Yuval Noah Harari is one of my top three favorite authors. I also love Bill Bryson and Walter Isaacson.

Therefore, I was thrilled that a few months ago, I got an advanced copy of Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, which launches today, September 10, 2024.

It's a 515-page book but has 11 chapters filled with headers, making it modular and readable.

I also reviewed his previous book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.

I loved Nexus, although Homo Deus is still my favorite Harari book.

Nexus explores the evolution of information networks from prehistoric times to the present, focusing mainly on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on society.

Outline
There are 3 parts:

Part 1: Human Networks focuses on history and how information went from clay tablets to silicon.

Part 2: The Inorganic Network focuses on the internet age and the birth of AI. It discusses how computers differ from printing presses and how the information networks are relentless and fallible.

Part 3: Computer Politics focuses on how AI will enter every aspect of our lives, governments, and businesses. He discusses democracies, totalitarianism, and the Silicon Curtain (how China and the West have different internets and AIs).

Overview and Themes
In Nexus, Harari argues that human history has been profoundly shaped by our ability to create and share narratives, which he identifies as the foundation of our social structures.

He posits that information networks—from oral traditions to the internet—serve as the "glue" that holds societies together.

The book emphasizes the dual nature of information: while it can foster cooperation and understanding, it can also propagate falsehoods and manipulation, particularly in the age of AI.

Nexus is more urgent and personal than Harari's previous works. It tackles contemporary issues related to AI, warning about its potential to manipulate human behavior without direct control.

Harari connects historical developments, such as the rise of farming and cities, to the evolution of information networks.

Nexus mixes historical analysis and philosophical reflection with Harari's trademark ability to provoke thought about the implications of modern technology.

His exploration of how AI could reshape human existence is captivating and unsettling, prompting you to reconsider your relationship with technology.

One fascinating observation is that governments used to spend 80% of their budgets on the military. Today, they spend about 10% on the military and more on healthcare.

Critique
Harari makes the same error that many nonfiction books do: they spend 95% of the book complaining and 5% of the time discussing the solution.

Conclusion
Happily, Harari isn't bleak or hopeless. He isn't overly pessimistic about our future. He believes we're at a critical crossroads, akin to when Christian scholars decided what books would make it into the Bible. What we do today will have an impact forever.

Totalitarianism loves AI's ability to survey and process data to keep the population in check.

However, totalitarianism hates that AI is a black box that is unpredictable and hard to control. Totalitarianism may become dependent on AI to make wise decisions, and it may falter, especially if the AI doesn't do what's best for the totalitarian leader.

Harari believes that democracy will triumph over totalitarianism because democracy is self-correcting and open to criticism. It's constantly adjusting to the wisdom of the crowds, whereas totalitarianism is rigid.

Ultimately, he believes that strong, wise institutions will help us incorporate the best of AI while avoiding its follies and dangers.

Nexus contributes to the discourse on AI and its societal implications. While it may not achieve the same universal acclaim as Harari's earlier works, like Sapiens or Homo Deus, it offers a compelling examination of how information networks have evolved and the urgent questions they raise for the future.

Readers looking for a blend of history, philosophy, and contemporary relevance will find much to ponder in Harari's latest offering.

After my verdict, I have included some excerpts from the book so you can get a feel for what it covers.

VERDICT: 9 out of 10 stars.

Excerpts
To conclude, the new computer network will not necessarily be either bad or good. All we know for sure is that it will be alien and it will be fallible. We therefore need to build institutions that will be able to check not just familiar human weaknesses like greed and hatred but also radically alien errors. There is no technological solution to this problem. It is, rather, a political challenge. Do we have the political will to deal with it? Modern humanity has created two main types of political systems: large-scale democracy and large-scale totalitarianism.

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Another common but mistaken assumption is that creativity is unique to humans so it would be difficult to automate any job that requires creativity.

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third mistaken assumption is that computers couldn’t replace humans in jobs requiring emotional intelligence, from therapists to teachers.

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If it means the ability to correctly identify emotions and react to them in an optimal way, then computers may well outperform humans even in emotional intelligence. Emotions too are patterns.

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Actually, computers may outperform humans in recognizing human emotions, precisely because they have no emotions of their own. We yearn to be understood, but other humans often fail to understand how we feel, because they are too preoccupied with their own feelings. In contrast, computers will have an exquisitely fine-tuned understanding of how we feel, because they will learn to recognize the patterns of our feelings, while they have no distracting feelings of their own.

