Yuval Noah Harari and Tristan Harris: The Making and Unmaking of Humanity

If you’ve ever doubted the power of information for good and evil, don’t miss this program. The New York Times bestselling author of Sapiens, Homo Deus and Unstoppable Us, joins us to discuss the issues raised in his latest book, NEXUS, the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.

For the last 100,000 years, humans have accumulated enormous power. But despite all of our discoveries, inventions and conquests, we now find ourselves in something of an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that some fear could annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive?

Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, an author who has sold 45 million books in 65 languages, and the co-founder of Sapienship—an international social-impact company focused on education and storytelling. Harari has a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford, and is currently a distinguished research fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, as well as a history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In his new book NEXUS: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, Harari looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.

Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Join us for an exploration of the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscover our shared humanity.

Tristan Harris is a globally respected thought leader on the intersection of technology and humanity. He is co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit that focuses on transforming the incentives that drive technology, from social media to artificial intelligence.

Tristan hosts the TED podcast "Your Undivided Attention." He regularly briefs heads of state, technology CEOs, and U.S. Congress members.

Tristan was featured in the two-time Emmy-winning Netflix documentary . His viral presentation, "The AI Dilemma," with Aza Raskin, maps where we’re heading with AI and how we can respond.

SPEAKERS

Yuval Noah Harari, Author, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI; X @harari_yuval

Tristan Harris, Co-founder and Executive Director, Center for Humane Technology; X @tristanharris

6 p.m. doors open & check-in
7–8:30 p.m. program
(all times Pacific Time)

Co-presented with the Center for Human Technology.

Parking: https://scupresents.org/directions-parking

Host or Publisher Inforum at the Commonwealth Club