Catalogue

Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Nexus : a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI / Yuval Noah Harari.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Toronto : Signal, 2024.Edition: Hardcover edDescription: xxxii, 492 p. ; 25 cmISBN:
  • 9780771019661 (hardcover)
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 001.09 23
Summary: 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.
Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
0 - 99              0 - 99 West Grey Durham Branch Shelves Non-fiction 001.09 HAR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Checked out 11/08/2024 33321003251825
Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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.


The support of the Government of Ontario, through the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, is acknowledged.


Copyright @ 2009-2023, Saugeen Library Consortium. All rights reserved.


Powered by Koha