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

 
　　過去的10萬年間，智人設法累積了巨大的力量，然而即便擁有數量龐大的發現、創造、征服，如今的我們卻深陷存在危機之中。世界正面臨生態毀滅、假訊息浪潮，與此同時，也正高速邁入AI時代──這個新的資訊網路，正威脅著人類。取得如此豐富的成就，我們為何也如此容易自我毀滅？
 
　　本書透過爬梳人類歷史，從石器時代、獵巫運動、史達林主義、納粹主義到民粹主義復興的現在，探討資訊流如何形塑了我們和我們的世界。歷史研究的不是「過去」，而是「改變」──什麼事亙古不變，而什麼樣的事情總是在變化、以及如何變化。哈拉瑞邀請讀者思考資訊和真相、官僚制度和神話、智慧與力量之間的複雜關係，探討歷史上不同的社會和政治系統，如何運用資訊來達成目標，並點出人工智慧威脅到人類存亡的此刻，我們所面對的迫切抉擇。
 
　　儘管對資訊的看法，有一派人樂觀認為獲取越多資訊，可以帶來越多解決問題、了解自身和世界的能力，另一派人則認為真相是主觀的，因此資訊僅僅是獲取權力的武器。但哈拉瑞指出，資訊並非真相的原料，也不是武器。這部作品深入探索兩個極端之間的中間路線，思考邁入AI時代的人類社會，可以如何有意識地做出選擇，來避免最壞的狀況發生，並在這個探索的過程中，重新發現共通的人性。(文/博客來編譯)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.

＂Striking original . . . A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the zeitgeist perfectly.＂--The Economist

＂This deeply important book comes at a critical time as we all think through the implications of AI and automated content production. . . . Masterful and provocative.＂--Mustafa Suleyman, author of The Coming Wave

For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite allour 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; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.

　　Professor Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and the bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and the series Sapiens: A Graphic History and Unstoppable Us. He is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals working today. Born in Israel in 1976, Harari received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 2002 and is currently a lecturer at the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He co-founded the social impact company Sapienship, focused on education and media, with his husband, Itzik Yahav.