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Actually, computers may outperform humans in recognizing human emotions, precisely because they have no emotions of their own. We yearn to be understood, but other humans often fail to understand how we feel, because they are too preoccupied with their own feelings. In contrast, computers will have an exquisitely fine-tuned understanding of how we feel, because they will learn to recognize the patterns of our feelings, while they have no distracting feelings of their own. A 2023 study found that the ChatGPT chatbot, for example, outperforms the average human in the emotional awareness it displays toward specific scenarios.

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If three years of high unemployment could bring Hitler to power, what might never-ending turmoil in the job market do to democracy?

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The most important human skill for surviving the twenty-first century is likely to be flexibility, and democracies are more flexible than totalitarian regimes.

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The rise of unfathomable alien intelligence undermines democracy. If more and more decisions about people’s lives are made in a black box, so voters cannot understand and challenge them, democracy ceases to function.

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Power lies at the nexus where the information channels merge.

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For most of recorded history, the military was the number one item on the budget of every empire, sultanate, kingdom, and republic.

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For many people in the 2010s, the fact that the health-care budget was bigger than the military budget was unremarkable. But it was the result of a major change in human behavior, and one that would have sounded impossible to most previous generations.

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It places a heavy responsibility on all of us to make good choices. It implies that if human civilization is consumed by conflict, we cannot blame it on any law of nature or any alien technology.

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It places a heavy responsibility on all of us to make good choices. It implies that if human civilization is consumed by conflict, we cannot blame it on any law of nature or any alien technology. It also implies that if we make the effort, we can create a better world.

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It places a heavy responsibility on all of us to make good choices. It implies that if human civilization is consumed by conflict, we cannot blame it on any law of nature or any alien technology. It also implies that if we make the effort, we can create a better world. This isn’t naïveté; it’s realism.

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The invention of AI is potentially more momentous than the invention of the telegraph, the printing press, or even writing, because AI is the first tool that is capable of making decisions and generating ideas by itself.

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The good news is that if we eschew complacency and despair, we are capable of creating balanced information networks that will keep their own power in check. Doing so is not a matter of inventing another miracle technology or landing upon some brilliant idea that has somehow escaped all previous generations. Rather, to create wiser networks, we must abandon both the naive and the populist views of information, put aside our fantasies of infallibility, and commit ourselves to the hard and rather mundane work of building institutions with strong self-correcting mechanisms. That is perhaps the most important takeaway this book has to offer.

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This wisdom is much older than human history. It is elemental, the foundation of organic life. The first organisms weren’t created by some infallible genius or god. They emerged through an intricate process of trial and error. Over four billion years, ever more complex mechanisms of mutation and self-correction led to the evolution of trees, dinosaurs, jungles, and eventually humans. Now we have summoned an alien inorganic intelligence that could escape our control and put in danger not just our own species but countless other life-forms. The decisions we all make in the coming years will determine whether summoning this alien intelligence proves to be a terminal error or the beginning of a hopeful new chapter in the evolution of life.

I'm glad I read this book, but it was a bummer. AI is coming for us, people.
AI is different than all previous information technology because there is, potentially, no human in control of the ultimate decision-making. And AI is improving so quickly that we realistically cannot even imagine what it will be able to do in 10, 50, 200 years. And anyone who thinks AI will bring nothing but equality and world peace is naive. ("Naive" is Harari's favorite low-key insult.)
Harari isn't suggesting we banish all AI, but he wants us to slow down and really consider what control we might be giving up as we give more and more control to AI. For example, he suggests that we should immediately criminalize the use of bots that try to convince us that they are human (like we've banned counterfeit money). I'm all for this. Harari makes a good case that much of the harm done by AI on social media is done by posts coming from bots posing as humans.
I also feel like Harari is a great explainer. I have a much better understanding of what populism is and what the difference is between an autocrat and a totalitarian.
So here's what bugged me: Harari is SO anti-religion. He repetitively tells us that AI has the potential to become as bad as religion - people believing in an all-knowing being telling them what is true. And he thinks his readers must all agree with him. At one point he tells us that although we probably think the damage caused by the Nazi Party and the Soviet Communist Party are no different than the damage caused by Christian churches, there really are, believe it or not, differences between organized religion and totalitarian regimes. Uh, yeah. We're aware.
People have done terrible things in the name of religion. People (Stalin, Hitler, Chairman Mao) have done terrible things under other ideologies. People have fed the poor and raised orphans and served their neighbors in the name of religion too, but that is certainly never mentioned. OK - enough of that.
I spent a lot of time yelling at the screen as i read this, but I did get useful information and much to think about.

