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“If the curtain is indeed about to drop on Sapiens history, we members of one of its final generations should devote some time to answering one last question: what do we want to become? This question, sometimes known as the Human Enhancement question, dwarfs the debates that currently preoccupy politicians, philosophers, scholars and ordinary people. After all, today’s debate between today’s religions, ideologies, nations and classes will in all likelihood disappear along with Homo sapiens. If our successors indeed function on a different level of consciousness (or perhaps possess something beyond consciousness that we cannot even conceive), it seems doubtful that Christianity or Islam will be of interest to them, that their social organisation could be Communist or capitalist, or that their genders could be male or female.”

“Nach Ansicht des Buddhismus verwechseln die meisten Menschen Glück mit angenehmen Empfindungen und Leid mit unangenehmen Empfindungen. Daher sehnen sie sich nach angenehmen Gefühlen und wollen unangenehme Gefühle vermeiden. [...] Doch darin irren sie sich gründlich. In Wahrheit haben unsere subjektiven Empfindungen kein Wesen und keine Bedeutung. Es handelt sich um flüchtige Schwingungen, die sich ununterbrochen ändern, wie die Wellen des Meeres. Wenn wir diesen Wellen zu große Bedeutung beimessen, ergreifen sie Besitz von uns und machen uns unruhig und unzufrieden.”

“Viele Menschen machen den Fehler, sich mit ihren Empfindungen, Gedanken, Vorlieben und Abneigungen zu identifizieren. Wenn Sie ärgerlich sind, denken Sie: 'Ich bin ärgerlich. Das ist mein Ärger.' Folglich bringen sie ihr Leben damit zu, bestimmte Gefühle zu suchen und andere zu meiden. Sie erkennen nie, dass das gar nicht 'ihre' Gefühle, und dass die Jagd nach bestimmten Gefühlen letztlich nur mehr Leid verursacht.”

“When most people see a dollar bill, they forget that it is just a human convention. As they see the green piece of paper with the picture of the dead white man, they see it is as something valuable in and of itself. They hardly ever remind themselves ‘Actually, this is a worthless piece of paper, but because other people view it as valuable, I can make use of it.”

“Money is the apogee of human tolerance. Money is more open-minded than language, state laws, cultural codes, religious beliefs and social habits. Money is the only trust system created by humans that can bridge almost any cultural gap, and that does not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, race, age or sexual orientation.”

“In the 300 years of the crucifixion of Christ to the conversion of Emperor Constantine, polytheistic Roman emperors initiated no more than four general persecutions of Christians. Local administrators and governors incited some anti-Christian violence of their own. Still, if we combine all the victims of all these persecutions, it turns out that in these three centuries the polytheistic Romans killed no more than a few thousand Christians. In contrast, over the course, of the next 1,500 years, Christians slaughtered Christians by the millions, to defend slightly different interpretations of the religion of love and compassion.”

“The few survivors were hounded into an evangelical concentration camp, where well-meaning but not particularly open-minded missionaries tried to indoctrinate them in the ways of the modern world. The Tasmanians were instructed in reading and writing, Christianity and various ‘productive skills’ such as sewing clothes and farming. But they refused to learn. They became ever more melancholic, stopped having children, lost all interest in life, and finally chose the only escape route from the modern world of science and progress – death.”

“Encore au XIXe siècle, les meilleurs médecins ne savaient pas empêcher l’infection ni arrêter la putréfaction des tissus. Dans les hôpitaux de campagne, par peur de la gangrène, les chirurgiens amputaient couramment les mains et les jambes des soldats même légèrement blessés. Ces amputations, comme toutes les autres interventions médicales (telle l’extraction des dents), se faisaient sans anesthésiques. Les premiers d’entre eux - l’éther, le chloroforme et la morphine - ne devaient être d’usage courant dans la médecine occidentale qu’au milieu du XIXe siècle. Avant l’usage du chloroforme, il fallait quatre soldats pour maintenir un camarade blessé tandis que le médecin coupait le membre blessé. Le lendemain de la bataille de Waterloo (1815), on pouvait voir des monceaux de mains et de jambes coupés au voisinage des hôpitaux de campagne. En ce temps-là, les charpentiers et bouchers enrôlés dans l’armée servaient souvent dans le corps médical parce que la chirurgie exigeait à peine plus que de savoir manier le couteau et la scie.”

