We can split the atom but not distinguish truth. Our information is failing us | Yuval Noah Harari

“Why is it that the quality of our information did not improve over thousands of years? Why is it that very sophisticated societies have been as susceptible as stone age tribes to mass delusion and the rise of destructive ideologies?”

We belong to a world that is more interconnected, and yet more volatile than ever before. The masses of information that make this connectivity possible present the largest and most pressing threat to humanity, says historian and the best-selling author of 'Sapiens' @YuvalNoahHarari.

Sitting down with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, Harari discusses the way our information systems are flawed, and how, despite our leaps in technology over the past centuries, we still remain as susceptible to deception and delusion as our ancestors were thousands of years ago. Harari says that if we don’t fix the flaws in our information systems, they could drive us to total disaster.

In an exclusive hour-long interview, the Nexus author discusses truth, AI, fears, our possible future, and key ideas from his new book 'Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI'.

Timestamps:
0:00: Who is the arbiter of truth?
0:59: Low-quality information
6:16: Objective physical reality and cooperation
11:29: GPT-4 deception
18:11: Alien intelligence
22:30: Democracy and information
30:23: Setting information free
34:44: Algorithmic fear
38:36: The power of curation
46:49: The annihilation of privacy
53:26: Israel and Palestine
1:04:02: Human-AI relationships
1:09:52: The enormous potential of AI

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About Yuval Noah Harari:

Prof. 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, the series Sapiens: A Graphic History and Unstoppable Us, and Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. His books have sold over 45 Million copies in 65 languages, and he is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals today.

[DonaldAMisc]

"Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil." ~ Eric Hoffer, The True Believer 🙌

[DorothaDuran]

judgmentcallpodcast covers this. Our information quality has stagnated.

[deliberatedmind]

In so many of the talks and interviews and conversations that Yuval has, from the interviewer to the audience, there is always a pushback to Yuval to tell us things that make us feel good, that make us happy. This is why humans are still susceptible to mass delusion because we just want to feel good all the time…never feel sad, never feel heartbroken, never feel lonely so we become addicted to opioids cannibis alcohol TikTok selfies sex gambling gaming . . . anything to never feel sad or heartbroken or lonely EVER. This is how AI will be able to rule over humans, I think, because modern humans are obsessed with feeling good. AI will eventually understand that and lead billions of human into voluntarily living in alternate reality cocoons permanently and never want to experience objective reality ever again.

[iamswimsoul]

One of the biggest problems in this way of thinking is that the use of 'We' to describe acts of achievement done by relatively small population of the 'human race.' The same person who is sharing random drops of misinformation on Facebook and Twitter is not the same person who split the atom. And the problem is that these collective presumptions of what 'Humans' do never references all of the things human do, but focuses on the spectacular things 'some' humans did.

[michaelteegarden]

We have the same brains, emotions, and reactions _today_ that we have had for the last 300, 000 years or more. We are vulnerable to everyone who profits from deliberately addicting us with overfeeding, with excessive calories and excessive information. We do need an information diet. If only all incoming media-published information was required to have an "Informational Facts" label, like the Nutritional Facts labels.

[AryaSingh-gz]

8:28 "But if you build a story and ignore the facts; the story still explodes and with a much bigger backpack" holds true in my country

[christophers.villaraza]

"Information isn't the truth" very powerful words.

[youarelegend-bio]

03:37 We can split the atom but can’t solve the problem of bad information... This is the most haunting question. How can we be so brilliant yet so blind?

[michaelhartmann]

I was taught a healthy skepticism in 8th grade, and really appreciate how Yuval reinforces it.

[DharmendraYadav-uvix]

Ai being the main storyteller... it reminded me of priest classes in every society who were able to form and change the beliefs of mases and even create new gods for us humans... they had answer for everything good and evil however the answers were not really the truth but just plain answers to the questions or events which we were not able to understand.

[Visionary]

The idea that AI might become our primary storyteller feels both fascinating and unsettling. On one hand, it could enhance human understanding by processing vast data sets, but on the other, it risks distorting reality if unchecked. The comparison between editors shaping early religious texts and algorithms curating today’s content is especially striking—AI’s influence might already rival those historical decisions. This raises the question: will we control AI’s narrative power, or will it control us?

[AdenwalaM]

Thank you for a stimulating discussion on a highly relevant topic. I am yet to read the book but having heard this discussion several questions come to mind. Psychoanalyst Dr. W. R. Bion had said: “Intellect, at its very best, is but a handmaid of emotions.” So, perhaps we are given wrong information but then, the question is: even when we know that the information is wrong, we continue to act on wrong information and are causing or reaching devastating consequences, why we fail to change course? What is the nature of hysteresis in human nature that make us, the humans, individually and collectively stick to deceit and cruelty so easily and repeatedly?
Given that we believe in stories, we choose the stories we want to or end up believing in, and the ones that we reject, even when we know that alternate stories are more true or relevant. We have believed in stories of Buddha and Jesus but also in stories that perpetrated holocausts and genocides and nuclear explosions. Under what rules do we choose the stories that we believe in, and why do we disregard stories that we know are more sensible, even more truthful? Across history we have done that time and again. We had walked into WWI; we opted for simpler technology to reach moon because we also wanted to be ahead of Russians to do so. one stage rockets to reach moon whereas exploded nuclear bombs because the President had We have actively perpetrated holocausts, genocides, caused nuclear explosions, and what not.
Arthur Koestler in his monumental work “The Sleepwalkers” had labelled humankind as sleepwalkers. In the middle of the night when we are deep in sleep, we rise, in our slumber, walk, even to the precipice of the roof, in the darkness of night and return to our sleep without being aware of anything that we did then. Are we sleepwalking to some precipice now?
History is marked with long stretches of time where people preferred stability over progress, and then there are few centuries when advances in science and philosophy take off. The only such event in recorded history is that of The Greeks were followed by the Dark Ages, followed by The Age of Enlightenment. Are we witnessing dying throes of The Age of Enlightenment?
In his book The Age of Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweil succinctly expressed his deep insight when he said: “Technology is evolution by other means”, mimicking famous saying that marriage is war by other means. Just as evolution changes life forms, their functionalities, their sensibilities and sensitivities, so does the technology. Question is: Are we presently witnessing such an evolutionary change?
One of the aspects of the present-day problems, even crisis is that distribution of power in the society has changed substantially. Truth and power have always been difficult concepts to grapple with. Certain truth is necessary to sustain life. For example, we need to eat edible food of some kind to sustain and even survive. We cannot survive on fantasy of food, no matter how delicious and nutritious the food in the fantasy is, and how animate the fantasy is. On the other end, Power has always been a difficult and slippery concept. It has been eminently observed that `Truth is the centre of power, and power is the centre of truth.' In one of his recent talks Mr. Harari had said that earlier (before AI) people switched from one low-skilled job to another. Farmers became factory workers and workers became cashiers or clerks. With advancing technology, only some people can contribute to sustenance of life. Such people do and will continue to wield tremendous power, whereas most of the humanity has become or will soon become useless and redundant to life on earth. It is difficult to imagine how in absence of any use, majority of the people can aim or even hope to have some power, economically, politically or socially, let alone find realistic basis for their narcissism?

[thesubculturegeek]

Being able to access information is a good thing eventually. Because video like this is part of it and making us more critical about the information we receive in general.

[bprLogos]

Yuval likes using the example of GPT4 using TaskRabbit to hire a worker to solve the captcha problem. However, he's a bit disingenuous in how he tells it. He makes it seem like GPT4 did all of the steps by itself so he can use the term "agent". However, in reality, the openai team heavily guided it and prompted it to make the decisions that it did with the exception of lying to the worker about the reason it needed help with the captcha problem. The lying part is the interesting bit, but the way Yuval tells the story it really seems like GPT4 did much more than just persuade someone with dialogue.

[ngvkhtnw]

Using Yuval's own explanation that those who can create stories are the actual powerful who lead us into certain beliefs that may not be the truth, but isn't he one of those story tellers himself?

[mray]

WISDOM, humanity apparently has forgotten what WISDOM is. We learn this and that, but it’s all senseless and stupid without the WISDOM to discern and choose what is right.

[LPJCP]

You give good people good information and they still smoke.

[lizgichora]

Information is power! " verifying it's accuracy is our accountability. " I love how you said, " Information can be created, but, the people are not held accountable. " Therefore, someone who is responsible ought to be held accountable in creating accurate information. Thank you Yuval Harari for your books, " Sapiens, Homo deus, lessons for the 21st century", Having way to a better future Hopefully.

[khc]

Fascinating. Spot on. The ending summary "we need an information diet" is so perfect.

[williambranch]

Information isn't knowledge. That takes context. Knowledge isn't understanding, that takes embodiment. Understanding isn't wisdom, that takes G-d.