1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:21,220 17,000 years ago, our ancestors were insignificant animals. The most important thing to know about 2 00:00:21,220 --> 00:00:27,100 price to the humans is that they were unimportant. Their impact on the world was not much 3 00:00:27,100 --> 00:00:35,280 greater than that of jellyfish or fireflies or woodpeckers. Today in contrast, we control 4 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:42,500 this planet. And the question is, how did we come from there to here? How did we turn 5 00:00:42,500 --> 00:00:48,860 ourselves from insignificant apes, minding their own business in a corner of Africa, into 6 00:00:48,860 --> 00:00:56,380 the rulers of planet Earth? Usually, we look for the difference between us and all the 7 00:00:56,380 --> 00:01:02,700 other animals on the individual level. We want to believe I want to believe that there 8 00:01:02,700 --> 00:01:11,580 is something special about me, about my body, about my brain that makes me so superior 9 00:01:11,580 --> 00:01:18,820 to a dog or a pig or a chimpanzee. But it's true that on the individual level, I am 10 00:01:18,820 --> 00:01:25,860 very single, similar to a chimpanzee. And if you take me and a chimpanzee and put us together 11 00:01:25,860 --> 00:01:31,660 on some lonely island and we're head to struggle for survival to see who survives better. 12 00:01:31,660 --> 00:01:38,980 I would definitely place my bets on the chimpanzee, not on myself. And this is not something wrong 13 00:01:38,980 --> 00:01:44,900 with me personally. I guess if they took almost any one of you and placed your loan with a 14 00:01:44,900 --> 00:01:52,740 chimpanzee on some island, the chimpanzee would do much better. The real difference between 15 00:01:52,740 --> 00:01:59,500 humans and all other animals is not on the individual level, it's on the collective level. 16 00:01:59,500 --> 00:02:07,380 Humans control the planet because they are the only animals that can cooperate both flexibly 17 00:02:07,380 --> 00:02:14,180 and in very large numbers. Now there are other animals like the social insects, the bees, 18 00:02:14,260 --> 00:02:21,540 the ants that can cooperate in large numbers, but they don't do so flexibly. Their cooperation 19 00:02:21,540 --> 00:02:27,780 is very rigid. There is basically just one way in which a bee hive can function. In if there 20 00:02:27,780 --> 00:02:35,540 is a new opportunity or a new danger, the bees cannot reinvent the social system overnight. 21 00:02:35,540 --> 00:02:41,300 They cannot, for example, execute the queen and establish a Republic of bees or a communist 22 00:02:41,380 --> 00:02:48,580 dictatorship of worker bees. Other animals like the social mammals, the wolves, the elephants, 23 00:02:48,580 --> 00:02:55,860 the dolphins, the chimpanzees, they can cooperate much more flexibly, but they do so only in small 24 00:02:55,860 --> 00:03:03,780 numbers. Because cooperation among chimpanzees is based on intimate knowledge, one of the other. 25 00:03:03,780 --> 00:03:09,620 If I'm a chimpanzee and you're a chimpanzee and I want to cooperate with you, I need to know 26 00:03:09,700 --> 00:03:15,860 you personally. What kind of chimpanzee are you? Are you a nice chimpanzee? Are you an evil chimpanzee? 27 00:03:15,860 --> 00:03:20,260 Are you trustworthy? If I don't know you, how can I cooperate with you? 28 00:03:21,620 --> 00:03:27,780 The only animals that can combine the two abilities together and cooperate both flexibly 29 00:03:27,780 --> 00:03:37,060 and still do so in very large numbers is us, homosapiens. One versus one, or even 10 versus 10, 30 00:03:37,140 --> 00:03:45,220 chimpanzees might be better than us. But if you peep 1000 humans against 1000 chimpanzees, 31 00:03:45,220 --> 00:03:52,580 the humans will win easily for the simple reason that 1000 chimpanzees cannot cooperate at all. 32 00:03:53,220 --> 00:04:01,060 And if you now try to cram 100,000 chimpanzees into oxostrid or into a mpley stadium or 33 00:04:01,060 --> 00:04:07,300 kettemens square or the Vatican, you will get chaos, complete chaos, just imagine, 34 00:04:07,300 --> 00:04:15,220 wembley stadium with 100,000 chimpanzees. Complete madness. In contrast, humans normally 35 00:04:15,220 --> 00:04:22,420 gather there in tens of thousands and what we get is not chaos, usually, what we get is 36 00:04:22,420 --> 00:04:30,740 extremely sophisticated and effective