Yuval Noah Harari

And what really made us successful, what made us the rulers of the planet and not the chimps and not the Neanderthals is not any individual ability, but our collective ability, our ability to cooperate flexibly in very large numbers. Chimpanzees know how to cooperate, say, 50 chimpanzees, 100 chimpanzees. As far as we can tell from archaeological evidence, this was also the case with Neanderthals.

And what really made us successful, what made us the rulers of the planet and not the chimps and not the Neanderthals is not any individual ability, but our collective ability, our ability to cooperate flexibly in very large numbers. Chimpanzees know how to cooperate, say, 50 chimpanzees, 100 chimpanzees. As far as we can tell from archaeological evidence, this was also the case with Neanderthals.

And what really made us successful, what made us the rulers of the planet and not the chimps and not the Neanderthals is not any individual ability, but our collective ability, our ability to cooperate flexibly in very large numbers. Chimpanzees know how to cooperate, say, 50 chimpanzees, 100 chimpanzees. As far as we can tell from archaeological evidence, this was also the case with Neanderthals.

Homo sapiens, about 70,000 years ago, gained an amazing ability to cooperate basically in unlimited numbers. You start seeing the formation of large networks, political, commercial, religious, items being traded over thousands of kilometers, ideas being spread, autistic fashions. And this is our secret of success. Chimpanzees, Neanderthals can cooperate, say, a hundred.

Homo sapiens, about 70,000 years ago, gained an amazing ability to cooperate basically in unlimited numbers. You start seeing the formation of large networks, political, commercial, religious, items being traded over thousands of kilometers, ideas being spread, autistic fashions. And this is our secret of success. Chimpanzees, Neanderthals can cooperate, say, a hundred.

Homo sapiens, about 70,000 years ago, gained an amazing ability to cooperate basically in unlimited numbers. You start seeing the formation of large networks, political, commercial, religious, items being traded over thousands of kilometers, ideas being spread, autistic fashions. And this is our secret of success. Chimpanzees, Neanderthals can cooperate, say, a hundred.

We, you know, now the global trade network has 8 billion people. Like what we eat, what we wear, it comes from the other side of the world. Countries like China, like India, they have 1.4 billion people. Even Israel, which is a relatively small country, say 9 million citizens, that's more than the entire population of the planet 10,000 years ago of humans.

We, you know, now the global trade network has 8 billion people. Like what we eat, what we wear, it comes from the other side of the world. Countries like China, like India, they have 1.4 billion people. Even Israel, which is a relatively small country, say 9 million citizens, that's more than the entire population of the planet 10,000 years ago of humans.

We, you know, now the global trade network has 8 billion people. Like what we eat, what we wear, it comes from the other side of the world. Countries like China, like India, they have 1.4 billion people. Even Israel, which is a relatively small country, say 9 million citizens, that's more than the entire population of the planet 10,000 years ago of humans.

So we can build these huge networks of cooperation. And everything we've accomplished as a species, from building the pyramids to flying to the moon, it's based on that. And then you ask, okay, so what makes it possible for millions of people who don't know each other to cooperate in a way that Neanderthals or chimpanzees couldn't? And At least my answer is stories. It's fiction.

So we can build these huge networks of cooperation. And everything we've accomplished as a species, from building the pyramids to flying to the moon, it's based on that. And then you ask, okay, so what makes it possible for millions of people who don't know each other to cooperate in a way that Neanderthals or chimpanzees couldn't? And At least my answer is stories. It's fiction.

So we can build these huge networks of cooperation. And everything we've accomplished as a species, from building the pyramids to flying to the moon, it's based on that. And then you ask, okay, so what makes it possible for millions of people who don't know each other to cooperate in a way that Neanderthals or chimpanzees couldn't? And At least my answer is stories. It's fiction.

It's the imagination. If you examine any large-scale human cooperation, you always find fiction as its basis. It's a fictional story that holds lots of strangers together. It's most obvious in cases like religion.

It's the imagination. If you examine any large-scale human cooperation, you always find fiction as its basis. It's a fictional story that holds lots of strangers together. It's most obvious in cases like religion.

It's the imagination. If you examine any large-scale human cooperation, you always find fiction as its basis. It's a fictional story that holds lots of strangers together. It's most obvious in cases like religion.

You know, you can't convince a group of chimpanzees to come together to fight a war or build a cathedral by promising to them, if you do that, after you die, you go to chimpanzee heaven and you get lots of bananas and coconuts. No chimpanzee will ever believe that. Humans believe these stories, which is why we have these huge religious networks. But it's the same thing with modern politics.

You know, you can't convince a group of chimpanzees to come together to fight a war or build a cathedral by promising to them, if you do that, after you die, you go to chimpanzee heaven and you get lots of bananas and coconuts. No chimpanzee will ever believe that. Humans believe these stories, which is why we have these huge religious networks. But it's the same thing with modern politics.

You know, you can't convince a group of chimpanzees to come together to fight a war or build a cathedral by promising to them, if you do that, after you die, you go to chimpanzee heaven and you get lots of bananas and coconuts. No chimpanzee will ever believe that. Humans believe these stories, which is why we have these huge religious networks. But it's the same thing with modern politics.

It's the same thing with economics. People think, oh, economics, this is rational. It has nothing to do with fictional stories. No, money is the most successful story ever told, much more successful than any religious mythology. Not everybody believes in God or in the same God. Almost everybody believes in money, even though it's just a figment of our imagination.

It's the same thing with economics. People think, oh, economics, this is rational. It has nothing to do with fictional stories. No, money is the most successful story ever told, much more successful than any religious mythology. Not everybody believes in God or in the same God. Almost everybody believes in money, even though it's just a figment of our imagination.