“The key question is, what would it mean for humans to live in the new computer-based network, perhaps as an increasingly powerless minority? How would the new network change our politics, our society, our economy, and our daily lives? How would it feel to be constantly monitored, guided, inspired, or sanctioned by billions of nonhuman entities? How would we have to change in order to adapt, survive, and hopefully even flourish in the startling new world?”

“But for tens of thousands of years, Sapiens built and maintained large networks by inventing and spreading fictions, fantasies, and mass delusions — about gods, about enchanted broomsticks, about AI, and about a great many other things. While each individual human is typically interested in knowing the truth about themselves and the world, large networks bind members and create order by relying on fictions and fantasies. That’s how we got, for example, to Nazism and Stalinism. These were exceptionally powerful networks, held together by exceptionally deluded ideas. As George Orwell famously put it, ignorance is strength.”

“What will happen to the course of history when computers play a larger and larger role in culture and begin producing stories, laws, and religions? Within a few years, AI could eat the whole of human culture —everything we have created over thousands of years — digest it, and begin to gush out a flood of new cultural artifacts.”

“Now we have summoned an alien inorganic intelligence that could escape our control and put in danger, not just our own species but countless other life-forms. The decisions we all make in the coming years will determine whether summoning the alien intelligence proves to be a terminal error or the beginning of a hopeful new chapter in the evolution of life.”

This book gave me a lot to think about, while simultaneously making me feel like there is no point in my thinking about AI. My input is not going to be requested. The future of AI will be in the hands of people (or maybe AI) who don’t care what I think, and who may not know what the hell they are doing. At least I learned something about the history of information networks and both the good and bad ways information has been used.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

This was my first Harari book, so I was excited to read this! I enjoyed the semi-chronological approach with examples from history. There were consequences to advances in technology both positive and negative that I hadn’t thought about before. The book is nonfiction, but a lot of it are Harari’s opinions and interpretations, so you have to take things with a grain of salt. But it was a great way to get intrigued by these arguments, and make you rethink what happened in the past, but also the future. It was a bit long in my opinion, I think the same points could have been made in fewer pages. The view of AI is quite pessimistic. I wonder if part of this is to try to compensate for the overwhelming acceptance of AI in the mainstream. There are many aspects that we as a society really need to reevaluate and be wary of, so the points are valid. Overall, it was a very intriguing book, but I would take this as a great starting point to further investigate these topics on my own. Thank you very much, NetGalley, for the advanced reader's copy!

This review was posted on GoodReads.com on October 23, 2024.

“Nexus,” by Yuval Noah Harari, is an enlightening and thought-provoking narrative about the development of, and dilemmas associated with, information networks. Harari includes examples of information networks throughout history, especially large-scale information networks of democratic and totalitarian societies, to highlight the significance and implications of the decisions these societies made regarding their networks.

Early in the book, Harari discusses what information is, including how the “naïve” and “populist” views of information are extreme and unrealistic. Harari also explains why information does not necessarily convey the truth, and how mythology (i.e., human-created stories) and bureaucracy have been central to gaining and retaining power over information networks.

Until now, all information networks have been human (organic) and have relied on human decision making and ideas. Today, the world is creating its first nonhuman (inorganic) information network – artificial intelligence – capable of making decisions and generating ideas that humans likely cannot. Harari contends that this poses a new set of concerns (e.g., AI-generated false information, potential unintended catastrophes) and that human choices (e.g., societal cooperation, self-correcting mechanisms) made concerning this AI information network may be the most important in human history.

“Nexus” is an excellent and highly-recommended read—one that should be read and discussed widely, given the vital role the AI information network will play in our lives going forward.

[My special thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advance reading copy of this book!]

An interesting look at how information has been shared and spread throughout time. It is a pretty interesting look at society and how news is shared at various points in history. Some fairly interesting stuff, but also dragged a bit.

Always a great time reading Yuval, and it is words and learnings that are necessary at this time! Thank you!

A well-researched and highly readable assessment of the development and change in information networks and what it might mean for our future with AI.

Once again, Yuval Noah Harari gives a "Big History" of humanity, this time focusing on information theory. The second half functions as a policy brief on AI, and it ain't pretty.

