Book Review- Nexus

Aiman Abrar

A comprehensive review of Yuval Noah Harari’s book Nexus helps analyze how the flow of information is controlling the world today, how information can be beneficial or detrimental, how it is flourishing democracies, on the other hand making authoritarian regimes more powerful, and how information is making decisions about life and death.

The book offers insights into the idea of the global split due to technological advancements. Modern-day conflicts occur between technologically advanced states and those that are not. Harari uses the concept of the silicon curtain to explain this.

In Chapter One Yuval Noah Harari defines information. Harari writes Information is a very complicated concept. It is a subjective concept and one will have its own definition as everyone sees it from their own perspective. Harari describes the evolution of information, in the stone age when there was no language, no medium of communication, people would still communicate and share information. Gradually people started using languages to share information. Initially, the information was shared in the form of stories, myths, superstitions. Eventually, technological advancements took place and printing machines, newspapers, radios, televisions, computers and then artificial intelligences took over.

Harari writes how there is a misperception in the world about information that it is always assumed to be true but in reality, information can be misinformation or propaganda or could be a lie to promote your narrative or interest in the society. Harari emphasizes that information is the most important tool to rule the world today. A bit of information can change the outcomes of our lives.

He gave two examples; 1) Cher Ami named pigeon used by an American battalion to convey its message to the other battalions to stop their firing and thus saving plenty of lives with a single piece of information. 2) Nili Spy Network of the Jews used by the Britishers to get information about the Ottoman Empire through a pigeon was identified and caught by the Ottomans and was killed. In this way, a small piece of information became the reason for the killing of the people.

Yuval Noah Harari in Chapters Two and three describes information as a tool to connect people. Harari writes information as a storytelling that can be used to connect people of the world. In which he mentions; 1) The story of Religion and 2) The Story of Nationalism. Christianity is a story of religion, an information of religion that has gathered 1.4 billion people together.

Similarly, in the contemporary world people are given story of nationalism, information of nationalism, a common objective to achieve and eventually that information enables people to coexist in the society.

The fantasy of Infallibility is explained in Chapter four. Humans are always looking for an infallible system. A system that has no errors in it. It is the fantasy of a human to develop an error less system. In the past centuries, this infallible system was looked for in the form of religion but today humans found this infallible system in technology, in the form of AI.

Harari creates a difference between Democracy and Authoritarianism with respect to information in Chapter five. In authoritarian states information travels through a highly centralized system to the people. The ruler of the authoritarian state portrays that in the form of infallible information. While in a democratic state the information distributed in the hierarchy is refined.

All the errors are fixed because of the freedom of speech, because of the independent judiciary and because of better governance. And people receive true information. Democracies are always self-improvement systems where people are well informed and socially aware. He gave example of United States as democratic and China as an authoritarian state.

In Chapter six of the book, Harari differentiates printing machines from the modern-day computers. In the era of printing machines information was selected to be shared in the newspapers, radio or television but today computers are not dependent on humans to share the information because of the AI. Which is beneficial as well as problematic for the world. He mentions Alan Turing’s prediction in the 1940s of computers ruling the world in the 21^st century.

In Chapter seven and eight the writer emphasis on the fact that if humans are used for human surveillance, there could be many possible errors but now computers have taken over humans for surveillance and eradicated the chances of errors. If surveillance is required for human healthcare, all the diseases can be traced timely and accurately by the computers but the same surveillance through AI can become a tool for oppression in the authoritarian regimes and thus can infringe the fundamental rights of its people.

In Chapter nine, Harari talks about the vision of democracy, how it enables the people to dialogue with each other, the more aware people are the more flourished democracy is. In the past, states had small territories which enabled the people to share information with each other, have mutual consensus on social and economic issues and to carry dialogues but eventually the territories expanded and so thus the distance between the population increased but then the technological advancements enabled this flourishment of the democratic process through printing press, televisions and radio on a large scale. In today’s world, AI is performing this job.

AI and mass media are developing the political conscious in people by making them more aware but on the other hand the same AI and mass media is used by politicians and leaders to create negative propaganda, false information or narratives making the democratic process derail. He mentioned 2020 elections of The United States when Donald Trump used the “big lie” propaganda technique and pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the elections. According to Harari, the future of democracy depends on the efforts that could be made to keep our information system fallible and error less.

In the next Chapter the concept that AI is strengthening the authoritarian regimes is effectively highlighted by the writer. The authoritarian regime can refine the flow of information that is passed on to the public. AI can predict and guide the ruler in making decisions but at the same time there is a negatives aspect of this dependency.

The authoritarian regime rules people on the basis of two elements; 1) Flow of Information 2) Sense of Autonomy. The sense of autonomy has been over taken by the AI from the ruler. He gave the example of the social credit system in China where AI is used to supervise people in all the domains of life which helps us to predict that authoritarianism will be dominated by AI in the future.

In the concluding Chapter, Harari explains the idea of The Silicon Curtain. According to Him, there is a Silicon Curtain that divides the world into digitally advanced states and digitally unadvanced states. All these technological advancements in the AI have created a global split. The state with more technological and digital developments will be considered more powerful then the state that is militarily powerful.

He predicts that there could be two possible conditions: If a state is a global digital empire and dominates the world it will enable more integrity and harmony in the world through cooperative information systems but on the other hand it will also create divisions in the world. There will be new types of geopolitical conflicts in the world like The US China technological warfare. It will also create global income inequalities. This technological global split can also can have minacious consequences and may even lead to the third world war.

 The analysis serves as a warning to stay alert during this significant information revolution. The decisions we make now about AI will shape the future of information networks and impact our societies. Harari raises deep questions about AI, like what it means to be human in an AI- driven world, whether AI could ever have its own consciousness, and how interacting with these new forms of intelligence might change how we understand ourselves and the universe.

Although he doesn’t answer these questions, this openness makes his work even more engaging. Instead of telling us what to think, he invites his readers to join him on an amazing intellectual journey, grappling with big questions as we navigate the unknown world of the AI revolution.

In summary, this book offers valuable insights to the significance of flow of information. It effectively illustrates the evolution of information networks and how it is used as a tool to rule the world today. The compelling concept of the silicon curtain that explains the global technological split. It is a significant resource for anyone seeking to understand the role of information networks in the contemporary world with the complexities of modern technological advancements.

Corresponding Author Aiman Abrar is currently pursuing her Master of Philosophy in Strategic Studies at National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan. E-mail: aimanabrarahmed@gmail.com