Nexus : a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI /
Yuval N. Harari.
- New York, NY : Random House, 2025.
- 506 pages ; 24 cm.
What is information? Stories : unlimited connections Documents : the bite of the paper tigers Errors : the fantasy of infallibility Decisions : a brief history of democracy and totalitarianism The new members : how computers are different from printing presses Relentless : the network is always on Fallible : the network is often wrong Democracies : can we still hold a conversation? Totalitarianism : all power to the algorithms? The silicon curtain : global empire or global split?
"For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI-a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence"-- Provided by publisher