Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli <a href="/facts/Medievalist/Q5Guzu40">medievalist</a>, <a href="/facts/Military_historian/AKonYGMV">military historian</a>, <a href="/facts/Public_intellectual/m76pJfCg">public intellectual</a>, and <a href="/facts/Popular_science/cnhLw9rI">popular science</a> writer. He currently serves as professor in the Department of History at the <a href="/facts/Hebrew_University_of_Jerusalem/aEpNukpQ">Hebrew University of Jerusalem</a>. His first bestselling book, <a href="/facts/Sapiens%3a_A_Brief_History_of_Humankind/eyUMwx8F">Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind</a> (2011) is based on his lectures to an undergraduate <a href="/facts/World_history_(field)/3JQ1DXnW">world history</a> class. His other works include the bestsellers <a href="/facts/Homo_Deus%3a_A_Brief_History_of_Tomorrow/PQjwzoRH">Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow</a> (2016), <a href="/facts/21_Lessons_for_the_21st_Century/WgL990Ye">21 Lessons for the 21st Century</a> (2018), and Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (2024). His published work examines themes of <a href="/facts/Free_will/LwkImELQ">free will</a>, <a href="/facts/Consciousness/IAxmgt6c">consciousness</a>, intelligence, happiness, suffering and the role of storytelling in human evolution. 
In Sapiens, Harari writes about a "<a href="/facts/Behavioral_modernity/YIo3m4oL">cognitive revolution</a>" that supposedly occurred roughly 70,000 years ago when <a href="/facts/Homo_sapiens/rlcTENsr">Homo sapiens</a> supplanted the rival <a href="/facts/Neanderthals/19rBo6ze">Neanderthals</a> and other species of the genus <a href="/facts/Homo/qvJtEBr2">Homo</a>, developed language skills and structured societies, and ascended as <a href="/facts/Apex_predator/dl0Jyy8Q">apex predators</a>, aided by the <a href="/facts/First_Agricultural_Revolution/P5tLdcgU">First Agricultural Revolution</a> and accelerated by the <a href="/facts/Scientific_Revolution/KdeJepMq">Scientific Revolution</a>, which have allowed humans to approach near mastery over their environment. Furthermore, he examines the possible consequences of a futuristic <a href="/facts/Biotechnological/8eFnI6FB">biotechnological</a> world in which intelligent biological organisms are surpassed by their own creations; he has said, "Homo sapiens as we know them will disappear in a century or so". Although Harari's books have received considerable commercial success since the publication of Sapiens, his work has been more negatively received in academic circles.

Yuval Noah Harari open-in-new

Yuval Noah Harari