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Nexus
A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
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Narrated by:
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Vidish Athavale
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Written by:
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Yuval Noah Harari
About this listen
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.
For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive?
Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.
Information is not the raw material of truth, nor is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.
©2024 Penguin Random House (P)2024 SignalYou may also enjoy...
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The correlation between the natural world and the digital world.
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Overall
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Performance
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Great content, sub par voice (reading). Read this book instead of listening.
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What the critics say
Named a Best New Book to Read in September by the New York Times and iNews
“Yuval Harari has a unique ability to unite both history’s finest details and its grandest megatrends in a single view. In this masterful and provocative new book, he makes a compelling case that information networks are—and always have been—the primary driving force shaping human societies. This deeply important argument comes at a critical time as we all think through the implications of AI and automated content production.”
—Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI
“Tremendous, thought-provoking, and so very well reasoned. Harari gives us a vision of a rapidly approaching future that is at one and the same time thrilling and chilling. If there is one book that I would urge everyone to read—our political, corporate, and cultural leaders most especially—it is Nexus.”
—Stephen Fry
“Harari is one of the most remarkable intellects of our generation—bold, original, erudite, provocative and entrancing. His latest book reimagines everything from literacy to AI and—like all his books—fundamentally shifts one’s view of the world.”
—Rory Stewart
Editorial Review
What listeners say about Nexus
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- robert sun
- 2024-09-14
No way out
we need a global effort and somehow regulate AI ahead of time. The first condition is impossible at this moment, the second condition is unlikely. Nuclear weapon and mutual distraction brought us peace. But soon AI can disable it. What would you do if you have a small window to destroy your enemies with nukes without retaliation?
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- Junaid
- 2024-10-23
A Masterful Book on AI’s Impact: Exploring Power, Control, and Society’s Future
This is one of my favorite authors, and he delivers a masterful exploration of how AI could reshape society and its norms. I find it particularly compelling how he illustrates the growing power of smaller groups to exert control over increasingly larger segments of society, and the profound implications of that shift. It’s an important thought exercise—one that urges us to deeply consider these impacts as we take intentional steps into an AI-driven future.
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- Vítor Malcher
- 2024-11-04
An scary but important glimpse into the future of AI through revisiting the past of humanity.
Yuval, as always, brings a rich collection of historical events that enlighten the dark and uncertain development of AI, as well as the dangers that it poses to our centries long of imformation systems and power in human societies, for good of for worse.
its critical of the dangers that it poses without taking an overly conservative/cynical view of AI. A must read to anyone that is philosophically interested in AI, big into foresight/futurism or just curious about how new imformation technologies have been shaping our world and will continue to do so, potentially even after humanity ceases to exist.
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- Mario
- 2024-11-19
Interesting Ideas Shallowly Explored
Harari touches on interesting themes around information, systemic incentives and power structures but only grazes their surface. He provides many historical examples of these patterns but very little analytical depth or novelty in their understanding.
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- philmyyz
- 2024-11-08
Brain Candy
Essential reading to better understand the human condition..
History, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology sweetly served.
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- Bryor Atchison
- 2024-12-19
Essential Read for Sapiens Enjoyers
This man is an absolute wizard of knowledge and storytelling. I cannot say how much I enjoyed both this book and his book Sapiens, it was truly fascinating listening to the perspectives of Yuval. His thoughts and opinions on AI, our past and our future are so neutral, yet so impactful for how we could and should view our world and our legacy as humankind.
if you have any interest at all in AI, our human history, this book is essential to either listen to or read.
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- Barry Mc donnell
- 2024-10-23
He did it again!
huge fan of Sapiens and homo deus! He has once again knocked it out of the park! Fantastic listen and the narrator also does a great job
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- Ali N.
- 2024-10-25
A Novel Bible of Today's Humans
This is a must-read book for every single human. Knowing the content of this book may change a lot in how intelligent people look at current and past events. This book is not just about AI. This also enlightens you about how religion works and how it still works the same way in some places.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2024-10-26
Terrifying.
It’s not looking good for humanity if we continue down the path of developing technology without guardrails. Insightful and well written like all of YNH books.
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- LThom
- 2025-01-04
I gifted this book to my grown children
This is one of those books where you start listening and think "I am in over my head". The topics are very interesting but in some cases they seem obscure. The author then begins to weave the concepts together and you understand the relevance and see the parallels with the world today. I have always known that understanding history helps us avoid making mistakes in the future, but this book allows you to understand how to see what is happening now through history. AI is a big topic in this book and Harari helps the reader define the term in a practical and applied way. This is very beneficial to understanding. A really good listen. I gifted this book to my grown sons as I think it is a must read to help understand today.
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