Dean Poling

In our world of technological wonders, we often think we humans are the smartest we’ve ever been.

We’ve mastered complex math, lifesaving medicine and surgical techniques, can fly, can communicate with folks next door or around the world within seconds, travel into space, create computers that can potentially outthink us, mapped the human genome, etc.

We are geniuses of the species, or at least the folks who developed these things are. We believe we must stand at the apex of human brain power.

Yuval Noah Harari thinks differently.

In his book, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” he argues that modern humans are likely not as bright as their far distant ancestors.

How far distant?

The folks who moved about the earth before the Agricultural Revolution several thousand years ago. A time when small bands of humans moved across the lands, foraging the forests and fields for shelter and sustenance.

“There is some evidence that the size of the average Sapiens brain has decreased since the age of foraging,” Harari writes. “Survival in that era required superb mental abilities from everyone. When agriculture and industry came along people could increasingly rely on the skills of others for survival.”

More recent ages have led to the rise of “niches for imbeciles,” he adds, meaning people don’t need to be as smart or as clever to survive in a more modern world.

Foragers, he argues, not only mastered knowledge about animals, plants and objects, they had a better understanding of their bodies and senses.

They didn’t have antibiotics or a way to save themselves from a burst gall bladder but they understood numerous other things about the world around them.

“They listened to the slightest movement in the grass to learn whether a snake might be lurking there,” Harari writes. “They carefully observed the foliage of trees in order to discover fruits, beehives and bird nests. They moved with a minimum of effort and noise, and knew how to sit, walk and run in the most agile and efficient manner. Varied and constant use of their bodies made them as fit as marathon runners. They had physical dexterity that people today are unable to achieve even after years of practicing yoga or tai chi.”

So, our ancestors were not only smarter than us but in better shape.

Great.

The Agricultural Revolution not only led to arguably smaller brains as humans moved from needing to understand numerous aspects of the “surrounding world” and themselves to knowing a few specific tasks to survive, it also meant a less nutritional diet to fuel the body and brain.

Foragers, Harari notes, had a complex diet that could offer a wide range of foods within a day and from day to day.

After the Agricultural Revolution, people living by wheat farms ate bread. People living near rice paddies ate rice. And not much else.

While foragers gathered this complex diet, they acquired vast and intimate knowledge of the world around them. As Harari notes, they understood the growth patterns of numerous plants and the habits of animals. They knew what found foods nourished and what foods could make a person sick or kill them. They understood the seasons and how they changed as well as the signs of an impending storm or dry spell.

They knew how to fix their tools, mend their clothes, deal with snake bites, etc.

All we have to remember to eat is how late McDonald’s is open and recall a multitude of self-created passwords to use all of our digital streaming services.

And we don’t always do such a great job at those things. Ever notice how many people stop their cars and start talking to a darkened drive-through menu late at night?

However, we certainly live in the golden age of human achievement. We live longer. We have numerous devices designed to make our lives easier.

But do we live better?

As we stare at our phone screens are we happier than the forager watching the stars for signs?

Did we humans long ago outsmart ourselves?

Dean Poling is editor of The Tifton Gazette. and an editor with The Valdosta Daily Times.