Nexus by Yuval Harari – one of the greatest thinkers of the day, author of another three brilliant works, Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow, and 21 Lessons for The 21st Century, they are all ‘analyzed’ on my blog http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world - 10 out of 10

 

Nexus by Yuval Harari – one of the greatest thinkers of the day, author of another three brilliant works, Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow, and 21 Lessons for The 21^st Century, they are all ‘analyzed’ on my blog http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world   

 

10 out of 10

 

Yuval Harari confirms yet again that he is one of the luminaries of our age, however modest and serene he is about it – when he makes predictions, he emphasizes that he is no prophet, but also, these are trends, things that happen in the present, and we can see ‘the writing on the wall’ – Nexus is on the same high level with the rest of his opera

 

A Brief History of Tomorrow https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/homo-deus-brief-history-of-tomorrow-by.html was already looking at the future, as the title makes clear, and Nexus will present some gloomy, if very likely scenarios, mixed with history, background and humor, let us start with the anecdote about Stalin

The tyrant had a son who was abusing his position, and he confronts him, only to hear the young fellow say ‘but my name is Stalin too’, and the furious despot says ‘No! Stalin is soviet power, I am not Stalin’, something to this effect, showing that the communist leader knew about branding, which is part of the story of Nexus

 

While Coca Cola is some water with sugar and other ingredients, which should be associated with tooth decay and obesity, diabetes, due to massive ad spending, many link it with fun – while oppressed in the regime of Ceausescu, we saw it as nectar, a glorious symbol of a drink – Jesus is presented, his brand, the history of the son of God, myth, mystery

My country, Romania, has unexpectedly been present in the book, first in a tragic context, for ancestors of the luminary have suffered here, during WWII, then Ceausescu gets ‘coverage’ – I fought in the Revolution that took him down, the link to a Newsweek article is at the bottom of this – and the Secret Service of the time

 

The main theme would be that information is not truth, those who control the information would rule the world – indeed, we have examples form history, such as Tiberius (was he the one?) the emperor who had a man in charge of the guards, the latter controlled access to the point that nobody could see the imperator

Eventually, a relative (sister, daughter?) pass around this Cerberus, dominus had another man appointed, but this one assassinates the emperor just a bit later, maybe one year into his job, the next Alpha male will be AI, says Yuval Harari, who gives examples of the calamities created by algorithms, for instance in Myanmar

 

Facebook (and others) wants people to spend as much as possible on their platform, but what engages humans is not serene quotes from Buddha, but violence, hatred, and the algorithms promote those posts, so that in Myanmar, mass murder was caused by the amplification of racist attacks on the Rohingya, by those artificial creations

There is Brazil, where Bolsanaro has gained prominence through this, and even my own realm, where we have had elections recently, and the idiot who came top was promoted by TikTok –               he says that Pepsi contains nanochips, to give you an idea - there is so much in here, that you clearly need to read the book

 

Qanon was initially an artificial creation – there are I think 22 members of Congress who support this vicious, mad conspiracy theory, all of them in the orbit of Orange Jesus, an absolutely crazy fool who spoke just yesterday (again) about possibly invading Greenland, disgustingly about Canada, allies of the US

We have another story from Romania, with computers and a secret agent who sits in a room where data was worked on for some ten years, and never says a word, an engineer at Google has taken action because he was fooled by the AI, insisted that this one has afear of being shut down, and spoke about AI having consciousness, or something like that

 

Examples from the past are presented with imperialism as it was, how they sent gunboats and more, but now we could have Data Colonies, for instance, you could have AI in San Francisco or Shanghai (why not both) storing the information on colonels, CEOs, journalists, leaders in your country, with all the messages they have sent, where they have been, sex, porn everything, that would be control, and the target would be a colony

If in the past we had the Iron Curtain (we lived on the wrong side, and it shows, not that America is doing so much better, what with electing a buffoon who wants to invade friendly countries, abject, absolutely despicable, an orange moron, if there ever was one) but what happens now, is a Silicon Curtain is marking the divide

 

China bans YouTube, Facebook and other US giants, while Huawei is excluded in the west from putting in hardware, TikTok could soon be banned (albeit the same cretin has changed his mind, now that he has adulation there, the only thing he really cares about, that is himself, we will see what happens) in America and elsewhere

Ai weapons are more versatile than nuclear ones, you have to use centrifuges, a lot of physical infrastructure with nuclear bombs, while AI can be hidden so easily, there will be a question, if conflagration starts, if the aircraft carriers of America or China will function, sail towards targets, or they will have been hacked and would just move around in circles, unable to operate, these and so many other questions are raised in this phenomenal book, which is just as fantastic as 21 Lessons For The 21^st Centaury https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/07/21-lessons-for-21st-century-by-yuval.html

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’