Nexus

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

By: Yuval Noah Harari

Narrated by: Vidish Athavale

Brought to you by Penguin.

The story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Sapiens

Stories brought us together.

Books spread our ideas – and our mythologies.

The internet promised infinite knowledge.

The algorithm learned our secrets – and then turned us against each other.

What will AI do?

NEXUS is the thrilling account of how we arrived at this moment, and the urgent choices we must now make to survive – and to thrive.

©2024 Yuval Noah Harari (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

'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 has a unique ability to unite both history’s finest details and its grandest megatrends in a single view. This deeply important book comes at a critical time as we all think through the implications of AI' (MUSTAFA SULEYMAN)

'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)

The Author understands and illustrates the power of stories

Chapters on how humans are good at relating to caters in a story vs databases and numbers (part of Age of Bureaucracy) were especially poignant however there were lots of ifs buts and maybes than exacting logically defensible arguments that Yuval Noah Harari carried through Sapiens. Instead, some of the strongest chapters were packed in the first few chapters and I guess with such a big and new subject, this is a very. Unique and accessible yet a rare take on the ‘Silicon age’ I have the paperback as well and will go back to some chapters for sure

Exactly what I expected

I enjoy Yuval’s insights and effort to bring clarity to a bigger picture. Only criticism is that there some liberalist biases that shines through otherwise very thoughtful view of the world we live in.

A worrying Future based on history

Another truly brilliant release by Harari. Thought provoking, well researched and well produced. Let’s hope that AI doesn’t go the way he postulates.

Excellent

A very enlightening overview capturing the risks and opportunities of AI for the humanity. Always enjoy the deep humanistic approach of Harari.

A must read

I found it a super interesting listen , lots of things really provoked me to reconsider things that are so long truth to me , some changed by this book others I found even more rubbish then before .
I believe in reading books that totally go against what you believe just to grow .
What I did not like was the way he debunks the Old Testament ( for Jews en Islamic and Christian’s aswell as the new testament and any other religious books . He said that they are invented to control people if there is no god this would be the case . If there is a god who this is total nonsense . Christianity revolves around Jesus Christ ( historically fact ) and not de bible .
What he wrote about Jewish scribes that copied the Bible by hand and that every copy was different is the biggest ballony in this book .almost out of all the Old Testament books they found peace’s in the Dead Sea scrolls 20000 years old there are about 6 letters different from our ground text Old Testament today that didn’t chance the words they were in let alone change the lines they where in . To totally reject the Bible ( Old Testament ) on the basis of a view letters change in 2000 years is unheard of specially for a historian , completely biased . Today over 2 billion people believe in the Old Testament as a God given book and thus the truth . Saying that it did not work is dumb , how did it not work if still a quarter of the planet believes in it ( in God so to speak)anyways great listen

thoughtful but reachy

I always enjoy Yuvals books. However this one seemed to reach a bit too much and, I found, wasn't grounded in sufficient evidence. There arw a collection of stories but the arguments arnt being sufficiently made. Still very enjoyable.

Knowledge, vision and callout for humankind

Read or listen to this book. Be alert on what happens in the world. Relevante questions and understanding of why, how we are at this moment of turning point in human power and importance.

Essential reading for the 21st century

Brilliantly written, cogently argued, a realistic view on the status quo with respect to AI. I really hope people in power read this book too.

Warning AI is there !

It is maybe to pesimistic or better, I hope that it is so. But autor made prfect examples and explanations why AI could be a disaster for people which are the smartest and stupiest animals on the planet.

A must read / hear

All Yuvals book have help me and shaped my understanding of the world. I now live in another world than before I heard this book.