Yuval Noah Harari's "Nexus" - points to ponder

Yuval Noah Harari's "Nexus" - points to ponder

       Yuval Noah Harari 's recent book Nexus is about history of human communication. As a successful history book writer he has brought out another book on history. Though this time this is about how humanity developed from the early days of Telegraph to the present info revolution era.

      Large scale information network is the reason for big success of humans. Homo sapiens created powerful things with imagination. It was not just machines but even religions brought unintended consequences, says Yuval Harari. Religions ended up flooding world with blood Instead of love and joy.

     We know Yuval is no lover of communism. Like in his earlier books he doesn't in anyway gives credit to communism and here too he equates Stalin with Hitler in many places of this book. 

      "More information brought better life to humans" - As humans start to share more and more information life standards of average people got better. Better access to information resulted into better life according to the author. 

      Children survival beyond 15 years of age in 1797 50 % in Germany and now 99.5 ...world average is 96.5. This is due to advancements in science and technology, no doubting that. Every smart phone contains more information than Library of Alexandria in ancient times. That is level of access to information in the present times.

      "The singularity is nearer"- due to fast development of AI technology, time has now come for AI to get better of human brain. Earlier periods it was human minds which always controlled machines. It is no longer the case now as machines with AI is made capable of taking decisions on their own. This new phenomenon is going to have far reaching consequences in our lives and already in the last decades unthinkable developments are taking place. 

    

        In the cold war days Soviets had the Iron curtain and these days we might be having the Silicon curtain that is non human intelligence which have complete control over people by machine surveillance.

AI isn't a tool, it is an agent capable of decision making. 

      In the days of social media, Populism uses information as a weapon to gain political power. This is happening in many countries including India. 

No objective truth only Own truth to vanquish rivals ...this view goes back to Karl Marx who argued power is the only reality and every human interaction is a struggle between oppressor and oppressed. Trump is considered to be considered to be closer to Marxism argues Harari in one context.

      This book is for a more nuanced realistic approach handling information and power. The book tries to give new meaning to information - seeking truth is information. Certain Aspects of reality is truth which inevitably ignores other aspects. So no reality is 100% accurate. But some are better than others. 

      Solution to falsity of information is more information so that lies will get exposed in due course ..US judgement. This Book strongly disagrees with this view. Information may or may not be truth. But it always connects people is fundamental. 

      Homo sapiens are talented at using information whether true or not, to connect lots of people. That is the secret of our success. Mass delusions of Hitler or Stalin successes were due to that.

     Human ability to spin stories is the first Information technology used and still operating today Story is the common connection among billions of people. People know and believe in the same stories. Story is the central connector. Here the author continues on his theory of imagining capacity of human beings.

     Every personality cult is a carefully built story through news and other means of communication. There may be huge gap between actual person and image crafted. Story of Jesus...and the real person.

Yuval improvises and elaborates on the "STORY" in his first book on homo sapiens. Tries to base entire human history on his pet story theory combining it with evolution of information..

     We know subjective and objective reality - third is intersubjective like gods, laws nations currency etc. It becomes reality when people talk about it. 

Fiction can be made simple & truth is far more complex to understand.. So stories are far easier to understand than facts which are more complex. People understand ancient puranas and stories better than scientific facts which far more complicated.

      Yuval grandfather story - denial of citizenship in Romania by a fascist ruler - migration to Palestine in exchange for service in British army in II world war.

      Elon musk TruthGPT is akin to previous era's fantasy religion. So It is a dangerous fantasy.

Religion, according to Harari is a superhuman legitimacy for social order. Christianity emerged in the first century, not as a unified religion , but as a variety of Jewish movements. Witches were made as intersubjective reality in those times. The name of book is  "The hammer of the witches" - Heinrich Kramer.

      Scientific revolution not just due to free flow of information or printing press but because of independent scientific curative institutions. The power of priests started getting diminished after that. Intersubjective reality was challenged this way. Self correcting mechanisms were the engine of scientific revolution. It was launched by discovery of ignorance. Science is not infallible but it is a collective team effort relying on institutional collaboration rather than individual scientific. Falsification possibility is given primacy in science. Polar opposite of holy books. Institutional self-correction is in practiced. Without self correcting mechanisms institutions will die .

Catholic church has a weak self correcting mechanism. They never admit to institutional mistakes like the scientific institutions.

     Evolving of spirituality - Vethathri. ( Modern spiritual seers like Vethathri was of the opinion that spirituality should also evolve like science)

But in most cases it is practically not possible in religious institutions. Religious dogmas are based on infallibility fundamentally. Almost all sacred texts are considered to be eternally true and inalterable.  Religions tend to follow the Theory of Sacrosanctness.

     Important point in this book on apologies issued by church for members of church 's culpablity in abuses of indigenous people and destruction of cultures and pagan practice through out the world. ( Page 108 ) 

Blame for mistakes is always shifted to individuals rather than church as an institution. On the other side,

Scientific institutions are always willing to admit mistakes and crimes and were accepted as a collective failure.

