Bozo Sapiens

A dazzling new work of popular science and psychology for readers who enjoyed Blink, Stumbling on Happiness, or The Black Swan. The New York Times called the Kaplans' look at probability in everyday life, Chances Are..., "a dizzying, exhilarating ride." Now they take readers on a new fun-house tour—exploring the burgeoning science of why humans make mistakes. Our species, it appears, is hardwired to get things wrong in myriad different ways. Why did recipients of a loan offer accept a higher rate of interest when a pretty woman's face was printed on the flyer? Why did one poll on immigration find the most despised aliens were ones from a group that did not exist? What made four of the air force's best pilots fly their planes, in formation, straight into the ground? Why does giving someone power make him more likely to chew with his mouth open and pick his nose? And why is your sister going out with that biker dude? In fact, our cognitive, logical, and romantic failures may be a fair price for our extraordinary success as a species—they are the necessary cost of our adaptability. Michael and Ellen Kaplan swoop effortlessly across neurochemistry, behavioral economics, and evolutionary biology, among other disciplines, to answer, with both clarity and wit, the questions above—and larger ones about what it means to be human.

A lighthearted survey of the science of mistakes by the authors of Chances Are reveals how the human race is hard-wired to get things wrong in countless ways, citing such examples as successful racy advertisements for inferior products, our inclinations to favor dysfunctional relationship partners and the socially unacceptable behaviors of leaders. Reprint.

This book explains and illustrates recent developments and advances in decision-making and risk analysis. It demonstrates how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have not only benefitted from classical decision analysis concepts such as expected utility maximization but have also contributed to making normative decision theory more useful by forcing it to confront realistic complexities. These include skill acquisition, uncertain and time-consuming implementation of intended actions, open-world uncertainties about what might happen next and what consequences actions can have, and learning to cope effectively with uncertain and changing environments. The result is a more robust and implementable technology for AI/ML-assisted decision-making. The book is intended to inform a wide audience in related applied areas and to provide a fun and stimulating resource for students, researchers, and academics in data science and AI-ML, decision analysis, and other closely linked academic fields. It will also appeal to managers, analysts, decision-makers, and policymakers in financial, health and safety, environmental, business, engineering, and security risk management.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Destined to become a modern classic in the vein of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Sapiens is a lively, groundbreaking history of humankind told from a unique perspective. 100,000 years ago, at least six species of human inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo Sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations, and human rights; to trust money, books, and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables, and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come? In Sapiens, Dr. Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical -- and sometimes devastating -- breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, palaeontology, and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come? Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power...and our future.

Originally published in 1972, Homo Sapiens examines how humans emerged from among the millions of other species and achieved our unique position within the animal kingdom. The book examines what direction future evolution will take and what may be regarded as the 'meaning' of human existence. It stipulates that these are the questions for which no real basis of discussion existed before the 20th century, and at the time of publication, some were still without a definite answer. The book sets out analyse these questions and the continuing debate that has arisen from their study. This is an account of the uniqueness of man in the animal kingdom, how this uniqueness arose during evolution, and what traces of it can be detected in animals other than man. The book describes the mental and physical evolution of man, from his earliest ancestors to the present day. He also gives an account of man's cultural development seeking to establish that there is an underlying principal of cultural evolution, a principle that has been denied by many historians. Later chapters deal with the future and with possible forecasts of mankind's further physical, intellectual and cultural evolution.

Volume one of the epic, beautifully illustrated graphic history of humankind, based on Yuval Noah Harari's internationally bestselling phenomenon In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power. How can we see the big picture without getting caught up in an infinity of little details? One way is to step back, to look at the really big picture: the entire history of the human species. Sapiens: A Graphic History, The Birth of Humankind is the story of how an insignificant ape became the ruler of planet Earth, capable of splitting the atom, flying to the Moon, and manipulating the genetic code of life. With Yuval Noah Harari as your guide, and accompanied by characters like Prehistoric Bill, Dr. Fiction, and Detective Lopez, you are invited to take a ride on the wild side of history. The graphic format offers readers a new intellectual and artistic exploration of the past. Human evolution is reimagined as a tacky reality TV show. The first encounter between Sapiens and Neanderthals is explored through the master-pieces of modern art. The extinction of the mammoths and saber-toothed tigers is retold as a "whodunit" movie. Sapiens: A Graphic History is a radical, and radically fun, retelling of the story of humankind, bursting with wit, humor, and colorful characters. If you want to know why we are all trapped inside the dreams of dead people—read this book.