A thoughts provoking story with a lot of information explaining how our lives are affected by all the information gathered about us, how decisions are essentially made for us, and why this matters. Wish there were solutions though. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Yuval Noah Harari's newest non-fiction work, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, attempts to tackle the origins of information, its reception, and its appearance throughout various points in history such as the Qin dynasty, the Church, Pokémon Go, and social media. While Harari’s work is ambitious in scope, the book feels disorganized and loses focus. The book’s central aim is more on different aspects of information and a brief discussion of AI appears near the end of the work.

Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari totally blew my mind! Harari dives into all these wild ideas about AI, biotech, and the future of humanity, and while some of it felt a little out there, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It made me pause and really reflect on where we're headed—super thought-provoking and honestly a bit scary, but in a good way. Definitely recommend if you're into big ideas and want a book that sticks with you. Rating: 4 stars.

Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI is an incredibly interesting and insightful book that delves into the ways humans have communicated throughout history and how information networks have influenced culture and history. He also discusses the future of these information networks and the role and potential implications of AI on humanity. I enjoyed this book very much. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

The author posits that there are two views of understanding information, one is that information leads to truth which leads to wisdom and power and the more information freely exchanged the better, another is that information is power and must be controlled as a means to an end. After this he discusses the history of human information networks and how they have developed and been used to discover truths and create order from fireside stories to the internet and how mythology and bureaucracy have played integral parts in this development. Next he goes into the new information network or AI and how it is alien to what has come before in its capabilities. Finally he discusses the interaction between human information networks and artificial ones with an emphasis on how dangerous AI is and what we need to do to control it. There is a lot of information here and it makes you think about the information networks all around us, how these networks have been used in the past and can be used in the future. Compared to his other works this one has a narrower scope yet feels less researched and polished coming across as more angry and pessimistic about humanity but in spite of this I enjoyed the writing style and the interesting historical examples used throughout this book. I would rate this book 3.5 stars.

Like all other books by Yuval Noah Harari, this was informative, insightful and deliberately written to invoke thought and reflection. Truly enjoyed it.

Always thought provoking

My spouse and I both really like the work of this author. He tends to read the books first, but he cannot read them without sharing what he is reading with me and many of our friends. By the time I read the books, it feels like I am re-reading.

This is no exception. There is some really interesting stuff about AI. I highly recommend you read this (and his other books) for yourself.

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari provides a broad view of how information systems have evolved and influenced society across time. Harari emphasizes the architecture of communication networks—ranging from early oral traditions to today's AI-driven digital systems—and how the flow of data has impacted decision-making, governance, and power dynamics.

The book explores the historical development of information control mechanisms, drawing parallels between ancient systems like religious manuscripts and modern tools such as algorithms and AI-based systems that manage data in real-time. The author argues that information networks have been necessary for the rise of complex societies facilitating innovation and controls.

Harari's reflections on AI are very relevant and at times thought provoking, though some might find his thoughts more theoretical than based on experience. He warns about the disruptive potential of AI-derived information networks, suggesting that left unchecked data flows could lead to risks such as misinformation and loss of privacy. While this perspective offers a critical view of the future, I would suggest that it is missing many details on the technical specifics of AI systems and their real-world safeguards.

The author's summarization of macro-trends in information network development related to AI are very repetitive and at times feels like a way to make the book longer without really adding anything to the discussion.

Given the above, Nexus remains an acceptable reference on how data systems have historically influenced human behavior and governance, providing food for thought on future risks tied to evolving AI. Harari's work also needs to be looked at as a comprehensive point-in-time reference given how quickly the world of AI is evolving!

Another good book from the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world. This is really groundbreraking, you should read it.

This book explores how the flow of information throughout history has shaped our societies, leading us to the rise of AI and the brink of ecological collapse. From the Stone Age to the age of misinformation, the author analyzes the complex relationship between information, truth, and power, urging us to confront the critical choices we face in a world increasingly dominated by non-human intelligence.

At times reassuring, at times terrifying, this book helps provide a clear understanding of the challenges faced by humanity at this moment in history. The brilliant, cogent analysis is accessible to a lay audience. It’s the kind of book I’d normally binge my way through, but it’s full of hard truths, and I needed frequent breaks. Nevertheless, it’s a must-read that shows us the path forward.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I loved Sapiens, so I was very excited to read Nexus. However, I found it pretty disappointing. After reading it, I am honestly not sure if Yuval Noah Harari knows very much about artificial intelligence. I found the historical parts somewhat interesting, but so much of this book seemed to be based on speculation and confusing leaps in logic. I wasn’t even sure if I could make myself finish it at times, though I ended up doing so. Overall, I found this book to be very disappointing.