Big Think and Yuval Noah Harari

“The problem is in our information. Humans, yes, we are generally good and wise, but if you give good people bad information, they make bad decisions.”

Human history is a paradox: we accumulate knowledge at astonishing speed, while remaining vulnerable to deception, superstition, and the stories that steer entire civilizations.

From the first clay tablets to today’s global media systems, the structures that carry our ideas have always shaped what societies can build, believe, and destroy. That paradox is even more important in the age of AI, says Yuval Noah Harari.

0:00 If humans are so smart, why are we on the verge of destruction?
1:45 Why is the quality of our information decreasing?
2:19 The rise of alien intelligence
14:20 How information technology shapes society
19:52 The rise of inorganic information
28:21 The importance of human institutions
37:09 Information isn’t truth