Forlag: Cappelen Dam (Norge (Random House, Storbritannia))
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Nexus is a book about artificial intelligence (AI). But it is also a book about information, power, truth and wisdom. Homo sapiens – the wise man – is the name of our race. But if we are so wise, why are we so self-destructive? Why are we so good at acquiring both knowledge and power, but so bad at acquiring wisdom? asks Harari in the opening chapter – a question he spends 400 pages answering.
Information and power
For Harari, human political development rests on our ability to form and maintain networks. Religious networks, academic networks, national networks – there are countless of them, but what they all have in common is that networks are a source of power. "Power does not only follow from knowledge of truth, but rests just as much on the ability to maintain order in large groups of people," writes Harari.
The glue in all these networks, of whatever type, is information. But what is information? How can we define the word information? To say it is a message, or a message, is too limiting. An object may mean little or nothing to some people, but constitute important information in other contexts.
Information is also not necessarily synonymous with truth; on the contrary, most political institutions and national networks are based on, if not a lie, then at least an embellished truth. To explain this better, Harari distinguishes between what he calls the "naive" view of information and the "populist" view of information.
Naive and populist views of information
According to the naive view of information, information is a reflection of the truth, and therefore, the more information we have available, the better decisions we will be able to make. Many institutions, from academies of science to Google, base themselves on the naive view of information. But is it always like this?
Harari problematizes this view. "Despite the fact that in the last half century we humans have produced more information and faster than earlier in history, we continue to spew out greenhouse gases, pollute rivers and oceans and destroy entire habitats," he writes. Although political leaders have access to a wealth of information about the dangers associated with weapons of mass destruction, they continue to produce ever more advanced such weapons, rather than finding solutions that make them no longer necessary. So do we become wiser from more information?
More information does not necessarily mean better access to the truth.
At the same time, there is also another view of information, the 'populist' one. According to this logic, information has nothing to do with truth, because everyone is master of their own truth. Rather, information equals power. And if you're wondering what President-elect Donald Trump has in common with Karl Marx and Michel Foucault, the answer is that the view of information is the same. Information is power – and power is the only thing that matters. Truth, on the other hand, is subjective.
Mass media and democracy
These two perspectives on what information is are fundamental to what one thinks about information and thus to what kind of consequences one thinks an (even) greater flow of information will have. To build that reasoning, Harari places AI in a historical context – as a final chapter in an information history that is as long as our common human development. The common denominator is that more information does not necessarily mean better access to the truth. The European witch hunts of the Middle Ages were a result of improved information flow, but few would say it was a fortunate – or wise – consequence.
Harari also shows how indispensable information is for democracy. Decisive for us to have a democracy, Harari points out, is that there is a political conversation. If one is to be able to have a meaningful conversation, everyone must not only have a guaranteed right to be able to express themselves freely, but also have a certain basic knowledge of the topic of conversation. This is where the mass media come into the picture – they make democracy possible in large political entities.
But, warns Harari, mass media make democracy possible but not inevitable. Precisely because the information that the mass media spreads does not necessarily represent the truth, the mass media can be exploited. It has happened in totalitarian regimes, and it may be happening again. You can think what you want about Donald Trump, but the newly elected American president's view of information is populist: Information is not a reflection of the truth, but a means to achieve power.
Self-correcting mechanisms
In order to avoid such distortion of information, institutions must have a self-correcting mechanism which means that previous errors are admitted and corrected. Science has such mechanisms, religious institutions do not. Political institutions can have it, if they are not overridden. What about AI? Does AI have a self-correcting mechanism?
Nexus is not a history book, and it is basically not a book about politics. It is a book about information and information networks. But AI is more than an augmented search engine we ask innocent questions on our computer. AI is the most powerful information network known to mankind. AI is a revolution, but will it enable us to make better decisions – to become wiser?
