Summary

Chapter 4 describes the important role stories and other shared myths play in human society. Harari argues that humanity’s uniqueness comes not from its mind, but from the fact that it experiences a triple-layered reality. Like most species, we experience objective entities and subjective sensations. Additionally, however, humans have an intersubjective reality; shared myths and concepts, such as religion, money, and corporations, that do not exist in objective reality, but are nonetheless considered real by the vast majority of individuals. These myths, Harari argues, have allowed humanity to become Earth’s dominant species and will only become more important in the coming century, thus it is imperative to understand their role. Shared myths emerged following the cognitive revolution, which gave Home sapiens the ability to create and describe intangible ideas. These myths allowed humans to cooperate in large numbers, a capacity that had...