In his new book “Nexus”, Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestselling “Sapiens”, explores in detail how information networks have shaped our world over thousands of years. The book was published in Lithuania at the same time as in 20 other countries and will soon be translated into 30 more languages. Translated from English by Elena Belskytė, publisher – “Kitos knygos”.
The book reflects on the ways in which societies, from the Stone Age and the canonisation of the Bible to Nazism, Stalinism and the rise of modern populists, have used information – whether stories or statistics – to achieve their goals. Information is not just the raw material of truth and not just a tool of power. The human ability to manage it will determine whether the new unpredictable information networks, with the participation of non-human intelligence, will work in cooperation with our civilisation.
Israeli historian Y. N. Harari denies the established belief that more information is always better and that information quantity correlates with truth. After all, the internet has not stopped totalitarianism, and racism cannot be measured objectively. However, the author also opposes the populist belief that objective truth does not exist and that information should be used as a weapon. Ironically, the historian points out, the definition of truth as an illusion, which is nowadays embraced by right-wing politicians, comes from left-wing thinkers such as Marx and Foucault.
In a narrative that spans the ages from the Stone Age to the era of artificial intelligence (AI), Y. N. Harari seeks to “better understand what information is, how it helps build human networks, and what its links are to truth and power”. According to him, history can help to solve the huge information-related challenges of the present, the most important of which is the political impact of the AI and the risk to democracy caused by disinformation.
Y. N. Harari gives a new definition of information itself. Most information, according to him, does not reflect anything and has no essential connection to the truth. The defining feature of information is not representation, but connection; it is not a way of capturing reality, but a way of connecting and gathering ideas and, most importantly, people. This is ”social connection” (nexus in Latin). Early information technologies such as word-of-mouth narratives, clay tablets or religious texts, and later newspapers and radio, are ways of organising social order.
The historian uses the idea developed in his previous books, “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus”, that humans have risen above other species because of their ability to cooperate, and by sharing stories and myths they have been able to gather large number of people together. Laws, gods, currencies and nationalities are intangible things that appear through shared stories. These stories do not have to be completely accurate; the advantage of fiction is that it can be simplified and can ignore inconvenient or painful truths.
The opposite of an engaging but perhaps inaccurate myth is statistics, which boringly attempts to capture reality and gives a lot of power to bureaucracy. Society needs both mythology and bureaucracy to maintain order. Y. N. Harari sees the creation and the interpretation of sacred texts and the appearance of the scientific method as contrasting approaches to questions of trust and fallibility, the maintenance of order and the discovery of truth.
He applies this framing to politics, treating democracy and totalitarianism as “contrasting types of information networks”. Since the 19th century, the media have helped to create democracy at the national level, but they have also “opened the door to large-scale totalitarian regimes”. In a democracy, information flows are decentralised and those in power are seen to be in the wrong; under totalitarianism, the reverse is true. Even now, in various forms, digital media has political impact. New information technologies are a catalyst for major historical changes.
As in his previous books, Harari writes with confidence, ambition and humour. He uses history, religion, epidemiology, mythology, literature, evolutionary biology and his own family’s biography, often skipping thousands of years in a few paragraphs, and then going back again.
One may ask why, in a book about information that promises new perspectives for AI, the author spends so much time on the history of religion, especially the Bible. The reason is that both holy books and artificial intelligence are an attempt to create an “infallible superhuman authority”. Decisions made in the fourth century of our era about what texts to include in the Bible had major consequences centuries later, just as, according to Y.N. Harari, decisions made today about AI will determine the future of humanity.
Y. N. Harari worries that the AI can become “a new kind of god”. Unlike literature, stories or newspapers, the AI can be an active character in information networks – just like people. He fears that the AI will even more complicate existing computer-related dangers such as algorithmic bias, online radicalisation, cyber-attacks and the constant surveillance of everything. The historian worries that the AI is creating dangerous new myths, cults, political movements and new financial products that disrupt the economy.
Y. N. Harari’s narrative is gripping and his ideas are astonishingly original. As he himself admits, he is an outsider in the field of computer science and artificial intelligence, but that is exactly what gives him a new point of view. Technology enthusiasts will read the book for the unexpected aspects of the story, and history buffs may better understand the debate on AI.
“Nexus is a feat by a historian with a keen grasp of the spirit of the modern day, whose arguments span thousands of years,” says the British magazine “The Economist” in its review of the book.
