Nexus : a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI / Yuval Noah Harari.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harari, Yuval N., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Information behavior--History.

Information behavior.

Information networks--History.

Information networks.

Information technology--History.

Information technology.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xxxii, 492 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Random House, [2024]

Summary:

"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 choiceswe face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Prologue

Part I: Human networks. What is information?

Stories : unlimited connections

Documents : the bite of the paper tigers

Errors : the fantasy of infallibility

Decisions : a brief history of democracy and totalitarianism

Part II: The inorganic network. The new members : how computers are different from printing presses

Relentless : the network is always on

Fallible : the network is often wrong

Part III: Computer politics. Democracies : can we still hold a conversation?

Totalitarianism : all power to the algorithms?

The silicon curtain : global empire or global split?

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 409-476) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Garrison fund bookplate.

Other Format:

Online version: Harari, Yuval N. Nexus

ISBN:

9780593734223

059373422X

9798217077618

OCLC:

1454736917

Publisher Number:

90100185538