> [!tldr] Stories, Documents, ... #todo finisht this note A central theme of the book [[Nexus]] is the progression of humanity's technologies for developing information networks, which Harari argues is a central reason for humanity's rise in the animal kingdom. **Individual to individual** - This is not unique to humanity. We share this with apes and all sorts of other creatures. **Stories** - You no longer need an individual-to-individual connection - instead billions of individuals can be connected to each other via the [[Hub and Spoke Architecture|hub]] of some great story - for example the story of Jesus. - This is humanity's first invention that set us apart from other animals. It is what gives rise to [[Intersubjective Reality]] and [[Religion]] and is the first enabler of [[Mass Flexible Cooperation]]. **Documents** - Stories up until this point were orally shared. They enabled large groups of people to work together – but they were not great at keeping records. For societies to form, we needed to develop writing. Stories don't help us remember lists all that well. There's the Chinese proverb about [[The Dullest Pencil is Better than the Sharpest Mind]]. - Documents give rise to [[Bureaucracy]], which we *think* of as a "bad" thing, but really it's good and bad. It allows us to maintain order and prevents things like cholera outbreaks due to wells & cess pools being dug too close together (actual historical example). **Books** - As distinct from "documents", books are a, well, books. They are a collection of documents that tell a story. Whereas documents introduction was more about record-keeping, the introduction of "books" was about canonizing *stories*. This is where holy texts start to emerge. **** # More ## Source - [[Nexus]]