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 mind-blowing story of humans, technology and power from the international and 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.

‘If you read only one non-fiction book this year, consider this one, to know more of our history and be aware of our choices to come’ TOM HANKS

'A super narrative writer' GUARDIAN

‘[Harari] sticks the world together in a gleaming shape that inspires and excites' TELEGRAPH

©2024 Yuval Noah Harari (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Yuval Noah Harari is the undisputed maestro of the big idea . . . Nobody can pull of a big theory as suavely as he can

[Harari] sticks the world together in a gleaming shape that inspires and excites

A superb narrative writer

[A] thoughtful book . . . An important perspective at a time when the info-wars seem likely to only get worse (Gillian Tett)

[Harari] makes fun of people like myself who saw more information as always a good thing . . . I would basically say he’s right and I was wrong (BILL GATES)

If you read only one non-fiction book this year, consider this one, to know more of our history and be aware our choices to come (TOM HANKS)

Engrossing . . . A diagnosis and a call to action . . . If [Nexus] sells anywhere near as well as Sapiens did, we’ll be that bit better equipped as a species to deal with the rise of the machines

A useful, well-informed primer . . . Wise and bold

A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the zeitgeist perfectly . . . Harari's narrative is engaging, and his framing is strikingly original

One of our foremost big-picture thinkers about the grand sweep of humanity, history and the future

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