      Institutional loyalty and conformity to existing doctrine is followed in religions and novelty is welcomed and incentivised in science. Scientists are to publish papers finding faults with existing theories and give new ones. It is the reverse in religious institutions . 

      No self correcting mechanisms in erstwhile Soviet union. You might even be executed for differing with official positions . Trofim Lysenko case... rejected evolution theory and advanced his own re education theory. Lenin supported and scientists who opposed were all dismissed from jobs and some jailed or killed. Lysenkoism was declared to be correct officially.

     Self correcting mechanisms - will the AI systems favour or undermine them? Big question...

     The bolsheviks refused to have self correcting mechanisms just like Catholic church. They were convinced that party is infallible. Individuals may err. The Soviet experiment stemmed from the doctrine of party infallibility. Stalin didn't start it, but he perfected the system he inherited. Regular army and Secret police. Secret police is more powerful due to command over information. The Soviet experience. 

Only two percent of delegates Party congress in 1934 evaded execution expulsion arrest and attended in 1939 Congress. (Page 163) 

      Kolkhoz system of collective farming. 1931 and 32. Production plummeted. Result was, it Claimed the lives of 4.5 to 8.5 million people. Millions declared enemies. ( Kulaks ) Simply put, kulaks were people who had more wealth or cattle than average man in a village. If on an average, a man has one Cow, those who have three cows are considered kulaks. How the liquidation of kulaks began... It took witchcraft three centuries to eliminate 50000 witches. Soviets thought two years would suffice to annihilate millions of kulaks.

       Information technology led to democracies and totalitarian regimes. Stalinism got close to world domination. Singularly efficient in maintaining order on a gigantic scale. Democracy and totalitarianism are different types of information network.

       Soviets were lacking in innovative methods of information technology. When the US had eleven million PCs already, USSR had its first pc. Many think that victory of democracy over totalitarianism is final. This is mainly due to fundamental advantage in information processing. Future belonged to distributed information network and democracy.

        The inorganic network has Intelligence and consciousness. AI is not conscious but can make intelligent decisions. Computers might also be conscious one day and have conscious experiences.

We still don't know how consciousness emerges in organic beings. But it could emerge in non organic entities too, we cannot rule it out. This is the conclusion of the author on consciousness of machines.

The future 

   

     Computers without having feelings may come to solve problems. But consciousness is not necessary to taking decisions. Goal is important. Attractive and powerful religions might emerge whose scriptures are composed by AI ..Democracy may become untenable due to conversation with non humans' language.

With social media , earlier in 2010, it was attention. Now the shift to intimacy to chat bots. It will be fake and will have huge impact ...

 

      Might very well see the end of human dominated history and culture. Computers will play a larger role in shaping minds. Within a few years AI could eat the whole of human culture and give new cultural artefacts. AI is alien intelligence in other words.

Inorganic Computers are like amoebas and they are in early stage of evolution.

      Data is wealth. How to tax the data will be the future. Earlier human surveillance had limitations. Digital surveillance has none.  It will happen through our Smartphones, of course.Use of AI in surveillance . The recent example is Iran hijab enforcement.

     Surveillance capitalism - capitalism will thrive with new technologies of surveillances of people. 

Social credit system will be evolved for evaluating people for all kinds of purposes. 

     Algorithms social media and democracy - Modi Prashanth kishore experiments in 2014 election...

Democracy & Information technology - surveillance and job loss are major threats.Many jobs will be lost & newer ones created. That is the experience of first industrial revolution. Agricultural jobs were replaced by factory jobs. 

      It is not that by 2050 all jobs might disappear but adapting to newer jobs will be a problem. Some jobs are not easy to automate some are not. It is easy to automate job of Doctors than nurses. Jobs which requires emotional intelligence - AI will do better as it is based on some pattern.

     Unfathomable bureaucracy gives rise to populism and dictatorship. The role of bots or artificial humans in infospace will be the norm. Bots will kill democracy. Like counterfeiting of money is banned, bots must be regulated or banned in public domain to protect politics. Bots may be allowed in all spheres but only as bots not faking as humans. Large scale democracies may not survive the rise of computer technology.

      Data colonialism - new development is coming as large data is big power. By 2030 70% of addl income generated by AI will be cornered by China and US.

World is divided by silicon curtain made of code, rather by Soviet era Iron curtain. 

       Social credit system for good behaviour will be out in place for citizens. Citizens with good and bad points will be rewarded or punished. New age Information technology can potentially split humanity in separate info cocoons like American and Chinese cocoons. Future might be these cocoons ...rival digital spheres likely to change more than our jobs and politics..

      Religions were about mind-body problems earlier and now computer network will supercharge the problems and turn into major political personal ideological conflicts.Pre condition for cooperation is not similarity but ability to exchange information..

Globalism doesn't mean abolition of national identities. It is commitment to global rules and prioritize long term and short term interests of all humans.

     If humans make efforts we can create better tomorrow with AI technology,  conclude Harari. Like in earlier revolutions but the process will not be without pain for humanity. Every change was man made.  Only constant of history is CHANGE. We cannot escape it. 

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