As promised, I'm coming at you with an update on Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens -A Brief History of Humankind. Unlike anticipated, however, I am still working on this book. Turns out that reading something so factual and concentration demanding doesn't go well with my idea of a relaxing read on a school night. Studying medical biochemistry and molecular medicine all day calls for a bit of a lighter pass time at night. But to the point then, here's some of my thoughts so far (I'm actually pretty close to finishing so we're doing ok).

A quality of a good book, in my opinion, is that it makes the reader think. That you find yourself pondering on the book while doing the dishes or biking to uni. Sapiens has definitely done that. I have felt a little provoked at times, but this has forced me to learn new things and look at the world from newborn perspectives. For example, it is quite curious how same cultural features have sprung up all around the world completely independently of each other. On the other hand very fundamental aspects of one culture are completely polar in another. This speaks for the human nature.

Another thing that has kept me looping back to it in my thoughts is imagination. Merely everything we view as concrete and universal things, such as rights, money or certain religious aspects, are in fact nonexistent if humans aren't around to believe in them. Money doesn't have a real, nature's law binding value. Only the sole fact that people all over decide to give it value makes it real. Human rights are also just things we have come up with (though saying it like this makes it seem as if they aren't important -I disagree). No law of physics proves them to exist. Nevertheless we have built them into our cultures and want them to be recognized. This also brings an interesting point: equality and the right of freedom can never really exist at the same time because they contradict. Only the complex (or twisted?) human mind can believe in both. A computer couldn't for instance support both. In my mind this creates an interesting question for the future with all it's technology.

The book has also been a challenge at times because I regret to say I'm not the biggest fan of economics or politics. And they play a fair role in the novel. Anyhow I'm determined to turn every page and find myself a little wiser.

-Anna