Why Homo Sapiens Won: A Dive Into Art, Memory, and Money
From Shell Beads to Satoshis
🚨 Must-read alert for humans who think about being human.
I just read an article called Once-in-a-Species — and it absolutely gripped me. If you’re curious about human evolution, or if you care about Bitcoin in a way that goes deeper than “number go up,” this is very worth your time.
weaves together anthropology, neuroscience, and Austrian economics to propose a wild but compelling idea: that our species’ success—and the rise of civilization—was driven by our fascination with scarcity. Shell beads weren’t just early bling—they were proto-money. And proto-money let us break past Dunbar’s number and form groups big enough to dominate the Earth.💡 One of my favorite insights: once you understand that abstract money solves the coordination limit of ~150 people, you realize that any society bigger than that must’ve used some form of money. That means money, in some form, could be 150,000+ years old.
The hook? It wasn’t strength, smarts, or tools that set us apart. It was our bizarre obsession with scarce collectibles—a strange quirk that led us to invent money. And once money enters the picture, something profound happens: Dunbar’s number breaks down. Populations grow. Civilizations form. Trade replaces tribalism. Money becomes the original force multiplier.
As Jesse states in the article, our species was generally able to support 10x the population compared to Neanderthals who once occupied the same territory. Simply put, if a tribe of 1000 with money meets a tribe of 100 without it… The math writes that ending.
And if that hooked your brain the way it did mine... just wait until he brings it all home with Bitcoin.
🎯 It’s about a 15-minute read. I think you’ll walk away with new eyes on who we are, how we got here, and why Bitcoin might be the final chapter of a very old story.
👉 Read it here. Then come back and tell me what you think. I hope you enjoy it, and it gets you thinking! Cheers!
