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

“This historical part of the book is crucial for understanding present-day developments and future scenarios.”

Yuval Noah Harari is a historian and, throughout Nexus, he frequently cites historical examples to further his points. This illustrates the way in which the book looks to the past to explain the present, while providing guidance for the future. The title of the book reflects that humanity is at a nexus with regards to artificial intelligence, while the book is predicated on the temporal nexus between past, present, and future.

“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.