Book of the month: Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari

Information networks

Nexus and information networks

Nexus was chosen by the All-Nonfiction online book discussion group for its March 2025 read. I wanted to read it anyway because I watched Yuval interviewed on a couple of TV shows and was interested in the topic of how information networks have developed over the history of humanity and influenced the formation, development, and functioning of societies.

As an amateur Sociologist, social systems have always fascinated me and I have found in my work as a Psychiatric Social Worker that social system functioning better explains and predicts human behavior than individual characteristics. So, I wanted to learn more about what Harari calls “information networks” and how they work. Would having a greater understanding of information networks help me to better understand and predict human behavior at all levels, the micro, mezzo, and macro?

We are living in a time where humans have more information at their disposal than at any time in human history. This information has given them powers that to previous generations would have seemed magical and yet humans are still given to fantasy, conspiracy, delusion, war, harm and a myriad of other dysfunctional behaviors. How does information influence human decision making from a moral point of view? The great power information provides can enable humans to do great good or great harm; just reflect on the power that the understanding of atomic energy has given humans as an example.

Information is not the same thing as wisdom. The world has been blessed and harmed by what I call “educated idiots.” Being smart is not the same thing as being wise. Wisdom is the application of the information we have at our disposal. I know plenty of smart people, but not all of them are wise.

So, I am interested in how information networks not only become smart but wise as well. As we observe our current media outlets, we become aware that they provide information that is often distorted, false, and like a toxin infects populations with malignant ideas that do great harm to the individual, their families, their communities, our society, and our world. How does a society develop an immunity or mitigate the negative consequences of harmful information networks?

Follow along with me this month as I reflect on what I am learning from Yuval Noah Harari in his book Nexus.