networks of cooperation. All the huge achievements of 37 00:04:30,820 --> 00:04:36,340 humankind throughout history, whether it's building the pyramids or flying to the moon, 38 00:04:36,340 --> 00:04:42,820 have been based not on individual abilities but on this ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers. 39 00:04:43,460 --> 00:04:50,260 Think even about this very talk that I'm giving now. I'm standing here in front of an audience 40 00:04:50,260 --> 00:04:59,060 of about 300 or 400 people. Most of you are complete strangers to me. Similarly, I don't really know 41 00:04:59,140 --> 00:05:06,020 the people, all the people who have organized and worked on this event. I don't know the pilot 42 00:05:06,020 --> 00:05:11,860 and the crew members of the plane that brought me over here yesterday to London. I don't know 43 00:05:11,860 --> 00:05:18,660 the people who invented and manufactured this microphone and this cameras which are recording 44 00:05:18,660 --> 00:05:24,580 what I'm saying. I don't know the people who wrote all the books and articles that I've read 45 00:05:24,660 --> 00:05:30,740 in preparation for this talk. And I certainly don't know all the people who might be watching this 46 00:05:30,740 --> 00:05:38,260 talk over the internet somewhere in Buenos Aires or in New Delhi. Nevertheless, even though we 47 00:05:38,260 --> 00:05:46,420 don't know each other, we can work together to create this global exchange of ideas. This is 48 00:05:46,420 --> 00:05:53,220 something chimpanzees cannot do. They communicate of course but you will never catch a chimpanzee, 49 00:05:53,300 --> 00:06:00,980 traveling to some distant chimpanzee band to give them a talk about bananas or about elephants 50 00:06:00,980 --> 00:06:08,020 or anything else that might interest chimpanzees. No corporation is of course not always nice. 51 00:06:08,900 --> 00:06:14,260 All the horrible things humans have been doing throughout history and we have been doing some 52 00:06:14,260 --> 00:06:20,740 very horrible things. All those things are also based on large scale cooperation. 53 00:06:20,900 --> 00:06:26,580 Prisons are a system of cooperation, slaughterhouses are a system of cooperation, 54 00:06:26,580 --> 00:06:32,740 concentration camps are a system of cooperation, chimpanzees don't have slaughterhouses 55 00:06:32,740 --> 00:06:39,940 and prisons and concentration camps. Now suppose I've managed to convince you perhaps that yes, 56 00:06:39,940 --> 00:06:46,820 we control the world because we can cooperate flexibly in large numbers. The next question 57 00:06:46,900 --> 00:06:54,100 that immediately arises in the mind of inquisitive listener is how exactly do we do it? 58 00:06:54,100 --> 00:06:59,620 What enables us alone of all the animals to cooperate in such a way? 59 00:07:01,780 --> 00:07:10,420 The answer is a imagination. We can cooperate flexibly with countless numbers of strangers 60 00:07:10,500 --> 00:07:16,660 because we alone of all the animals on the planet can create and believe 61 00:07:16,660 --> 00:07:23,860 fictions, fictional stories and as long as everybody believes in the same fiction, 62 00:07:23,860 --> 00:07:29,700 everybody obeys and follows the same rules, the same norms, the same values. 63 00:07:30,660 --> 00:07:37,060 All other animals use their communication system only to describe reality. 64 00:07:37,620 --> 00:07:44,020 A chimpanzee may say, look there is a lion, let's run away, or look there is a banana tree over there, 65 00:07:44,020 --> 00:07:52,260 let's go and get bananas. Humans in contrast use their language not merely to describe reality, 66 00:07:52,260 --> 00:07:59,620 but also to create new realities, fictional realities. A human can say, look there is a 67 00:07:59,620 --> 00:08:05,380 god above the clouds and if you don't do what I tell you to do after you die, god will punish you 68 00:08:05,460 --> 00:08:10,740 and send you to hell. And if you all believe this story that I've invented, 69 00:08:10,740 --> 00:08:17,380 then you will follow the same norms and laws and values and you can cooperate. This is something 70 00:08:17,380 --> 00:08:24,340 only humans can do. You can never convince a chimpanzee to give you a banana by promising him 71 00:08:24,340 --> 00:08:29,940 that after you die you'll go to chimpanzee heaven and you'll receive lots and lots of bananas 72 00:08:29,940 --> 00:08:34,820 for your good deeds, so now give me this banana. No chimpanzee will ever believe that 73 00:08:34,900 --> 00:08:40,580 is story. Only humans believe such stories which is why we control the world, 74 00:08:40,580 --> 00:08:45,220 whereas the chimpanzees are locked up in zoos and research laboratories. 