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

PFS Book Club --- 25th Jan 24 This Saturday we reviewed book called “Nexus” by Yuval Noah Harari. This book brings history, technology, philosophy and political thought together and how human societies have been and continue to be shaped by flow of information. Book is structured into three parts a) Human network b) Inorganic network c)Computer politics Myths and story telling are central to evolution of human societies. Information is not only language but everything from DNA to movements of Celestial bodies. And due to this interest in movement of celestial bodies, astrology market was at 12.8 billion dollars in 2021.Myanmar capital was changed from Yangon to Naypyidaw due to astrology recommendation. Harari says that information always existed but what differentiates human is how we learned to store, process and use it through complex networks. Historical role of information was to build network of cooperation. We always relied on combination of accurate information and fictions to create cohesive societies. To connect and cooperate, sapiens no longer had to know each other personally, they just had to believe in same story. And same story can be familiar to billions of individuals. He also mentions that there are three type of realities a) Objective reality like mountains, rivers, b) subjective reality like pain and pleasure and c) intersubjective reality, it exists between large number of minds through common stories. He mentioned that whenever there was some error in any scientific finding, it was corrected with amendments in future explanations but with religions it never happened. He gave the example of homosexuality; it was considered sin and psychological disorder in bible, but current pope said that there was no problem with religious scripture but understanding of Pope was a problem that time. Many governments have banned study of evolution, they want their people to believe that sacrifices and miracles lead to human evolution. On AI, Harari says that it can operate independent of humans and AI would reshape political and social structures if guard rails are not put. Unlike earlier networks, which operated at the speed of human communication, today’s networks are always active, processing data 24x7. There is one CCTV camera on every 8 people globally. He touches on the issue of information overload; he says all information is not knowledge and most of that is junk. He argues that despite having access to more information than ever before, people may become more misinformed or disconnected from reality. He says that AI systems can produce biased misleading outcomes particularly in areas like criminal justice, health care and social media. He talks about social credit system in China which is peer to peer surveillance. In China you get points if you visit your grandparents and demerit points if throwing garbage on street. This has helped China in reducing corruption and tax fraudulent. Though he feels that this also not regulated can be an issue like example if I get my blood tested, and cholesterol come high, this information can be used by health insurance provider to increase my premium and my loan can be rejected. He feels that some of our information should not be disclosed to government and even our bosses. Harari explores the tension between democracy and totalitarianism. He says that how AI manipulates human. In 2016 elections of US, 3% of Twitter accounts were bots, in 2020 it was 25% and my estimate says now it would be 40%. He mentioned about how experiment was conducted, and AI could manipulate human on captcha. He talks about alpha go who defeated seedol and mentioned that how alpha go made many moves which were never made by human. In 1970, defeating human on chess was considered improbable and dishwashing was considered easy but today chess is easy for computer but still dishwasher is not able to differentiate between different material. He says that going forward, motor skills will have more jobs than jobs based on intelligence. He says AI could empower totalitarian regimes and will make it easy for government to monitor citizens, suppress dissent and maintain power and AI will become dictator. He mentions about concept of silicon curtain anew form of global division based on access to control of technology than ideology. It will lead to formation of global empire where few tech companies or countries will hold unprecedented power. He feels that AI should follow these three guard rails a) Benevolence, my information should be used for my betterment and it should be unethical to sell my personal information, b) decentralization, information should not be limited to few but should be everybody, c) mutuality, like the way tech companies and govt has access to my information, I should also know about their political affiliation and other things, He urges tech companies and government to reconsider their assumptions about technology and its role in shaping society. Chandrashekhar mentioned that Harari is little extreme in criticizing AI and don’t see the immense benefits of the same.

Swikar