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

Yuval Noah Harari

Sep 2024 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Vidish Athavale

About this audiobook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.

“Strikingly original . . . A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the zeitgeist perfectly.”—The Economist

“This deeply important book comes at a critical time as we all think through the implications of AI and automated content production. . . . Masterful and provocative.”—Mustafa Suleyman, author of The Coming Wave

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; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.

Ratings and reviews

A masterpiece from an author who only creates masterpieces. The fact that AI isn't his area of formal expertise seems to have enabled him to communicate it in a manner accessible to non-experts without compromising the level of knowledge gained from world leaders on the subject. I appreciate how explicitly he states that this isn't a prediction of the future, but I feel it can serve as a framework on how to approach and consider the events that may unfold in the decades to come. Among the most crucial thinkers of our time, Noah Yuval Harari has gifted us a gem that can be enjoyed as a standalone book or enhanced even further by reading it in sequence with his previous works (Sapiens, Deus, 21). Thank you again.

At times reassuring, at times terrifying, this book helps provide a clear understanding of the challenges faced by humanity at this moment in history. The brilliant, cogent analysis is accessible to a lay audience. It’s the kind of book I’d normally binge my way through, but it’s full of hard truths, and I needed frequent breaks. Nevertheless, it’s a must-read that shows us the path forward. Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

A thoughtful balance to the hype of A.I. and a warning to those who think benevolence will be the main outcome of A.I.

About the author

Professor Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and the bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and the series Sapiens: A Graphic History and Unstoppable Us. He is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals working today. Born in Israel in 1976, Harari received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 2002. He is currently a lecturer at the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. Harari co-founded the social impact company Sapienship, focused on education and storytelling, with his husband, Itzik Yahav.