75 00:08:46,900 --> 00:08:53,460 Now you may find it acceptable that yes, in the religious field humans cooperate 76 00:08:53,460 --> 00:09:00,260 by believing in the same fictions. Millions of people come together to build a cathedral or a 77 00:09:00,260 --> 00:09:06,740 mosque of fight on a crusade or an ejihad because they all believe in the same stories 78 00:09:06,740 --> 00:09:15,220 about God and heaven and hell. But what I want to emphasize is that exactly the same mechanism 79 00:09:15,220 --> 00:09:22,980 underlies all other forms of mass scale human corporation, not only in the religious field. 80 00:09:23,620 --> 00:09:31,380 Take for example the legal field. Most legal systems today in the world are based on a belief 81 00:09:31,380 --> 00:09:37,860 in human rights. But what are human rights? Human rights, just like garden heaven, 82 00:09:37,860 --> 00:09:44,180 are just a story that we've invented. They are not an objective reality. They are not some biological 83 00:09:44,180 --> 00:09:52,100 fact about homosapiens. Take a human being, cut him open, look inside, you will find the heart, 84 00:09:52,180 --> 00:10:00,660 the kidneys, neurons, hormones, DNA, but you won't find any rights. The only place you find rights 85 00:10:00,660 --> 00:10:07,140 is the stories that we have invented and spread around over the last few centuries. They may 86 00:10:07,140 --> 00:10:14,260 be very positive stories, very good stories, but they are still just fictional stories that 87 00:10:14,260 --> 00:10:22,020 we've invented. The same is true of the political field. The most important factors in modern 88 00:10:22,100 --> 00:10:29,780 politics are states and nations, but what are states and nations? They are not an objective reality. 89 00:10:29,780 --> 00:10:35,460 A mountain is an objective reality. You can see it, you can touch it, you can even smell it. 90 00:10:36,180 --> 00:10:43,220 But a nation or a state like Israel or Iran or France or Germany, this is just a story 91 00:10:43,220 --> 00:10:49,300 that we've invented and became extremely attached to. The same is true of the economic field. 92 00:10:49,940 --> 00:10:55,780 The most important factors today in the global economy are companies and corporations. 93 00:10:56,500 --> 00:11:04,260 Many of you perhaps work for a corporation like Google or Toyota or McDonald's. What exactly 94 00:11:04,260 --> 00:11:13,860 are these things? They are what lawyers call legal fictions. They are stories invented and maintained 95 00:11:13,940 --> 00:11:24,500 by the powerful wizards we call lawyers. What do corporations do all day? Mostly, they try to make 96 00:11:24,500 --> 00:11:31,460 money. Yet what is money? Again, money is not an objective reality. It has no objective value. 97 00:11:32,020 --> 00:11:38,740 Take this green piece of paper, the dollar bill, look at it. It has no value. You cannot eat it. 98 00:11:38,740 --> 00:11:45,620 You cannot drink it. You cannot wear it. But then come along these master storytellers, 99 00:11:45,620 --> 00:11:52,580 the big bankers, the finest ministers, the prime ministers, and they tell us a very convincing story. 100 00:11:52,580 --> 00:11:58,820 Look, you see this green piece of paper? It is actually worth 10 bananas. And if I believe it 101 00:11:58,820 --> 00:12:06,020 and you believe it and everybody believes it, it actually works. I can't take this worthless piece of paper. 102 00:12:06,100 --> 00:12:12,740 Got to the supermarket, give it to a complete stranger who I've never met before and get 103 00:12:12,740 --> 00:12:19,220 in exchange real bananas, which I can actually eat. This is something amazing. You can never do it 104 00:12:19,220 --> 00:12:25,540 with chimpanzees. chimpanzees train, of course. Yes, you give me a coconut. I'll give you a banana 105 00:12:25,540 --> 00:12:31,860 that can work. But you give me a worthless piece of paper and you expect me to give you a banana? 