Big Idea Daily | Nexus

That’s from the Prologue in which Harari introduces us to the main themes of the book.

 

Shortly after that passage, he tells us: “Our tendency to summon powers we cannot control stems not from individual psychology but from the unique way our species cooperates in large numbers. The main argument of this book is humankind gains enormous power by building large networks of cooperation, but the way these networks are built predisposes us to use the power unwisely. Our problem, then, is a network problem.”

 

In the next paragraph he says: “Even more specifically, it is an information problem.”

 

Then he proceeds to walk us through the primary ways we view information. He starts by describing what he calls “The Naive View of Information.”

 

This naive view, he tells us: “posits that in sufficient quantities information leads to truth, and truth in turn leads to power and wisdom.”

 

He continues by saying: “This naive view justifies the pursuit of ever more powerful information technologies and has been the semiofficial ideology of the computer age and the Internet.”

 

He quotes Google’s mission statement and AI optimists like Marc Andreessen and Ray Kurzweil to frame this world view. He concludes his exploration of “The Naive View of Information” by saying: “Can we trust computer algorithms to make wise decisions and create a better world? That’s a much bigger gamble than trusting an enchanted broom to fetch water.”

 

In the next section entitled “Weaponizing Information,” he tells us about a competing view of information. He calls this perspective “The Populist View of Information.”

 

He tells us: “In its most extreme versions, populism posits that there is no objective truth at all and that everyone has ‘their own truth,’ which they wield to vanquish rivals.”

 

He continues by saying: “Whenever and wherever populism succeeds in disseminating the view of information as a weapon, language itself is undermined. Nouns like ‘facts’ and adjectives like ‘accurate’ and ‘truthful’ become elusive. Such words are not taken as pointing to a common objective reality. Rather, any talk of ‘facts’ or ‘truth’ is bound to prompt at least some people to ask, ‘Whose facts and whose truths are you referring to?’”

 

He also makes the important point that “this power-focused and deeply skeptical view of information isn’t a new phenomenon and it wasn’t invented by anti-vaxxers, flat-earthers, Bolsonaristas, or Trump supporters.”

 

He concludes the Prologue by saying: “If we wish to avoid relinquishing power to a charismatic leader or inscrutable AI, we must first gain a better understanding of what information is, how it helps to build human networks, and how it relates to truth and power. Populists are right to be suspicious of the naive view of information, but they are wrong to think that power is the only reality and that information is always a weapon. Information isn’t the raw material of truth, but it isn’t a mere weapon, either. There is enough space between these extremes for a more nuanced and hopeful view of human information networks and of our ability to handle power wisely. This book is dedicated to exploring that middle ground.”

 

The rest of the book is dedicated to helping us discover that potential middle ground. The book has three parts: Part I: Human Networks (in which we define information and explore “A Brief History of Democracy and Totalitarianism); Part II: The Inorganic Network (in which we explore “How Computers Are Different from Printing Presses”); and Part III: Computer Politics (in which we explore the prospective impact of AI on democracies, totalitarianism and what he calls “The Silicon Curtain” that may divide our society in the future).