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

Throughout Nexus, Harari examines the relationship between power and information in various historical contexts. He emphasizes how controlling the flow of information can have wide repercussions for a particular society at large, and even impact individual people directly on a personal level. In these ways, Harari highlights the complex power dynamics of information control.

Harari details the rise of bureaucracy as one of the first and most important milestones in the history of information control. While small, oral-based cultures relied on human memory and direct interaction to pass down traditions and mediate social interactions, the rise of larger, more centralized states necessitated the development of bureaucratic mechanisms to organize and control information. Bureaucracy enabled the creation of complex systems of taxation, census-taking, trade, and resource allocation. While the development of bureaucracy brought many benefits, it also contained drawbacks: Harari acknowledges how bureaucratic systems often seem opaque or even sinister to those who are outside of them, while giving significant power to those who know how to navigate them.

Harari also reflects on the political uses and misuses of information control, contrasting the democratic and totalitarian approaches to information. In democratic societies, information is flexible and dynamic, flowing from many sources and often easily accessible by the public at large. A free press and rights of freedom of speech enable citizens to stay informed on political and social developments, while also creating a space for the free exchange of information and ideas. By contrast, totalitarian societies are marked by an excessive level of governmental control of information. Harari points to Stalin’s Soviet Union as an example, emphasizing how Stalin exercised strict control of the press, the education system, and the arts to ensure that only a certain type of narrative was acceptable.  

Harari also examines modern social media as a medium that has raised fresh issues surrounding information control. He argues that private social media companies exercise increasing power over information control through the use of algorithms. These profit-driven algorithms tend to deliberately cultivate engagement at the expense of truth, leading to an excess of conspiratorial and inflammatory content that can have deadly real-world consequences, such as the Rohingya massacre in Myanmar fueled by disinformation on Facebook. 

Harari addresses the implications of information control with the rise of AI as well. He argues that totalitarian regimes might be the weakest link when it comes to AI overreach, as a totalitarian system’s lack of self-correcting mechanisms and desire for total control could create an overreliance on AI without due oversight. This could lead to AI systems creating and disseminating information for reasons or by means that humans struggle to recognize or understand. Thus, since information control is a crucial yet ethically complex issue, Harari urges both individuals and governments to take regulating new forms of information flow seriously.