The TEDTalk I have chosen to review is Why Humans Run the World by Yuval Noah Harari. In this fascinating talk, Harari posed the question “How did humans turn themselves from insignificant apes minding their own business in Africa into rulers of planet Earth?” I found this video on Youtube by accident while browsing for TEDTalks. I watched several ones before I came across Harari’s and his drew my attention the most out of all the talks I watched. He offered a refreshing view of how humans came to be the top species of the world. Harari’s humorous and easygoing style helps to keep my attention on his talk and he also gives real life examples that are relatable to the audience. I think this is a very powerful technique because this gives him
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Harari insists that humans are the only animals that can cooperate flexibly and on large numbers. Harari gives examples of bees and chimpanzees cooperating. These animals can either cooperate on a small number or flexibly but not both together. It is because of this ability to flexibly cooperate and on a large scale that many humans were able to invent many creations that are useful for mankind. Harari does not forget to address the other side of the argument. He claims that there are also terrible effects that came from this cooperation such as prisons and concentration …show more content…
I liked that this talk also relates to our unit of evolution because Harari is also pointing the difference between humans and other animal relatives of ours. This talk also relates to the Last Word Group’s presentation from class today in a way because one of Harari’s reasons for how humans rose above the rest is through the ability to imagine. In my mind, I correlate imagination with intelligence and this was part of the Last Word Group’s class discussion. I agree with him about how cooperation helps to elevate humans’ position above all the other animals. However, I’m not very convinced about that concept of imagination being the reason behind the ability to cooperate. I solely think that humans can cooperate so well because of our evolved intelligence. I think it’s through evolved intelligence and increased consciousness (self and the world around us) that lead to the ability to imagine and then the ability to cooperate. Overall, I enjoyed Harari’s stimulating view of how humans came to be the top species in the world very
Harari insists that humans are the only animals that can cooperate flexibly and on large numbers. Harari gives examples of bees and chimpanzees cooperating. These animals can either cooperate on a small number or flexibly but not both together. It is because of this ability to flexibly cooperate and on a large scale that many humans were able to invent many creations that are useful for mankind. Harari does not forget to address the other side of the argument. He claims that there are also terrible effects that came from this cooperation such as prisons and concentration …show more content…
I liked that this talk also relates to our unit of evolution because Harari is also pointing the difference between humans and other animal relatives of ours. This talk also relates to the Last Word Group’s presentation from class today in a way because one of Harari’s reasons for how humans rose above the rest is through the ability to imagine. In my mind, I correlate imagination with intelligence and this was part of the Last Word Group’s class discussion. I agree with him about how cooperation helps to elevate humans’ position above all the other animals. However, I’m not very convinced about that concept of imagination being the reason behind the ability to cooperate. I solely think that humans can cooperate so well because of our evolved intelligence. I think it’s through evolved intelligence and increased consciousness (self and the world around us) that lead to the ability to imagine and then the ability to cooperate. Overall, I enjoyed Harari’s stimulating view of how humans came to be the top species in the world very