Nexus
Conceptual
Cerebral
Educational

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

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world. For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence. Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.
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Reviews

Photo of Francisco Gusmão
Francisco Gusmão@franciscoplg
4 stars
Dec 19, 2024

Very pleasant read, as the author accustomed us. I love the sprinkles of world history in his books and how to use them to improve our course of action for current affairs. Nexus builds upon the very interesting idea that information by itself isn’t a solution, and that information networks serve more than the simple purpose of finding the true best solution. Unfortunately, it doesn’t develop much more than that. The fleshing out of that argument is still very valuable, and you leave the book feeling much more educated on what AI could entail for our civilization, but you are also left feeling that there was a need to analyze more scenarios and solutions for them. It’s such a terrifying picture, having so few suggested solutions keeps us in a cliff hanger, and leaves us kind of depressed. Still, as all his books, I think that a society where every people reads this book, is a better society.

+6
Photo of Sarah Erle
Sarah Erle@serle
4.5 stars
Oct 31, 2024

So many ideas, made me think about AI in a different way

Photo of Melanie Chen
Melanie Chen@hakim
5 stars
Apr 9, 2025
Photo of Kebo
Kebo@kebo
5 stars
Apr 7, 2025
+2
Photo of Sergio Lopes
Sergio Lopes@sergiolopes
4 stars
Apr 1, 2025
Photo of Oktay Orhan
Oktay Orhan@reform
5 stars
Mar 5, 2025
+3
Photo of Maxence
Maxence@maxencep
5 stars
Mar 5, 2025
Photo of Ceren Altıntaş
Ceren Altıntaş@ceri
4 stars
Feb 23, 2025
Photo of Andrea Hak-Kovacs
Andrea Hak-Kovacs@andreareads
5 stars
Feb 1, 2025
+1
Photo of Justin Chill
Justin Chill@justinchill
5 stars
Jan 15, 2025
+4
Photo of Linus Stieldorf
Linus Stieldorf@lks
3 stars
Jan 10, 2025
Photo of Alberto Marcías
Alberto Marcías@albertomarcias
4 stars
Dec 26, 2024
+5
Photo of Alyssa C Smith
Alyssa C Smith@alyssacsmith
4.5 stars
Dec 16, 2024

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