Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

“When is a pigeon just a pigeon, and when is it information?”

In trying to provide a definition of information, Harari discusses the story of a pigeon named Cher Ami (See: Key Figures). Cher Ami became a propaganda story during World War I and, in the context of this book, serves as a cautionary tale for the way in which a story does not necessarily need to be true to be effective.

“On this crucial point, this book strongly disagrees with the naive view.”

Harari spends much of the book deconstructing traditional views about information and the way in which information flows through institutions. He labels these traditional understandings as the “naïve view” (11), using a slightly pejorative word to demonstrate his distaste for existing understandings.

“What enabled different bands to cooperate is that evolutionary changes in brain structure and linguistic abilities apparently gave Sapiens the aptitude to tell and believe fictional stories and to be deeply moved by them.”

Harari makes a key distinction between the capacity to understand stories and the capacity to be emotionally moved by them. The emotional dimension of stories adds urgency and meaning to stories, encouraging the audience to take them more seriously. This ability allowed the early Sapiens to place an additional importance on stories as a way to communicate information.

“Based on the available evidence, the scientific consensus is that the Loch Ness Monster does not exist.”

The example of the Loch Ness Monster provides a touch of humor to Harari’s discussion of scientific evidence. The story of the Loch Ness Monster may seem absurd and it may widely be believed to be a myth, yet the story is so compelling that many people return to Loch Ness to search for the monster. Stories can thus be more powerful than the truth.

“This poem is mandatory reading in many Israeli schools today.”

In Chapter 3, Harari describes how a poem by Hayim Nahman Bialik became a foundational element of the Zionist movement. Importantly, he notes that the poem obfuscates or ignores points of view which, in reality, are associated with violence and unrest in the Middle East. The poem presents a distorted view of the world, yet it is still taught in Israeli schools. The disconnect between truth and reality, Harari suggests, is deliberately perpetuated, reflecting The Power Dynamics of Information Control.

“I can sympathize with the suspicion of government bureaucracies and of the power of official documents, because they have played an important role in my own family.”

Harari draws on his own family history to add a personal flavor to discussions of bureaucracies and dictatorships. His maternal grandfather was subjected to a bureaucratic chaos that forced him to flee his home. This use of personal family history contrasts with Harari’s more academic perspective on world history, demonstrating the way in which the ideas and concepts described in the book can affect individuals.

“We have many additional apocalypses from that era.”

The Bible is considered a set text, in which the individual books that make up the Bible are the infallible word of God. However, these books have been chosen by a panel of humans, and he refers here to alternative apocalypses that might have been chosen instead of the Book of Revelation. Since the Bible is considered infallible despite its human origins, Harari uses it to illustrate The Importance of Self-Correcting Mechanisms, which holy texts usually lack.

“Could it be that the entire silo of witch-hunting data did not contain a single grain of truth in it?”

In Chapter 4, Harari lists the many brutal witch hunts that gripped Europe. He lists the many people who were tortured and executed despite all this occurring without “a single grain of truth” (99) to the accusations. This brutality and suffering, all based on fiction, illustrates the inherent power of stories, for better or for worse.

“Supporters of strongmen often don’t see this process as antidemocratic.”

Harari notes the cognitive dissonance that affects people who support dictators and strongmen. They follow a leader who rallies against a lack of democracy, while investing everything in an inherently undemocratic figure. The human capacity to ignore reality in favor of a comforting lie is evident in the way in which people follow demonstrably undemocratic figures in the name of democracy.

“But when was the last time that an eloquent speech in Congress by a member of one party persuaded members of the other party to change their minds about anything?”

Harari laments the ineffective speeches given in Congress, noting that these examples of rhetoric seem lost on an audience that does not want to have its mind changed. Harari’s emphasis on the importance of remaining open-minded reflects The Importance of Self-Correcting Mechanisms in democratic government.

“For several hours more, nobody dared call a doctor.”

Harari describes the way in which Joseph Stalin built a totalitarian society with himself as the infallible head of state. While Stalin was seemingly all- powerful, his hubristic desire for power contributed to his death: Harari suggests that the same polices of terror and domination that granted Stalin so much power also prevented his underlings from calling a doctor when Stalin suffered from a stroke.

“Humans are more likely to be engaged by a hate-filled conspiracy theory than by a sermon on compassion or a cooking lesson.”

Throughout Nexus, Harari deplores the way in which false or misleading stories are used to manipulate people, invoking The Power Dynamics of Information Control. This practice is so effective, Harari concedes, because humans are fundamentally disposed to choosing comforting conspiracies over difficult truths. This issue informs much of the book and prompts Harari to urge his audience to work harder to move beyond the simple lies offered by malicious forces.

