Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
By Yuval Noah Harari
Random House, 2024
TL;DR: Noted historian explores the impact of information networks on human history, with an eye toward how AI might change them.
Harari argues that the shape of human societies depend on their information networks. (And vice-versa.) Democracies decentralize the flow of information, whereas totalitarian societies seek to control information from the center.
Contrary to what many people believe, representing reality accurately is only one of the roles information plays. Another is upholding intersubjective realities (i.e, those built by consensus) – the stuff societies are made of. As Harari puts it,
information sometimes represents reality, and sometimes doesn’t. But it always connects. This is its fundamental characteristic. Therefore, when examining the role of information in history, although it sometimes makes sense to ask “How well does it represent reality? Is it true or false?” often the more crucial questions are “How well does it connect people? What new network does it create?”
Stories unite or divide us, independently of how much “truth” they contain. As a result, truth and order are often in tension. Too much truth can lead to social disintegration; too much order leads to abuses of power. A balance is called for. Harari: “Due to the privileging of order over truth, human information networks have often produced a lot of power but little wisdom.”
Whether it aims to represent reality or uphold intersubjective realities, the meaning of information depends on its context. In one context, a pigeon is just a bird. In another, it’s a signal for military action. The network includes both content and its context.
For most of human history, information networks consisted of people exchanging information via various media. AI are the first non-human actors who participate in these networks. The effects are unpredictable, but Harari is concerned.
Early efforts produced disastrous results. Consider Facebook’s role in the Myanmar Rohingya genocide. The algorithm had been optimized for engagement. Absent human editors, it drove engagement by presenting inflammatory information. Harari uses the term “artificial intelligence” broadly; he’s not pointing to a specific technology but to its sum effects.
It’s an important warning. Given the centrality of information networks, the survival of democracy (if not the whole species) is at stake. People who store and organize information (whom Harari labels “bureaucrats”) have a critical role to play.
If you’re a regular reader of my work, that likely means you. Which is to say, Nexus is required reading for people who design information systems. It provides (sometimes unsettling) answers to the question: what is this information system in service to?
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari