Harris-Trump Debate + Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari covers the entire information age

welcome to the wonderand learn show I'm your host France tapon in this episode I'll be reviewing eval hari's new book called Nexus but first I just want to do a quick commentary about the election is interesting back when Biden had his disastrous performance at the debate with Donald Trump for every one person that thought that Biden won the debate two people thought that Trump won the debate now with the Harris debate that just happened last night for every one person that thought that Donald Trump won the debate two people thought that kamla Harris won the debate so basically flipping the the results from the Biden Harris so indicating that it was a good move for the Democrat to have Harris take over and I think there's now a very good chance I've said it before I think that Harris is going to win I predicted that several months ago and I think that's overall a good thing even though I don't think Harris is going to be perfect and I don't think Donald Trump is Satan but I think that in this case it'll be nice to fulfill my 2020 prediction that sometime in this decade you're going to see a female president that's going to be kind of cool symbolic thing the reason I think it's cool and symbolic is that it will silence a lot of the people who say constantly that we're such a racist country we're such a misogynistic and sexist country it will weaken that argument and I think just for that reason alone it will be nice to have some change even though Harris will probably make a ton of mistakes and and have some many problems the second reason I kind of like the idea is I'm just so tired of the baby boom generation running the show in the United States it would be nice to have some relatively fresh new blood out there so that's going to be another reason I I welcome the change so what do you guys think anyway that's my thoughts and now we'll turn to you have all harar my review of his brand new book that just came out yesterday welcome to the Wonder learn show I'm your host France tapon in this episode I will be reviewing yal Noah hari's brand new book called Nexus a brief history of information networks from the stone aged AI it's just coming out today and he is one of my top three favorite authors I also like Bill Bryson and Walter Isaacson for those who are keeping score now Nexus is a 515 page book and it's filled with headers and it has 11 chapters so it's pretty modular and readable I also reviewed his previous book which is 21 lessons for the 21st century you can go down to the show notes and click on that link my favorite book of his though is homod deas which is amazing it's you got to read that book if you have a chance now Nexus explores the evolution of information networks from prehistoric times to the present mainly focusing on the impact of AI on society the book is divided into three parts part one is about human networks and that focuses on history and how information went from clay tablets to Silicon part two focuses on the inorganic Network and that focuses from the internet age all the way out to to the birth of AI it discusses how computers differ from printing presses and how information networks are Relentless and fallible part three is computer politics and that focuses on how AI will enter every aspect of Our Lives governments and businesses he discusses democracies totalitarianism and the Silicon curtain and silicon curtain for those who don't know it's what you know how we're basically having like two internet China's internet and the west or even you know might Russia to some extent censors its internet as well okay so now let's dive into overall themes that are in the book in Nexus Harari argues that human history has been profoundly shaped by our ability to create and share narratives which he defines as the foundations of our social structures he posits that information networks from oral Traditions to the internet serve as the glue that holds societies together the book emphasizes the Dual nature of information while it can foster cooperation and understanding it can also propagate falsehoods and manipulation particularly in the age of AI I noticed that Nexus is more urgent and personal than hari's previous works it tackles contemporary issues related to AI warning about its potential to manipulate human behavior without Direct Control Harari connects historical developments such as the rise of farming in cities to the evolution of information networks Nexus mixes historical analysis and philosophical reflection with hari's trademark ability to provoke thought about the implications of modern technology his exploration of how AI could reshape human existence is captivating and unsettling prompting you to reconsider your relationship with technology one of the more fascinating observations that he made is that governments used to spend 80% of their budgets on the military today they spend only about 10% on the military and they spend more nowadays on Healthcare that was Unthinkable 1200 years ago governments didn't spend anything on Healthcare and now they're spending more than the military now one of the critiques I would say about the book is that he makes the same error that many non-fiction authors do which is that they spend 95% of the book complaining about everything that's wrong and 5% of the time discussing the solution to the problem sometimes books really irritate me because they're like 99% of the book is whining complaining this is everything wrong with Healthcare or this is everything wrong with the political system this is everything wrong with our environment and then 1% of the time they're talking about here are the solutions to glob global warming or here's the solutions to our political system or here's solutions to whatever the problem obesity whatever but it's like they spend so much time complaining whining and saying all the things are bad and then nothing talking about the solutions the devil's in the details so R does a little bit of that he spends a lot of time analyzing history I mean he is a historian after all um and I wish he would have just expanded more on the solutions and what can we do on a practical level to help protect us from AI as well is Tak advantage of all the wonderful things that AI will bring and has been bringing okay so here's my conclusion happily Harari isn't Bleak or hopeless he isn't overly pessimistic about our future he believes we're at a critical Crossroads akin to when Christian Scholars decided what books would make it into the Bible and for those who don't know there was a period of time in early Christianity where there was a ton of books that were considering should we put this book in should this should be part of the official Canon of the Bible or should we disregard this book and no that's not going to make it and it really changed the fate of the Bible because certain books were saying different things and it really had repercussions to today and so he's basically saying the same thing with regard to AI the rules that we set the things that we say that AI should or shouldn't do could reverberate for the next few centuries for all we know the other observation he makes is that totalitarianism loves ai's ability to survey and process data to keep its population in check think about Stalin think about Hitler think about all these the the Communist systems that want to like keep tabs on what you're doing even North Korea they're all trying to survey everything and and China of course is leading this with their facial recognition and other things that they're doing to check on their population it's totally overwheling it's like 1984 it's perfect for this AI is great because it can process vast amounts of data better than any stazzy could ever do in East Germany however totalitarianism hates that AI is a black box that is unpredictable and hard to control totalitarianism may become dependent on AI to make wise decisions and it may falter especially if the AI doesn't do what's best for the totalitarian leader it's kind of the paperclip maximizer problem where all of a sudden he say hey I want to make paper clips and then it goes crazy and does something that's not beneficial for the regime he recognizes it's it's a long shot of an example but he says that maybe the AI would come to him and say hey your Chief of Staff or your military General is going to plan a coup against you so you better take out your military General now even though the military General may not be doing that but the AI wants to overthrow the power for for whatever reason because there's some other thing in his programming that's telling him that what they're doing is wrong and so the guy takes out the general but that ends up backfiring because um that's exactly what the AI wanted him to do and now the AI advises him to put somebody else there and basically the AI could really screw up the totalitarian leader now he thinks Harari thinks that democracy will triumph over totalitarianism because democracy is self-correcting and is open to criticism it's constantly changing adjusting to the wisdom of the crowds whereas totalitarianism is rigid ultimately he believes that strong wise institutions will help us incorporate the best of AI while avoiding its folies and dangers Nexus contributes to the discourse of AI and its societal implications while it may not achieve the same Universal claim as his earlier works like sapiens or homodeus it offers a compelling examination of how information networks have evolved and the Urgent questions they raise for the future readers looking for a blend of History philosophy and contemporary relevance will'll find much to ponder in hari's latest offering so my verdict is nine out of 10 Stars I love this book I love Harari I love what he writes now before I conclude and for those who want to hear some excerpts I'm going to read some of my favorite excerpts that I highlighted in the book and which came out today and maybe that will motivate you to buy it if you do buy it use the affiliate link that I put in my uh show notes because that way I can get a little tiny commission it doesn't cost you anything and it gives me a little bonus like few pennies so but I I love his books you should get them all and read them and let me now read you some excerpts from Nexus by youal Harari here we go to conclude the new computer network will not necessarily be either bad or good all we know for sure is that it will be alien and it will be fallible we therefore need to build institutions that will be able to check not just familiar human weaknesses like greed and hatred but also radically alien errors there is no technological solution to this problem it is rather a political challenge do we have the political will to deal with with it modern Humanity has created two types of political system large scale democracy and large scale totalitarianism another common but mistaken assumption is that creativity is unique to humans so it would be difficult to automate any job that requires creativity that is false third Mystic in Assumption is that computers couldn't replace humans in jobs requiring emo intelligence from therapists to treat teachers if it means the ability to correctly identify emotions and react to them in an optimal way then computers May well outperform humans even in emotional intelligence emotions too are patterns actually computers May outperform humans in recognizing human emotions precisely because they have no emotions of their own we yearn to be understood but other humans often fail to understand how we feel because they are too preup with their own feelings in contrast computers will have an exquisitly fine-tuned understanding of how we feel because they learn to recognize the patterns of our feelings while they have no distracting feelings of their own a 2023 study found that chat gbt chatbot for example outperforms the average human in the emotional awareness it displays towards specific scenarios if three years of high unemployment would bring Hitler to power what might NeverEnding turmoil in the job market due to democracy the most important human skill for surviving the 21st century is likely to be flexibility and democracies are more flexible than totalitarian regimes the rise of an unfathomable alien intelligence undermines democracy if more and more decisions about people's lives are made in a black box so voters cannot understand and challenge them democracy ceases to function power lies at the Nexus where the information channels merge for most of recorded history the military was the number one item on the budget of every Empire sultanate Kingdom and Republic for many people in the 2010s the fact that the healthc care budget was bigger than the military budget was un remarkable but it was the result of a major change in human behavior and one that would have sounded impossible to most previous generations it places a heavy responsibility on all of us to make good choices it implies that if human civilization is consumed by conflict we cannot blame it on any law of nature or any alien technology it also implies that if we make the effort we can create a better world this isn't naive it's realism the invention of AI is potentially more momentous than the invention of the telegraph the printing press or even writing because AI is the first tool that is capable of making decisions and generating ideas by itself the good news is that if we isue complacency and despair we are are capable of creating balanced information networks that will keep their power in check doing so is not a matter of inventing another miracle technology or Landing upon some brilliant idea that has somehow escaped all previous generations rather to create wiser networks we must abandon both the naive and the populous views of information put aside our fantasies of infallibility and commit ourselves to the hard and rather mundane work of building institutions with strong self-correcting mechanisms that is perhaps the most important takeaway this book has to offer and finally this wisdom is much older than human history it is Elemental the foundation of organic life the first organisms weren't created by some infallible genius or God they emerged through an intricate process of trial and error over 4 billion years ever more complex mechanisms of mutation and self-correction led to the evolution of trees dinosaurs jungles and eventually humans now we have summoned an alien inorganic intelligence that could Escape our control and put in danger not just our own species but countless other life forms the decisions we all make in the coming years will determine whether summoning this alien intelligence proves to be a terminal error or the beginning of a hopeful new chapter in the evolution of life and that concludes my reading of some of the excerpts of yal hari's new book called Nexus and I encourage you to go down to link below and get yourself a copy this is fr tapon encouraging you to want learn and read and that ends this episode of The Wonder learn podcast where we explore travel technology and transformation if you'd like to see the show notes with links to what we've talked about go to wonder learn.com and click on this episode if You' like to connect with me just remember F tapon that's my first initial and my last name f tapon is always my social media username my website is ftap on.com do you want to leave me an anonymous voicemail where you can make a comment or ask a question then go to speakpipe tocom fap on furthermore if you'd like to get rewarded for supporting my projects then go to patreon.com Fon that's where you can pick up some remarkable rewards for as little as $2 a month now five quick favors number one subscribe to the waterand learn podcast two download it three share it four review it and five sign up for my newsletter at wonderand learn.com our theme music was composed by Eric stratman this is Fran tapon encouraging you to wander and learn [Music]