LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE SERIES #28. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE

Do you take delight in watching films or listening to pop music? For English learners, movies, songs, and books are one of the he most wonderful sources to explore the language! You can indulge in your favorite pastime and still learn some expressions, words of wisdom, and oftentimes good lessons while you’re at it.

 

# 28. NEXUS: A Brief History of Information Networks from The Stone Age to AI (authored by Yuval Noah Harari)

This book explains and moves beyond the usual apocalyptic fears that we have surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) to highlight a quieter yet potentially more alarming risk in the near future. Rather than focusing on job loss or machine rebellion, the author suggests that the real danger lies in AI’s capacity to shape the narratives we create—stories that form the backbone of human society. For the first time, it is not humans but AI that increasingly decides which stories we encounter, pass on, and are unnoticeably made to believe in.

 

“You should do your own research and trust only what you can directly observe by yourself. The radical empiricist position implies that while large-scale institutions like political parties, courts, newspapers, and universities can never be trusted, individuals who make the effort can still find the truth by themselves.

……. Trusting only “my own research” may sound scientific, but in practice it amounts to believing that there is no objective truth.”

ð  This passage shows that radical empiricism, which is the idea that truth can be discovered only through one’s own direct, personal sensory experience, rather than by trusting established sources such as experts, researchers, or institutions like universities and the press. The author points out irony of “do your own research.” Although it sounds independent, free-spirited, and scientific, it is technically unrealistic and often results in subjective conclusions instead of reliable, objective knowledge. No individual can independently verify everything—from historical events to climate data or global supply systems—so relying solely on personal observation severely limits or misleads one’s understanding of complex, interconnected issues.

This mindset also erodes collective knowledge. When institutional expertise is broadly dismissed, it becomes much harder for societies to coordinate responses to large-scale challenges such as public health or environmental protection.

In short, Harari argues that extreme skepticism toward institutions, combined with an exclusive reliance on personal experience, ultimately weakens the pursuit of truth by confining knowledge to the narrow scope of individual perception.

 

“Information sometimes represents reality, and sometimes doesn’t.  But it always connects. This is fundamental characteristic, Therefore, when examining the role of information in history, although it sometimes makes sense to ask “How well does it represent reality? Is it true or false? Often the more crucial questions are “How well does it connect people? What new network does it create?”

ð  In this passage, the author emphasizes that the influence of information lies not only in its accuracy but in its function. Even false or misleading ideas can shape history if they successfully unite people and guide their actions.

Information serves as the glue or bond of human cooperation, allowing individuals to form networks that range from small communities to vast empires. From this perspective, understanding history requires focusing less on whether information faithfully reflects reality and more on how it forges connections and builds social structures. Furthermore, the author explains that what we perceive as reality is largely constructed through these networks of shared information. As a result, studying how such networks form and operate becomes more important than debating the absolute truth of the information within them. In other words, the way information connects people often has a greater historical impact than its factual accuracy.

“When we look at the history of information from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age, we therefore see a constant rise in connectivity, without a concomitant rise in truthfulness or wisdom. Contrary to what the naïve view believes, Homo Sapiens didn’t conquer the world because we are talented at turning information into an accurate map of reality. Rather, the secret of our success is that we are talented at using information to connect lots of individuals. Unfortunately, this ability often goes hand in hand with believing in lies, errors, and fantasies.”

ð  Harari argues that from the invention of language to the Internet, information technology has excelled at linking more people together faster. However, this does not mean we are more accurate or wise. In fact, he argues that the faster and broader information spreads, the more easily falsehoods can spread, as seen in mass panics, misinformation, or propaganda.

The author’s expression of "naïve view" means that more information equals more truth. Harari rejects this. He argues that information is not inherently about representing reality; rather, it is about creating a "network" that puts people "in formation". In this respect, the author goes on to tell us that our evolutionary success is not due to being perfectly rational or holding an objective view of the world.

We rule the world because we can cooperate in massive numbers. This cooperation is created through shared narratives (e.g., myths, religions, national ideologies, and money) that bind people together, regardless of whether these stories are technically true. In many cases, these narratives are fabricated delusions.

Thus, these connections based on delusions show how often people choose ‘effective, shared fictions’ over ‘inconvenient truths’.

 

** Jean’s Small Thoughts:

While reading this book, I kept wondering how long it would have taken for AI to create my novel Dr. Jedidiah’s Diary, a work that required eight years of planning and collecting ideas. The answer felt unsettling—perhaps only ten or fifteen minutes. The thought alone was frustrating: something born from years of personal effort and imagination could be replicated, or even surpassed, so quickly by a machine. It was even more disquieting to consider that an AI-generated version might turn out to be a more engaging, widely appealing page-turner.

As Yuval Noah Harari points out, humanity has brought into existence an artificial, non-organic intelligence with immense and unpredictable potential—one that may increasingly slip beyond human control across many domains. We are already living in this irreversible Age of AI. I find myself constantly questioning whether the choices we make going forward will reveal AI as a catastrophic misstep or as a powerful tool that helps propel humanity into a new and transformative era.