Staying informed about information
A book has just been published in Italy that describes the history and current state of networks and mechanisms of knowledge
Staying informed to live in greater awareness. And decide with lucidity and care. This much is essential for us all. In the era of digitally enhanced speed, however, information is both a useful tool and capable of sowing confusion (and perhaps also an insidious means of coercion). So, staying informed, yes, but with caution – aware that the line between information and disinformation is becoming increasingly blurred. And, to that end, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (which has just come out in Italy) should be recommended reading for all of us.
Harari begins with a statement of fact: on the one hand, in the last hundred thousand years, humans have accumulated enormous power, comprising scientific and technological discoveries, inventions and achievements. However, we now find ourselves in an unprecedented existential and environmental crisis, a scenario where information plays a key role and disinformation is rampant. We are jumping headfirst into the age of artificial intelligence – a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. The author of Nexus therefore asks why humankind has become so self-destructive and what the past and present role of information plays in all this.
Nexus invites the reader to look through the lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us. Starting with the Stone Age and taking in the canonisation of the Bible, the witch hunts of the early modern age, Stalinism, Nazism and today’s resurgence of populism, Yuval Noah Harari asks the reader to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. The book explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have used information to achieve their goals – for better or worse. And it equips the reader with greater awareness in facing the urgent choices that we all must make today. It does so by taking us on a journey that starts from history to look at the mistakes made and the decisions that have been taken and their effects, before going on to further explore the current state of the information networks in which we are all immersed and, finally, the decisions that humanity has faced.
Harari’s message is that information is not the raw material of truth or a simple weapon. Nexus explores the middle ground between these extremes and, in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.
Nexus. A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Yuval Noah Harari
Bompiani, 2024
A book has just been published in Italy that describes the history and current state of networks and mechanisms of knowledge
Staying informed to live in greater awareness. And decide with lucidity and care. This much is essential for us all. In the era of digitally enhanced speed, however, information is both a useful tool and capable of sowing confusion (and perhaps also an insidious means of coercion). So, staying informed, yes, but with caution – aware that the line between information and disinformation is becoming increasingly blurred. And, to that end, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (which has just come out in Italy) should be recommended reading for all of us.
Harari begins with a statement of fact: on the one hand, in the last hundred thousand years, humans have accumulated enormous power, comprising scientific and technological discoveries, inventions and achievements. However, we now find ourselves in an unprecedented existential and environmental crisis, a scenario where information plays a key role and disinformation is rampant. We are jumping headfirst into the age of artificial intelligence – a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. The author of Nexus therefore asks why humankind has become so self-destructive and what the past and present role of information plays in all this.
Nexus invites the reader to look through the lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us. Starting with the Stone Age and taking in the canonisation of the Bible, the witch hunts of the early modern age, Stalinism, Nazism and today’s resurgence of populism, Yuval Noah Harari asks the reader to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. The book explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have used information to achieve their goals – for better or worse. And it equips the reader with greater awareness in facing the urgent choices that we all must make today. It does so by taking us on a journey that starts from history to look at the mistakes made and the decisions that have been taken and their effects, before going on to further explore the current state of the information networks in which we are all immersed and, finally, the decisions that humanity has faced.
Harari’s message is that information is not the raw material of truth or a simple weapon. Nexus explores the middle ground between these extremes and, in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.
Nexus. A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Yuval Noah Harari
Bompiani, 2024