultural revolution. It can be said that after the agricultural revolution, the Homo sapiens main community began to settle down, replacing the hunting and gathering Homo sapiens community to occupy the Homo sapiens main body. Although agricultural farming has brought about an increase in grain output and an expansion of population, it does not mean that people's lives are happier. On the contrary, it can be said that the tragic life of mankind began here. Because of farming, human beings must live in the same place, destroy forests and open up wasteland, and gradually drift away from nature. With the growth of population, infectious diseases become more common. Even if you regret it, you will never be able to return to the leisurely days of collecting clubs in the past. We are no longer ourselves, but slaves domesticated by wheat. I never realized that human beings would be domesticated before, but it is really thought-provoking to say that human beings are bound by growing wheat and serving like uncles. But it's not all bad. At least the agricultural revolution contributed to the birth of the country, human life was more orderly, and culture and art were developed with the supply of a few elites who accepted the bottom farmers. But it can also be said that the order established during the agricultural revolution made us humans begin to have classes. As the book says, history has never been just, and we can't judge the right or wrong of slavery. At least in Hammurabi's view, people are only divided into three classes: nobles, freemen and slaves, but in modern people's view, this is evil and incorrect. This makes me wonder if we don't judge others by our own standards, just as the United States wants to bring its own democratic ideas to the world. Maybe it's only in the eyes of Americans, but it doesn't mean it's only aimed at other countries. In my opinion, several speculations about why sex and gender prevail in the world are also very reasonable. Personally, I tend to be muscular, that is, men are stronger than women in body and force, so from ancient times to now, no matter where in the world, men are basically in power.

Then it entered the part of human integration and unity. First of all, the emergence of money has made people's trade network more extensive, replacing the previous human transaction or barter. On the other hand, money is also the most common and effective system of mutual trust in the history of the world, which makes human trade develop rapidly. Besides, money is gradually infiltrating into our lives. Maybe one day there will be no affection and loyalty around us, only the market and money.

When it comes to human unity and integration, all the empires in the world have contributed. Although their conquest was destructive to some extent, it also accelerated the integration of nationalities, such as the implementation of civil law in the middle and late period of ancient Rome. However, Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, and in the Han Dynasty, he went west to explore Xinjiang and expand its territory. Until now, there are no Central Plains people or barbarians in the east and west, but only one main ethnic group, the Han nationality. There used to be a large number of nationalities in the Middle East, but the Arab Empire conquered the whole Middle East and North Africa, so today we call them Arabs, not Egyptians, Syrians and so on.

In addition, especially in Europe and the Middle East, the power of religion plays an important role in the integration and unity of mankind.

I think my favorite part of this book is about the scientific revolution. I think the chapter on capitalism is very good. I think the Dutch example is very typical. Now the capitalist society is open-minded in the Netherlands, and its country operates like an enterprise. In addition, its credit, or human trust in the future, enables our economy to develop rapidly. As the book says, capitalists have changed the situation in which aristocrats used to get money and use it for unproductive activities. Instead, they reinvest most of their funds to create more profits and spend only a little on unproductive activities. Therefore, the economy can develop so fast after the scientific revolution. This also highlights that trust and credit are becoming more and more important in today's society. The result of lack of trust is like 1929 and the two financial crises in 2008, which will make us pay a painful price.

Finally, the author criticizes that human beings modify DNA in the hope of completing a forgotten project. My opinion is different from the author's. Are we homo sapiens or homo sapiens?

Reading Experience of A Brief History of Mankind 4. A Brief History of Mankind tells the history of the whole mankind. The book not only looks at the history of human development from the perspective of a certain nation (country) or human beings, but also looks at the history of human development from the perspective of animals and plants and the whole world. From millions of years ago, to modern times, to the final climax of the book, that is, the possible future of mankind, the last part gives people the most shocking feeling. The author talks about the evolution of ancient creatures, agricultural revolution, imperialism and capitalism, tells the history one by one, and adds his own perspective to analyze and decompose it at different stages of human development, which can give people a refreshing feeling in many aspects.

Evolution is the eternal melody of human progress. After millions of years of evolution, human beings have gradually become modern homo sapiens. Although human beings are now the tallest species in the whole biological chain, this does not mean that evolution is over. On the contrary, humans may be evolving at a faster rate. Evolution really started from the imperfection of human beings at different levels, such as brain, body and psychology, and it is precisely because modern people still have such imperfections that cognitive deviations and fallacies have led to many modern problems. Daniel Kahneman's book gives many good descriptions of this. In the future, human beings will continue to evolve. We must realize our limitations and cognitive biases, and only in this way can we better adapt to modern society.

The development of history is intertwined with many accidental factors. Humans and chimpanzees have the same ancestor, and an unexpected mutation of genes led to the birth of a new species millions of years ago. Christianity has become one of the three major religions in the world, and it has its own contingency. The Roman emperor stumbled upon this small Sect, which was unknown at that time, and found that the country could be better ruled through religion. Therefore, with the strong support of the Roman Empire, Christianity became a major sect in the world. The development of modern scientific and technological revolution is full of contingency, and many scientific and technological inventions are accidental factors leading to new discoveries.

The progress of the times is mixed with limitations and tolerance. In ancient times, due to the limited understanding of nature, people believed in various gods and explained various phenomena of nature through them. After the agricultural revolution, due to the great increase in food supply, some people began to engage in some more advanced jobs. Therefore, philosophy, politics, art and other ideological cultures have developed greatly during this period, but we can see that there are still limitations of the times, such as Confucianism's emphasis on monarchical power and patriarchy. For example, until the Middle Ages, the status of men and women was unequal, and it was not until modern times that men and women were equal and feminism appeared. The change of attitude towards homosexuality in modern society is also a good example. People gradually realize that homosexuality exists in human species and other biological species. This is a very natural phenomenon, which enables people to accept homosexuality with a more open and inclusive attitude. In the future, people will treat those phenomena that we think are wrong or even illegal with a more developed and inclusive attitude. In fact, many so-called wrong or illegal behaviors are caused by our ideological distorted values.