“A história liberal diz-me que procure a liberdade para me exprimir e para me realizar. Mas tanto o ‘eu’ como a liberdade são quimeras mitológicas saídas de contos de fadas dos tempos antigos. O liberalismo tem uma noção particularmente confusa de ‘livre-arbítrio’. Os seres humanos, evidentemente, têm vontade, têm desejos e, por vezes, são livres de cumprir esses desejos. Se por ‘livre-arbítrio’ entendermos a liberdade de fazer o que se deseja, então, sim, os seres humanos têm livre-arbítrio. Mas se ‘livre-arbítrio’ significar a liberdade de escolher aquilo que se deseja, então, não, os seres humanos não têm livre-arbítrio.”

“A literatura romântica muitas vezes apresenta o indivíduo como alguém lutando contra o Estado e o mercado. Nada poderia estar mais distante da realidade. O Estado e o mercado são a mãe e o pai do indivíduo, e o indivíduo só pode sobreviver graças a eles. O mercado nos fornece trabalho, seguro-saúde e uma aposentadoria. Se quisermos estudar uma profissão, as escolas do governo estão lá para nos ensinar. Se quisermos abrir um negócio, o banco nos empresta dinheiro.”

“Consumismo e nazionalismo fanno gli straordinari pur di farci immaginare che milioni di di estranei appartengano alla stessa comunità: una comunità fatta da noi, che dovremmo avere un passato comune, interessi comuni e un futuro comune. Non è una menzogna. È immaginazione. Come nei casi del denaro, delle società a responsabilità limitata e dei diritti umani, le nazioni e le tribù di consumatori sono realtà intersoggettive. Esse esistono unicamente nella nostra immaginazione collettiva, eppure il loro potere è immenso. Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens. Da animali a Dei. Breve storia dell'umanità, Giunti Editore/Bompiani, Firenze/Milano, 2019; pag. 451”

“In Homers Ilias scheint Thetis jedenfalls keine Einwände gegen die Beziehung ihres Sohnes Achilles zu Patrokles gehabt zu haben. Und Königin Olympias von Makedonien (eine der mächtigsten Frauen der Antike, die angeblich ihren Mann ermorden ließ) hatte offenbar nichts dagegen, als ihr Sohn Alexander der Große seinen Geliebten Hephaestion zum Essen nach Hause brachte.”

“...Bu engellenemez gelişim yoluna giren ülkeler barış ve refahtan paylarını daha kısa sürede alacak. Kaçınılmaz olana direnen ülkelerse sonunda doğru yolu bulup sınırlarını açana, toplumlarını, siyasetlerini ve piyasalarını özgürleştirene dek cezalarını çekecek. Zaman alabilir ama nihayetinde Kuzey Kore, Irak ve El Salvador da Danimarka ya da Iowa'ya benzeyecek.”

“That’s the capitalist secret of success. No central processing unit monopolises all the data on the London bread supply. The information flows freely between millions of consumers and producers, bakers and tycoons, farmers and scientists. Market forces determine the price of bread, the number of loaves baked each day and the research-and-development priorities. If market forces make the wrong decision, they soon correct themselves, or so capitalists believe. For our current purposes, it doesn’t matter whether the theory is correct. The crucial thing is that the theory understands economics in terms of data processing.”

“Dirbtinis intelektas ir biotechnologijos neabejotinai transformuos pasaulį, tačiau mes negalime žinoti, kaip tas transformuotas pasaulis atrodys. Visus šioje knygoje apmestus scenarijus reikėtų suprasti kaip galimybes, o ne pranašystes. Jeigu kai kurios iš šių galimybių jums nepatinka, maloniai prašome jus pradėti mąstyti ir elgtis naujai, idant šios konkrečios galimybės nesimaterializuotų.”

“Não se pode vivenciar algo sem a necessária sensibilidade e só é possível desenvolver essa sensibilidade através de uma longa série de experiências.”

“If the adoption of ploughing increased a village's population from a hundred to 110, which ten people would have volunteered to starve so that the others could go back to the good old time? There was no going back. The trap snapped shut. The pursuit of an easier life resulted in much hardship, and not for the last time. It happens to us today. How many young college graduates have take demanding jobs in high-powered firms, vowing that they will work hard to earn money that will enable them to retire and pursue their real interests when they are thirty-five? But by the time they reach that age, they have large mortgages, children to school, houses in the suburbs that necessitate at least two cars per family, and a sense that life is not worth living without really good wine and expensive holidays abroad.”