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

Aside from the publisher’s rhetoric, this is a book that all those with influence, and those who would simply understand our epoch, should read. As the author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, Harari needs no introduction as a writer of ‘Big History’.

This book comes at a pivotal point in human history. We know already that Harari is cautious about AI. His point here is that now is the time to influence the source-code of AI – to embed humanistic values that may just survive once we lose control of the code, as AI-enhanced computers reinvent themselves.

“The computer-based network … is likely to create inter-computer mythologies that will be far more complex and alien that any human-made god.” We get serious when we begin to understand intersubjective realities – “things like laws, gods, nations, corporations and currencies.”

Chapter 4 is perhaps the most important for religious readers because “at the heart of every religion lies the fantasy of connecting to a superhuman and infallible intelligence… (S)tudying the history of religion is highly relevant to today’s debates about AI.” Information technology can be allowed self-correcting mechanisms. For the holy books of the major religions there is no correcting if the original is considered to be divinely inspired and infallible.

The role of Facebook in the catastrophe of the massacre of Rohingya Muslims is well-known but not apologised for. The cause: “humans are more likely to be engaged by a hate-filled conspiracy theory than a sermon on compassion.” Such human-made disasters should impel us to be ready to regulate AI: “Humans still have a lot of control over the pace, shape and direction of this revolution – which means we also have a lot of responsibility.”

The danger is that computers may create “inter-computer realities”, analogous to (human) intersubjective realities. “The computer-based network… is likely to create inter-computer mythologies that will be far more complex and alien that any human-made god.”

There is a glimmer of hope towards the end of the book: “As long as democratic societies understand the computer network, their self-correcting mechanisms are our best guarantee against AI abuse … The good news is that if we eschew complacency and despair, we are capable of creating balanced information networks that will keep their own power in check.” Information now rules our lives. Get up to date by studying this timely treatise.