70,000 years ago, our ancestors were insignificant animals.
Today, in contrast, we control this planet.
And the question is,
"How did we turn ourselves from insignificant apes
into the rulers of planet Earth?
Usually, we look for the difference
between us and all the other animals
on the individual level.
I want to believe
that there is something special about me
that makes me so superior
to a dog or a pig or a chimpanzee.
But the truth is that if you take me and a chimpanzee
and put us together on some lonely island
and we had to struggle for survival,
I would definitely place my bets on the chimpanzee.
The real difference between humans
and all other animals is on the collective level.
Humans control the planet because they are the only animals
that can cooperate both flexibly
and in very large numbers.
Now there are other animals
like the social insects - the bees, the ants -
that can cooperate in large numbers
but they don’t do so flexibly.
Other animals, like the social mammals - the wolves,
the elephants,
the dolphins,
the chimpanzees,
they can cooperate much more flexibly,
but they do so only in small numbers
because cooperation is based on intimate knowledge -
one of the other.
All of the huge achievements
of human kind throughout history
have been based not on individual abilities,
but on this ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers.
What enables us alone of all the animals to cooperate in such a way?
The answer is our imagination.
All the other animals use their communication system
only to describe reality.
A chimpanzee may say, look, there is a lion, let’s run away.
Or look, there is a banana tree over there, let’s go get a bananas.
Humans in contrast use their language not merely to describe reality,
but also to create fictional realities.
A human can say, look, there is a God above the clouds.
And if you don’t do what I tell you to do,
after you die, God will punish you and send you to hell.
And if you all believe this story,
then you will follow the same norms and laws
and values and you can cooperate.
This is something only humans can do.
You can never convince a chimpanzee to give you a banana
by promising him that after you die, you will go to Chimpanzee Heaven
and you’ll receive lots and lots of bananas for your good deeds,
so now give me this banana.
No chimpanzee will ever believe such a story.
But what I want to emphasize is that exactly the same mechanism
underlies all other forms of mass-scale human cooperation.
The most important factors in modern politics are states and nations.
But what are states and nations?
They are not an objective reality.
A mountain is an objective reality.
You can see it, you can touch it, you can even smell it.
But a nation or a state like France or Germany,
this is just a story that we’ve invented and became extremely attached to.
The same is true of the economic field.
The most important actors today in the global economy are corporations.
What exactly are these things?
They are what lawyers call “legal fictions.”
They are stories invented and maintained by the powerful wizards we call lawyers.
And what do corporations do all day?
Mostly, they try to make money.
Yet, what is money?
Money is not an objective reality.
You cannot eat it.
You cannot drink it.
You cannot wear it.
But then come along these master storytellers,
and tell us a very convincing story.
Look, you see this green piece of paper?
It is actually worth ten bananas.
And if I believe it,
and you believe it,
and everybody believes it, it actually works.
I can take this worthless piece of paper,
go to the supermarket,
give it to a complete stranger who I have never met before
and get in exchange real bananas which I can actually eat.
This is something amazing.
You could never do it with chimpanzees.
Chimpanzees trade of course,
yes, you give me a coconut, I will give you a banana, that can work.
But you give me a worthless piece of paper
and you expect me to give you a banana?
No way! What do you think I am, a human?
We humans control the world because we live in a dual reality.
All other animals live in an objective reality.
Their reality consists of objective entities
like rivers
and trees
and lions
and elephants.
We humans also live in an objective reality.
In our world too
there are rivers
and trees
and lions
and elephants.
But over the centuries, we have constructed
on top of this objective reality,
a second layer of fictional reality
made of fictional entities
like nations,
like Gods,
like money,
like corporations.
What is amazing is that as history unfolded,
this fictional reality
became more and more powerful
so that today the most powerful forces in the world
are these fictional entities.
Today, the very survival
of rivers and trees and lions and elephants
depend on the decisions and wishes of fictional entities
that exist only in our own imagination.
We have been told a lie...
...a lie that says progress comes as a result of the efforts of "great" individuals.
That lie is used to justify the huge wealth inequity in the world today.
The truth is that progress is a result of our ability to cooperate with each other.
And it is time that the fruits of that progress be used to help everyone live a dignified life.