“In theory, the text you’ve just read might have been generated by the alien intelligence of some computer.”

One of the ironies of Harari’s belief in the growing power of artificial intelligence is that his own job might be under threat. The more he discusses the growing power of AI, the more he notes humans’ struggles to differentiate artificial creations from organic creations.

“As the ranks of the secret police swelled, more agents were needed to spy on all these agents.”

Prior to the rise of artificial intelligence, the manpower needed to perform constant surveillance was a limiting factor. The issue expanded exponentially, with secret police needed to spy on themselves, as well as others. This inherent limitation created a hard ceiling on the effectiveness of totalitarian states, though AI threatens to make the worst totalitarian visions of a surveillance future into a reality.

“The very fact that it is always ‘on’ might be damaging to organic entities like humans, because it will take away our opportunities to disconnect and relax.”

One of the biggest threats to humanity from artificial intelligence is the ability to rest. As AI is “always on” (255), humans have no opportunity to escape surveillance. The panopticon state of AI surveillance means that every action, word, and communication must be made with the surveillance in mind. This provides no opportunity for relaxation, demanding a constant need to perform in accordance with what the AI expects and demands.

“Increasingly, however, understanding American politics will necessitate understanding inter-computer realities ranging from AI-generated cults and currencies to AI-run political parties and even fully incorporated AIs.”

As Harari looks to the future, his visions become increasingly dystopic. Cults, currencies, and even political parties could become fully artificially intelligent, he suggests, reshaping society so rapidly and so completely that it is almost unrecognizable. In this respect, his dystopic visions of the future echo the Biblical revelations of the end of the world. Harari is playing the role of prophet, right down to his revelations.

“In fact, these algorithms picked up the racist and misogynist bias all by themselves from the data they were trained on.”

The tendency for artificial intelligences to demonstrate prejudice is a direct result of these prejudices existing in society. The data sets on which the AIs are trained contain racism and misogyny, so the AI simply reflects this back. In this way, the AI can be seen as a mirror to society, reflecting back the worst tendencies that are so often overlooked or underplayed. When exposed by artificial intelligence, such prejudices can no longer be ignored.

“The potential benefits of this network are enormous. The potential downside is the destruction of human civilization.”

Toward the end of the book, Harari looks to the future. His dichotomy between benefit and destruction illustrates just how vast the capacity for change has become, yet also hints at the perils of making predictions. In presenting AI as the latest technological development in the history of information, however, Harari highlights The Role of Change in History to suggest that this change, like all previous changes, can be managed.

“Just reading this paragraph, for example, is changing your brain structure a little, encouraging neurons to make new connections or abandon old links.”

Harari notes that his book has the capacity to rewire a human brain in a mundane fashion. While the rewiring of neurons and synapses may sound exciting and complicated, it is a natural function of the body. Everything, Harari implies, has this capacity to change the way we think, we are simply unaware of this immense power. This hints at Harari’s later suggestion that humanity must recognize its own capacity to change the world in order to deal with the rise of AI.

“Finally, algorithms are not only joining the conversation; they are increasingly orchestrating it.”

Harari notes that social media algorithms are increasingly directing the public conversation. The provenance of the conversation, according to Harari, is as important as the context, as it suggests the inherent biases and objectives of talking about certain subjects in certain ways and reflects The Power Dynamics of Information Control.

“This is not a prophecy, just a possibility.”

Harari is, first and foremost, a historian. Throughout the book, he cites historical examples to warn the audience of the dangers surrounding AI. However, his warnings have the tone of an apocalyptic prophecy: To make his point felt, he needs to warn of the worst possible outcomes. At the end of the book, however, he issues his own self-correcting mechanism, reminding his audience that he is not a prophet and nothing is pre-determined.

“By 2015 a Microsoft algorithm achieved 96 percent accuracy, surpassing the human ability to identify cat images.”

The development of artificial intelligence is measured in seemingly benign ways. The ability to correctly identify a picture of a cat seems, at first, an amusing task to set a nascent AI. However, the implication is clear: If the AI can adapt so quickly and so effectively to something so mundane, then humanity must act before AI adapts to more consequential tasks.

“The only constant of history is change.”

The closing words of the last chapter of the book appeal to the audience’s capacity for change and reinforce The Role of Change in History. Throughout Nexus, Harari has cited many examples from history of technological change. Artificial intelligence will change humanity, but this change is part of an on-going process. Humanity must once again adapt.