106 00:12:31,940 --> 00:12:42,180 No way. What do you think I am a human? Money, in fact, is the most successful story ever invented 107 00:12:42,180 --> 00:12:50,580 and told by humans because it is the only story everybody believes. Not everybody believes in 108 00:12:50,580 --> 00:12:58,340 God, not everybody believes in human rights, not everybody believes in nationalism, but everybody 109 00:12:58,420 --> 00:13:04,980 believes in money and in the dollar bills. Take even of someone been ladden. He hated American 110 00:13:04,980 --> 00:13:11,460 politics and American religion and American culture, but he had no objection to American dollars. 111 00:13:11,460 --> 00:13:21,460 He was quite fond of them, actually. To conclude then, we humans control the world because we 112 00:13:21,540 --> 00:13:28,420 live in a dual reality. All other animals live in an objective reality. 113 00:13:29,220 --> 00:13:37,380 Veryality consists of objective entities like rivers and trees and lions and elephants. 114 00:13:38,100 --> 00:13:45,380 We humans, we also live in an objective reality in our world too. There are rivers and trees 115 00:13:45,460 --> 00:13:54,020 and lions and elephants. But over the centuries, we have constructed on top of this objective reality 116 00:13:54,020 --> 00:14:02,340 a second layer of fictional reality. A reality made of fictional entities, like nations, 117 00:14:02,340 --> 00:14:11,220 like gods, like money, like corporations. And what is amazing that as history unfolded, 118 00:14:11,300 --> 00:14:20,100 this fictional reality became more and more powerful. So that today, the most powerful forces 119 00:14:20,100 --> 00:14:29,300 in the world are these fictional entities. Today, the very survival of rivers and trees and lions 120 00:14:29,300 --> 00:14:37,220 and elephants depends on the decisions and wishes of fictional entities. Like the United States, 121 00:14:37,220 --> 00:14:44,100 like Google, like the World Bank, entities that exist only in our own imagination. 122 00:14:44,980 --> 00:14:47,780 Thank you. 123 00:14:53,620 --> 00:15:00,900 Thank you. Wow. You are a new book out. After Sapiens we wrote another one and it's out in Hebrew, 124 00:15:00,900 --> 00:15:04,260 but not yet translated into... I'm working on the translation. 125 00:15:05,140 --> 00:15:10,660 Okay, in the book, if I understand the quality, you argue that actually the amazing breakthrough 126 00:15:10,660 --> 00:15:17,300 that we are experiencing right now, not only will potentially make our life better, but they will 127 00:15:17,300 --> 00:15:22,900 create an equal to a new class, a new class struggles, just as the industrial revolution did. 128 00:15:22,900 --> 00:15:29,540 Can you elaborate for us? Yes, in the industrial revolution, we saw the creation of a new class 129 00:15:29,540 --> 00:15:35,700 of the urban proletariat and much of the political and social history of the last 200 years 130 00:15:35,700 --> 00:15:42,500 involved what to do with this class and the new problems and opportunities. Now, we see the creation 131 00:15:42,500 --> 00:15:50,740 of a new massive class of useless people. As computers become better and better in more and more 132 00:15:50,740 --> 00:15:57,700 fields, there is a distinct possibility that computers will outperform us in most tasks 133 00:15:57,780 --> 00:16:03,620 and will make humans redundant and then the big political and economic question of the 21st 134 00:16:03,620 --> 00:16:10,580 century will be what do we need humans for, or at least what do we need so many humans for? 135 00:16:10,580 --> 00:16:17,940 Do you have an answer in the book? At present, the best guess we have is keep them happy with drugs 136 00:16:17,940 --> 00:16:22,820 and computer games, but this doesn't sound like a very appealing future. 137 00:16:23,780 --> 00:16:28,500 So we basically say in the book and now that for all the discussion about the growing 138 00:16:28,500 --> 00:16:33,380 evidence of significant economic inequality, we are just kind of at the beginning of the process. 139 00:16:34,260 --> 00:16:40,740 Again, it's not a prophecy. It's seeing all kinds of possibilities before us. One possibility 140 00:16:40,740 --> 00:16:46,820 is this creation of a new massive class of useless people and another possibility is the division 141 00:16:46,820 --> 00:16:55,140 of human kind into different biological costs with the rich being upgraded into virtual gods 142 00:16:55,140 --> 00:17:00,900 and the poor being degraded to this level of useless people. I feel there is another TED Talk coming 143 00:17:00,900 --> 00:17:08,420 up in a year or two. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks.