What if There Is Nothing To Fear?
Civil war, misleading polls, and our information diet
In his October 2024 podcast talk with Sam Harris, celebrated historian Yuval Noah Harari says we need to go on an information diet.
Harari’s new book, Nexus, tracks the development of information networks as civilization evolved. How do different types of information networks affect us? Is there a difference between the Pony Express and TikTok?
Obviously there is. Being connected globally and instantly is a very different kind of way of sharing information than a long, slow horsey ride through the countryside.
But I don’t think we take the full measure of how MUCH this global, instantaneous, and heavily monetized way of managing information has impacted our culture, particularly influencing the timbre of our current moment, as we approach Election Day.
Harari is a critic of Elon Musk. Musk, in his ostensible desire to protect free speech, seems to think we need all information to flow freely. That when all information is free to flood our world, the truth will rise to the top. This is not the case, Harari says. Instead, the truth “sinks to the bottom.”
This is for a couple of reasons, he explains. Briefly, because misinformation can be more profitable. And that the truth…
